4.25-4.5 stars 
 Initial Impressions 1/29/15: Well my Goodreads rating may only show four stars but SIIIIGGGHHH my heart is happy and whole with more Lunar Chronicles in my life. I loved the story and I ALWAYS love getting love backstory in my favorite worlds, especially finding out what makes the villains tick. 
 Levana was fascinating. I felt bad for her and horrified by her at the same time. It was so interesting to see how her history really shaped her life and her way of thinking. I really pitied her and I wished I could reach out to help her before everything started spiraling terribly out of control. 
 I LOVED the name drops & little glimpses of the other characters that we've met in previous novels (or I guess later in the timeline) and it just made my heart melt! I also really loved getting to know more about Winter's history since I know so little about her. I can't WAIT for her story. (And no, I did not read the teaser chapters because I CANT HANDLE IT.) 
 Full review posted HERE on The Book Addict's Guide 2/25/15: Ahhh, FAIREST. Just what I needed tie me over until WINTER hits the shelves in November this year! I don't always read ALL of the novellas that are published, but of course I was going to read a Lunar Chronicles novella and was especially excited to find out more about Queen Levana! She's pretty terrifying in the books so I was especially anxious to see her history and how she ended up the way she is now. 
 The first thing I can say about FAIREST? Yeah. Levana is certainly crazy... BUT she didn't have it easy either. I'm not saying that excuses the way she acts, but she's had some majorly catastrophic and scarring events (oops, no pun intended but there you have it) happen to her and it seriously messed her up. Things also went down at a young age too so these traumatic events really affected Levana long before she was even close to being in a position of power, or even wanting that position. I definitely still fear her but it also made me pity her. Sometimes these kind of novellas sort of justify who someone is in the present story line and while I don't think Levana is justified in her actions, I do think I understand her a lot more! 
 Another thing I really loved was seeing all of the other characters in Levana's story and exactly how she's tied to them all. It was really interested to see some of the title characters pop up, along with their friends and family and I got little chills and thrills seeing their names there! I think the most interesting for me was actually Channary. I may need to re-read everything again ASAP (kidding, that's already in the works so I KNOW I will) but for some reason I don't remember mention of how horrible she was! She was a terrible older sister to Levana and I really wonder how Levana would have ended up if it weren't for Channary. I'm going to have to hunt down mentions of her in my re-reads! 
 FAIREST is very much Levana's story so it's not a major point in the series as far as plot goes, but I do still think it's an important story for fans of the series to read. We learn a lot about the Lunar Queen and there's also a LOT of Winter's history in here which I was very excited to see since I don't really know that much about her yet. There were still a few surprises though and it just goes to show you that there's always more to learn about everyone! 
 I had such a blast reading FAIREST and that both filled the void and made me even more hungry for more of this series! I loved falling back into this world for a short time to keep my heart whole before WINTER probably chews it up and spits it out in November. In a good way! I CAN'T WAIT!