Winter Is Coming (Or Is Technically Already Here?)

Winter

Author: Marissa Meyer

Goodreads / Amazon

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mar her face, her beauty is said to be even more breathtaking than that of her stepmother, Queen Levana.

Winter despises her stepmother, and knows Levana won’t approve of her feelings for her childhood friend—the handsome palace guard, Jacin. But Winter isn’t as weak as Levana believes her to be and she’s been undermining her stepmother’s wishes for years. Together with the cyborg mechanic, Cinder, and her allies, Winter might even have the power to launch a revolution and win a war that’s been raging for far too long.
Can Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter defeat Levana and find their happily ever afters?

City of Cyborgs

An queendom of control or be controlled. Of metal hands and metal parts. Of love and loss. Brave girls and brave boys populate the empire. They're full of longing for freedom and wanting to strike down injustice. An evil queen sits on the throne. But she won't for long. The army against her is motley, but they are brave and determined to see a better future.

"Holy books. That was...agh. Amazing. I knew it'd be cool and all, but I wasn't prepared for this.

"The action scenes made me giddy. People getting controlled and committing death by their own hand. Or would it be murder since it's not really them controlling the knife? Ooh. That's a good debate. I just was gorging myself on the rebellion. It was so perfectly imperfect. They were obviously out of their minds, but they still continued on. And it seemed so futile. But then...it worked.

"And the plot. I'm just touching upon this for a second. It was so long winded and twisty. It was long. Simply put. Sure, it was rife with murder and mystery and betrayal and all that fun stuff, but I wanted something shorter. Admittedly, I didn't think this plot could have been cut shorter even if Marissa Meyer tried her best. It just had too many moving parts. In that sense, it really did seem like a rebellion. Many plans didn't work, so the crew had to improvise.

"The way Marissa Meyer wove in the fairy tales was so subtle. You'll barely notice it. And it was not like the obvious leaving the glass slipper or anything. You forget that Cinder and Scarlet and Cress and Winter are actually fairy tales retold. You think they are original characters, completely from scratch. Because they are original anyways.

"And I adored Winter. Her craziness was intriguing. I honestly think I'm a little loco myself. Mostly because I talk to myself a lot. I'm being serious here. It's a lot. I wanted to see more of her, though. How she coped. How Jacin helped her cope. And she was so kind. She wanted to help like the original Snow White. I just wished I'd seen more of her perspective.

"I didn't hate the romance. But I didn't enjoy it either. I loved how cute it was. All fluff and stuff. None of these couples really had time to develop their relationships, though. I mean, except for Winter and Jacin who knew each other from years gone by. Explain. Explain. (This is said in a Dalek voice. If you don't know what a Dalek is, shame on you. Google it.)

"A problem I did have was the split perspectives. It was hopping all over the place. Scarlet and Winter. Cinder and Wolf. Jacin and Winter. I was dizzy with confusion. Sure, I won't count this off since this split perspective actually helps with tension. For example, if you're wondering about Thorne while Cress does her thing. Or if you wish for Cinder to be safe but you're reading about Scarlet. It's a quite useful tactic when creating tension in a book.

"And another thing. This was so long. 800 pages of pure Lunar Chronicles. Sure, I liked reading it, but I kinda wanted it...uh...shorter? It was a bit intimidating. And this is related to the plot as well.

"To quickly mention the ending. Yes, I did love how everyone got their happy ending. But happy endings aren't always what you get. Couldn't someone have gotten a bad ending? Other than Levana, of course. Haha. I made a funny. I did feel a little loss, though. This series is done. What I supposed to do with my life? Don't think that this book has a negative aura. It was a great book. An amazing book. I'm not saying otherwise. But I kinda hate that it's done with. I mean...what happens to Kai and Cinder? What will they do now? What happens to the whole crew? Do they just...go home? And where is home? I'm left satisfied but unsatisfied."