Winter

The truth was, when I first picked up [b:Cinder 11235712 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles, #1) Marissa Meyer https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388186881s/11235712.jpg 15545385] almost a year ago, I wasn't completely sold on the story. Cinderella? A cyborg? The entire concept just seemed almost too strange. But after having the book sit around on my kindle app for about two months, I decided to give it a try. And I was glad I did. Cinder was fun, but I wasn't in any hurry to read the sequel. But eventually I did pick up [b:Scarlet 13206760 Scarlet (The Lunar Chronicles, #2) Marissa Meyer https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1342485529s/13206760.jpg 18390691] too, and the series just kept on getting better from there. Winter was no exception. This book was a monster in terms of size, but it didn't feel that way. When I finally had a minute to sit down and read, I flew through the pages. I loved Winter's unique take on the character of Snow White and the world that Marissa Meyer created up on the moon. If you haven't picked up this series yet, perhaps you were like me and thought that the entire plot just seemed weird, then I don't know what you are doing with your life. Pick up Cinder asap.

I have finally finished this series (I'm not counting Fairest or Stars Above when I say series)! And I'm only really 4 months late for this one!

I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about this series as a whole, it definitely had its ups and downs and grew on me as I completed each book. That being said, this book was a beast all on its own. For starters, it is massive at over 800 pages. Going into the book, I'm not sure what I was expecting, but the story and plot really seemed to drag for me. We were leading up to this epic revolution and fight against the Queen, but I felt like there was a lot of filler and just unnecessary drama and kidnapping.

So while this book dragged and I lost interest at times, I still really love these characters. I don't think I had enough time to really get to know Winter and Jacin, but I still feel like they are an integral part to this cast that I have come to adore. Cress and Kai continue to be my favorite people in the gang, but each member has their peculiarities that I love.

My taste when it comes to book is very simple. If i like the characters portrayed in the book, then I'm sold.

This series is full of characters that i loved. Their relationships with each other is the reason I'm giving the books in the series 4 stars. I don't know how many times I'm giggling throughout the books.
Cinder and Thorne bantering each other were just hilarious. I especially like the exchanges between Scarlet and Winter. It was oddly cute.

I'm definitely going to miss them.

No final desta saga, descobrimos duas novas personagens: Winter e o seu amor nada secreto - Jacin! Eles são amigos e conhecem-se desde pequenos, mas ele torna-se o seu garda-costas o que impossibilita qualquer tipo de relação entre eles. A Winter é eneteada da Rainha má (Levana), e mesmo que a primeira tenha 3 enormes cicatrizes na sua cara, toda a gente na Luna acha que ela é a pessoa mais bela do Universo.

Finalmente, todas as personagens reúnem-se na Luna para destruír o reinhado da Levana. A Cinder decide começar uma revolução Lunar, contando com o desespero das pessoas que odeiam a Levana. (Esta parte fez-me lembrar imenso os Jogos da Fome!).

Fazendo uma revisão da saga toda, todos os livros foram ficando cada vez mais interessantes e mais inesperados. Cada personagem é tão diferente e tão única que deixa a desejar mais! Como já era de esperar, há cada vez mais intensidade na luta contra o mal e mais e mais referências da Cinderela, Capuchinho Vermelho, Rapunzel, e neste último de Branca de Neve. A história é cativante e viva, e tal como os outros todos livros cheia de ação, planos e aventura.

Quem adorou tudo até agora, não pode deixar de ler este livro!

Y'all. This book is SO detailed. I cannot imagine the amount of work put into this. I love everything about the fairytale aspects. The retelling and modernizing and switching things up a little bit. SO GOOD. This is the kind of series where I'm sad it's over because I feel like I can't hang out with my friends anymore. These characters are my friends and now it's over.

Thorne and Cress forever. Goodbye.

《The young princess was as beautiful as daylight. She was more beautiful even than the queen herself.》

I L-O-V-E-D this book ♡
This has been such a perfect conclusion to this series!!

Love, a revolution, hope, friendship and EVERYTHING IN IT gave me so many feels!![I especially fangirled as hell from 95% onward BECAUSE MY SHIPS WERE IMMENSELY ADORABLE (and Thorne is flawless perfection, you don't say)!!]

What with my wish to see Iko with a boyfriend tho??? :C I put so much faith in Kinney but meh, I think it wasn't doable. Gah!! I don't knowwwww, but I still wanted it so bad~May I dare to hope something good will happen in 《Something Old, Something New》? The title sounds so promising~♡

★ ★ ★ ★ 1/2
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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So, the first book I really blog about is the conclusion to the tetralogy – not the best way to go about it, but it'll have to do.

