Winter

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?
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-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.