Winter

by Marissa Meyer

Summary from GoodReads

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?

Thoughts on the Book

This book made an appearance as a Waiting on Wednesday.  I read Cinder back when it was first published, and I've been hooked to the series ever since.  I remember when Cress came out we had a bad snow storm, and I had to force myself to put the book down so I could shovel.  Fortunately Winter didn't come out in February, so I didn't have to worry about shoveling snow, just raking leaves.

My Review

This book continues shortly after where Cress leaves off, but with no major developments to the story.  Everyone is still in the Rampion plotting except for Scarlet who's making friends with a wolf.

This book really introduced a new character, Winter, who was pretty awesome.  She was so smart and intuitive and really played up her lunar sickness to make herself seem pathetic and unremarkable.  We got to see a lot of returning characters as well.  Thorne was as awesome as always, as were Cinder, Iko, Scarlet, and Kai.  We got to learn a lot more about other characters like Jacin and Wolf as well as see Cress really grow - be heroic.

Reading this book I wasn't quite sure what to expect.  Some authors it's obvious they won't be killing anyone off, other authors you know no one is safe.  But with Meyer, she wasn't shy of killing characters, so you just didn't know who would survive.  Some characters were obvious she wouldn't be killing, but others, there was no coming back from what was done to them, so how could they all have a happy ending?

The ending was perfect for the series, as epic and amazing as the previous books.  Meyer did a fantastic job of tying everything together while leaving plenty of unknowns to ponder and imagine the conclusions.  I would love to read a novella that takes place years later just to see where everyone ended up and what exactly happened with everything in the works.

I give this a 10/10.  I absolutely loved this book!  What a fantastic conclusion to the series!  Pretty sure the Lunar Chronicles just made it into my top 5 favorite series ever written.

Top Ten Tuesday [10]

Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish that allows bloggers to share their top ten lists for that week’s topics

Top Ten Fairy Tale Retellings that I've Read

1. Beauty - Robin McKinley 

This is my all time favorite Beauty and the Beast retelling.  I love that the castle itself is enchanted and everything is invisible.  No talking objects.  

2. East - Edith Pattou

I loved everything about this book, then I found out it was a fairy tale (East of the Sun, West of the Moon) retelling and read then fairy tale and loved the book even more.  Such a fantastic book!

3. Enchanted - Alethea Kontis

I had stumbled upon this one, and Alethea at BookCon last year, then months later finally picked it up to read, why oh why did I wait so long.  There are so many fairy tales referenced, but the main one is the Princess and the Frog.  Not my favorite fairy tale, but it was told beautifully.

4. Cinder - Marissa Meyer

Cinderella as a cyborg, how could you not love it?  And instead of loosing a shoe, she looses her metal leg.  Loved it! One of my favorite series.

5. Cress - Marissa Meyer

Of course all the Lunar Chronical books are going to show up here.  They're so blasted good!  I loved Cress as Rapunzel, and instead of a tower she's locked in a satellite orbiting Earth.  Love it!

6. The Goose Girl - Shannon Hale

A coworker of mine when I worked at the library recommened this book to me.  I had never heard of the fairy tale (of the same name) when I read it but I absolutely loved the story and have since read the fairy tale.  This book did such a great job with the story.

7. The Fairy Godmother - Mercedes Lackey

I love the take on fairy tales in this one.  Most people subjected to them hate them, and the magic forces them into it.  Some lucky ones, like this version of Cinderella, can escape it and use the magic to be a fairy godmother.

8. Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey

The retelling of the little mermaid mixed with the seventh son.  In a world where magic forces people into fairy tales they want no part in.  Yet again an awesome installment by Mercedes Lackey.

9. Scarlet - Marissa Meyer

So far this was my least favorite of the Lunar Chronicles retellings, but I still loved the story.  A genetically altered human to make him wolf-like.  And Scarlet and her grandmother were pretty awesome.

10. Spindles End - Robin McKinley

I don't typically like Sleeping Beauty, but this retelling was pretty great.  It made me like at least one version of that fairy tale.

Since Fairy Tale retellings are one of my favorite genres here are a few on my TBR:

Winter - Marissa Meyer

Ash and Bramble - Sarah Prineas

The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman

Hero - Alethea Kontis

Dearest - Alethea Kontis

Trixter - Alethea Kontis

The Sleeping Beauty - Mercedes Lackey

Beauty and the Werewolf - Mercedes Lackey
Kissing Frogs - Rich Amooi

Short Story Sunday

The Wrong Foot

By Stephanie Burgis

This story is a retelling of Cinderella, and I’m a sucker for fairytale retellings.  This retelling is about a horrible, lecherous, prince who “finds” his love.  The girl that he claims as his missing love, Sophia, is, in fact, not who he danced with.  The story revolves around Sophia and how tries to get out of marrying the prince.

I love this story.  Sophia is such an awesome protagonist, she’s so smart.  I also love how the prince is the exact opposite of Charming and the girl’s worst nightmare rather than her dream.  The ending was also fantastic, the way Sophia played on the prince’s faults. 

I give this story a 10/10, Sophia was great and it took such a cool take on the story.  This story is so much fun! I highly highly recommend it!

I first listened to this story on PodCastle.  It was read by Renee Chambliss, who did such a fantastic job with it, her character’s voices were great.