Winter has been one of my most wanted books for a long time now, and to finally have it in my hands was beyond exciting. I went to the launch party for it in Tacoma but my friend and I were late, so they'd run out of copies and Meyer wasn't signing the posters they were giving out, so they turned into a disappointing evening. I went out and bought the book the next day, though, so it wasn't a huge deal. 
 I figured Winter was going to be longer than Cress, and it is, but you wouldn't think so looking at all the books lined up together on the shelf. Winter is over 800 pages, but they're all super thin and the text is small. 
 Even though the length of this book was somewhat daunting, I breezed through it pretty easily. Marissa Meyer does an excellent job with the pacing and I rarely felt the plot was dragging. There are about nine main characters in this book, and she's pretty talented in my opinion to juggle that much stuff going on at once. Not only that, all the stuff somehow connects with each other plus each book loosely follows a fairy tale. Basically, if I went back in time and told my past self that in the future I would dearly love a series containing: fairy tales, wolf-men, people from the moon, a deadly plague and a whole mess of other things, I would've laughed at how bizarre that sounded. But everything just works. 
 The best thing about the Lunar Chronicles is probably the characters, but I really enjoyed the book taking place on Luna and the information we got about how it worked and what it looked like. And, of course, all the ships. I love those. I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority here, but these are my favorites of the couples, in this order: 
 Scarlet & Wolf - I don't feel like these two get the love they deserve, but they're definitely the best Lunar couple in my opinion. Of all four, their love for each other feels the most solid. Scarlet is also my favorite heroine; I love her boldness and ferocity. And Wolf (view spoiler)[AKA Ze've Kelsey (hide spoiler)] is so protective of her and has to fight so hard against his programmed instincts. They are just so sweet. 
 Cinder & Kai - They are the ones we've been with since the beginning, and though their relationship feels the least . . . passionate (Not sure if that's the right word), they try to beat incredible odds to be together. He's a wonderful human being who tries to be a good ruler of his country (view spoiler)[He was even going to blow himself up for the good of Earth, I mean, come on (hide spoiler)] and she's a brilliant girl who should be in the exact same position. Their scenes pulled on my heartstrings. 
 Winter & Jacin - I have to admit, I thought Winter was quite an odd duck when she was first introduced, and I continued to think that in the beginning of this book because I'd forgotten the cause of her delusions. It all made sense when I remembered, and then I felt sorry for her again, and I have since I read Fairest earlier this year. She may be a princess, but she still had a rough life. She always had her guard, though, and being the sucker for forbidden romance that I am, I fell hard for them both early on in the novel. 
 Cress & Thorne - So I feel I'm in the vast minority here, but they're probably my least favorite couple. Not that I don't enjoy their pairing, I do, but honestly I'd ship Thorne with just about anyone so I could hear him talk. He's easily the comedic relief of the entire series and I love his quips and easy charm. I love Cress too because I emphasize with her timid nature and wish I had her amazing computer skills. However, I think their relationship is a little unrealistic. I feel like they're together because everyone else in the core crew is paired with someone (with the exception of Iko). On the other hands, their scenes were kind of cute, I just wasn't completely buying it. 
 One of the main reasons I was so excited for Winter is because I wanted to see Levana go down. I've read about her cruelty, fakeness and insanity for four books, and it was definitely time for her to go. Strangely enough, I think she infuriated me the most in the novella of the series, Fairest, probably because the whole book follows her evil deeds. She's an excellent villain, and another reason why the Lunar Chronicles is so great - it takes some good writing to make me hate a character as much as this. (view spoiler)[And go down, she did. No matter how terrible her childhood was, there was simply no excuses for her actions and she did not deserve to live. (hide spoiler)] 
 If I absolutely had to be critical about something here, I'd say the climax of the book felt a little rushed. But in the grand scheme of things, the complaint is minor. Winter is everything I wanted at the end of this wonderful series, and I'm sad to see it come to an end. But I can't wait to read Meyer's next books. 
 5 stars