Winter by Marissa Meyer

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?

Ahhh, it's finally here! The fourth and final book of this incredibly epic series, re-telling classic fairy tales and Winter, a.k.a Snow White, is the latest. We've seen some of her before, and there's a lot of background in Fairest, but hearing from her first hand made things clearer about her... condition. Beautiful and kind, Winter refuses to use her gift and the biochemistry has addled her brain. She has Jacin to look after her, her oldest friend and royal guard, to help her distinguish the illusions from reality. 

Winter and Jacin was so damn adorable! I'm no longer sure who my favourite couple is - actually, Cress and Thorne totally made me swoon, I think Thorne is my favourite. Oh but Kai and Cinder! Dammit, my poor heart cannot choose!

Even though it's over 800 pages, this never felt sluggish to read. Flicking between so many characters, it was bound to take a while, and of course they just couldn't stay together, they had to get separated! The plan is to overthrow Levana, but they had to get onto Luna first, and then get around the city without being found and killed. And then get the people on their side and their trust in Cinder, a.k.a Princess Selene. So, you know, not too much work to do! It was complicated and heart-stopping and all sorts of other tough-sounding adjectives that doesn't quite show how utterly horrible it was to think of the outcome if they failed. 

I adored this so much I can hardly stand it! The perfect balance of action and romance, Cinder and her crew overcome a whole lot of terrible things to get to where they end up. Everything has worked up to this moment and I loved how everything came together, even things that didn't go according to plan worked out all right in the end. And after everything they've all been through, I'd say they deserve their happily ever after! Definitely a favourite series that I can see myself re-reading again and again.

Published 12th November 2015 by Puffin.