Primarily because I started this blog after I'd read the first two books in this series, and only slightly due to laziness, I've only blogged about one other of The Lunar Chronicles – the “.5” preceding this one, Fairest. Which makes this a little hard to do, but not that much. Basically, what Meyer has done is combining and intertwining the stories about Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel and Snow White; removing the magic, inserting computers, cybernetics, and space ships; and setting the entire thing in a future where Earth and the Moon are on verge of war. Couple that with Meyer's voice and skill? This series is a crowd pleaser.

During Part I, I felt like The Grandson in The Princess Bride, “Is this a kissing book?” There was just so much smooching, significant looks, and avowals of affection that it got close to annoying. That said, it was so nice reading a YA book where (almost) everyone was open and honest about their attractions and (almost) everyone had their feelings reciprocated. Those that weren't that open might as well have been, they were all pretty horrible at keeping things secret. Over all, it was sweet, it was cute, it was like a fairy tale.

What are the odds, right?

But after that? A great mix of character moments and action. On the one hand, Meyer takes her time setting things up – but on the other hand – she doesn't have to take time and introduce anyone knew this time. All the players are known quantities, the relationships are set up between all of them, and there are two major goals at work – Stop Levana, or Stop Cinder. Everything else is frosting.

Clear directions, clear motives, it's a crisp, well-paced adventure story at this point – yeah, there's a little politics, there's a little subterfuge – but basically, it's “Let's raise an army and storm the castle.” Which doesn't mean everything's a cake walk, of course. There's some tension, real hardships and peril – am I allowed to say that there were a couple of times when thing seemed pretty Grimm?

This is based on a fairy tale, and that needs to be borne in mind as you read it. That being said, Meyer makes it very easy to forget that and by the time that the part of Winter that was the most-Snow White-y, I'd forgotten that's what this novel was about. You'd have thought between a. the cover, and b. the time I've spent in the world of Indexing lately, I'd have seen it coming. But I didn't until I was right in the middle of the scene – which made it much more effective for me.

Meyer is great with her characters, and you can get attached to even those we meet for the first time in these pages – for those who've been around since the beginning? Hate to say good-bye to them, especially Iko the android. In the end, I think this is one of the more emotionally satisfying series conclusions I've read recently.

I very much liked it.

Here's why:
-It was fast paced, and kept me entertained throughout the entire 800 page novel. Not an easy feat.
-There were about a gajillion characters, and the POV changed in every single chapter (with over fifty chapters) and I was NEVER confused. That's also incredibly impressive.
-There was character development: Cress annoyed me, but she grew by the end so that was cool.
-Scarlett is my favorite character OF ALL TIME. I do not have a favorite book ever, but now I definitely have a favorite character. She is absolutely flawless.


However, there were some issues, but not enough to give it less than “5 stars.” I have to admit, I tend to rate YA books a bit on a curve. I usually don't expect anything but entertainment and plots that don't annoy me from YA novels. So, I don't need them to be perfect to rate them a five. And I stayed up until 6:30am to read this book, so, I mean, gotta give it some Props.

But still! The negatives:

-I liked the ending being ambiguous, but I have to agree with other reviewers saying that the ending was too rushed. There was too much action and not enough emotional cutesy moments, and the ones that did exist at the end felt very rushed. It made me a bit sad, but hey, that is what my imagination is for, right?
&&&&
-There were little things throughout the novel that just seemed “???”.

For one, I was rather disappointment that Thorne getting his sight back was such an anticlimactic scene .

Second, I don't understand how after Scarlett got out of her cage (that's not a spoiler, everyone should have seen that coming) she could run and be so badass after talking about how weak her muscles are and how skinny she has gotten from not eating? It's a little thing big picture wise but it annoyed me.

Third, this is part of the ending being rushed, but I felt like Jacin's character had a lot of depth to him and it was being explored and then somewhere along the way he got very lost in the shuffle and became generic. I am disappointed the author didn't explore this more.

Just as, fourth, I am incredibly disappointed that Winter's craziness was not something cooler and the red candy apples that Winter gave Scarlett were not something more too. BOOOOO. I wish something more interesting could have been done with that than what it was.

To sum up, I feel like this novel was very good and entertaining. I like that is displays strong female characters, with male counterparts who are strong themselves but not afraid to let the women take their lead. They are equals, and that is honestly rare to see in any novel, especially YA romance. However, I feel like the book could have been much more powerful if more emotional or sci-fi elements were explored instead of only relying on action scenes.

I loved this book. In my opinion, it was the best from the whole series. Finally Cress stopped being annoying and she was actually badass in this one, I liked her a lot.
Winter is such a dear character, I like her and I felt so sorry for her because of her sickness, but thinking of WHY that sickness was there made me love her so so much and I'm happy that she has Jacin to take care of her

This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: Winter

Winter has been subject to the Queen's harsh judgment for years. Forced to sit in the throne room as Levana causes countless deaths. Winter is beautiful but criticized for being meek and Levana makes sure she knows it. When Winter falls for her guard, Levana finds a new way to torment her, but Cinder has plans to overthrow Levana. Can Winter find it in herself to side with Cinder and rise against Levana?

Winter had an interesting twist in how she viewed herself and the Lunar gift. Despite her downfalls, she did her best in the situations she was given. But even though the title is Winter, there isn't as much focus on the character as you might think. But this doesn't impact the story negatively. Marissa Meyer makes sure the reader has enough of an idea behind Winter's story before moving on. There is a much better balance between all the characters. I had a hard time identifying what fairytale Winter was based on, but with the amount of plot and character development I understood. I did figure it out once the poison apple came around.

The Lunar Chronicles was an ambitious series. Each book introduced a new fairy tale twist and two new characters to carry on into the story. Unfortunately by the time the last book, Winter, came around, there were a lot of characters that needed their arcs to close out. I think this is the reason the last book felt so slow. For certain scenes, I wasn't sure at first why they were included and then I realized it was a pivotal moment for the characters involved. And there were other moments where I felt the scenes were stretched out and didn't need the amount of filler contained in them. Is the series worth a read? Absolutely, the voice acting was wonderful in the audiobooks. Rebecca Soler, throughout this series, consistently voiced every character as I imagined they would be. Just prepare for a longer finale.

Okay this book took longer than I thought to finish because A) it was 800 pages and B) I wasn't in love with it that much.
Now, I don't know whether it's because I'm sick and tired of the useless romantic events thrown into YA nowadays but whenever the protagonists and their boyfriends would just ignore problems for half a second and think about their significant others, my eyes rolled and I groaned and I promptly skimmed or outright skipped those parts. Now, Cress, by far, had the best character development because I absolutely HATED her character in the third book. But this time she grew up and became braver than heck and I'm proud of her.
I don't particularly have any favorite characters or couples but right now and possibly forever because I don't intend to ever reread this series, I prefer Jacin and Winter.
I want to say some things about the plot however. During the “exciting” parts, I had no qualms with not continuing it or binge reading it and I was perfectly content to not even touch the book for most of the day. I just wasn't interested in anything the book had to offer. Everything seemed dragged out and some parts were unnecessary.
I truly believed that the book could've easily been 500 pages instead of 800. Oh well.
Thank you, Meyer, for creating a good universe but you relied too heavily on the romantic elements to keep your readers interested because those were the most boring parts to me.

If it was possible to give more than five stars, I would.
I spent the first two minutes after finishing this book just squealing. Well, technically, I spent the last three chapters squealing, I think.
It was just wow. I don't know how to express my feelings. It was probably the best ending to a series I have ever ever read. It's not one of those endings where things are barely solved and then it ends, no, it's one of the good ones, one where you get more, so much more!
I honestly can't deal with my feelings right now. I loved it. I just plain fucking loved every single bit of it, even the hard and terrible bits that made my heart crumble.
But here's a spoiler for everyone that won't be hidden:
No one dies.
This fact alone made me happier than Iko when she got her escort body.

Quando li Cinder me surpreendi que o livro era melhor do que eu imaginava. Scarlet se mostrou um livro ainda melhor. Em Cress eu me apaixonei por todos os personagens e a história ganhou um novo nível e dai veio Winter.
Winter é um livro mais do mesmo, que parece com qualquer final épico de qualquer distopia juvenil.
Acho que minha expectativa era muito alta.
Gosto de livros com uma boa histórias e personagens ainda melhores, e até o penultimo livro (Cress) foi o que essa série me entregou.
Em Winter temos uma história OK com personagens apagados (com exceção da Cinder).
Winter não é ruim, só estava abaixo das minhas expectativas
(estou engolindo nesse review uma série de defeitos que esse livro tem)
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Primeiro review
O livro terminou como deveria ter terminado, mas foi inflado demais. depois da 82601x que se seguiu o padrão de “execução de plano, falha, improviso, separação do time, vitoria, reencontra de parte dele, tentativa de execução de plano.....” eu já estava exausta.
Foram 800 páginas criadas apenas para criar um nervoso e fim.
meh