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Winter is the fourth and final book in The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer. The book features Winter (based on Snow White) and takes place on Luna. It was released on November 10, 2015 by Feiwel & Friends.

Synopsis[]

Princess Winter is admired by the Lunar people for her grace and kindness, and despite the scars that mark her face, her beauty is said to be 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, 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? Fans will not want to miss this thrilling conclusion to Marissa Meyer's national Lunar Chronicles series.

Plot[]

Princess Winter Hayle-Blackburn refuses to use her Glamour, the Lunar ability to manipulate what others see and do, and thus, has Lunar Sickness, a state of mental illness that causes occasional hallucinations. Despite having scars on her face (suspected to be the work of Winter's evil stepmother, Queen Levana), Princess Winter is known for both her stunning beauty and the kindness she shows towards the Lunar people. Her relationship with her stepmother is strained at best, especially since Winter is secretly in love with her childhood friend Jacin, whom Levana disapproves of and is a part of the royal guard.

Meanwhile, Prince Kai has been sent back to Earth after being kidnapped and recruited by Cinder and is now part of the plan to overthrow Queen Levana. The crew sneaks onto Kai's ship as he heads for Luna for the wedding. They are noticed by Levana as she locks down the ports and they barely make it away, forced to leave Cress behind as she secures their getaway by hacking the security systems. She hides behind a crate and is spotted by Winter. Winter puts on a show and manages to smuggle Cress into a crate without being spotted. She then convinces Jacin to keep Cress safe in the guard dormitories.

Jacin has managed to stay alive by lying about his time on the ship with Cinder and offers the queen enough information about the blocking chip Cinder's adoptive father designed. As a result, she punishes him with lashings, but he lives. She then places him on Winter's personal guard to "keep her in line" as he does his best to ignore her so as to not reveal his true feelings for her. When Winter refuses to marry the queen's thaumaturge Aimery, Levana believes she is of no more use. After Queen Levana orders Jacin to murder Winter, Jacin finds Winter in her personal menagerie. He explains the queen's orders, kisses Winter, and then stabs Winter's favorite pet—a wolf named Ryu—all so Winter can escape unharmed, and Queen Levana will believe she is dead. Scarlet is given a pod key and a knife by Jacin and told to find RM9, Wolf's home Sector, and the two manage to escape with the help of Cress.

Cinder, Thorne, Iko, and Wolf have made it to RM9, and have taken refuge with Maha, Wolf's mother. They snuck into the mining center easily and unrecognized. Wolf scents Scarlet and the group reunites. Thorne, Iko, and Wolf break into a control room with Thorne disguised as a guard. Cinder then uses the program made by Cress to hack into all the sectors to display her video proclaiming her to be Princess Selene and asking for the people to become her army. When RM9 begins to take over the guards, intending to kill them, she runs out to stop them. This lets Levana find her and she sends her guards and thaumaturges to RM9. In the confrontation, Cinder gives herself up, Wolf is taken, and Maha is murdered by Aimery for having housed them. Winter and Iko are attacked at Maha's Home and two thaumaturges are killed, one by Kinney, a guard who decides to protect Winter from Jericho, who decides he wants to "play with her," although Winter is injured during the altercation.

Jacin and Cress are informed by Kinney that Jacin is in trouble for not killing Winter. He tells Cress it's time to leave and they maneuver through train tunnels.

The group separates with Scarlet and Winter going into the lava tubes to find the wolf-like mutations of human soldiers in an attempt to convince them to join Cinder's army, while Captain Thorne and Iko hurry to try and save Cinder and Wolf, picking up Jacin and Cress after an uneasy encounter at a train station. Kai receives Cinder's robotic finger right before the wedding as a wedding present, letting Kai worry as to whether she is dead or captured.

Levana and Kai's wedding goes off without interruption, although Kai does take a pair of scissors and stabs Levana's arm, stating he won't be controlled and won't submit. He is pleased to see she can be hurt. At the wedding dinner, the entertainment is the trial of Pearl, Adri and Cinder (Pearl and Adri having been brought to Luna for "aiding" Cinder in kidnapping Kai by using their stolen tickets). Levana is more interested in Garan's invention, although Adri knows nothing as Levana decides to keep them as pets. During Cinder's "trial," Cinder stops fighting her cyborg side and decides to record Levana without her glamour. Levana's true face is disfigured, with burn scar tissue on the left side of her face and hand. Cinder announces to the room, live-feeds and all of Luna that she is Princess Selene, and that Levana is a traitor to the crown for trying to murder her as a baby. Levana loses control of the guards for a second and Cinder takes control in the battle which is being viewed throughout Luna still. All of the thaumaturges are killed with most of the guards controlled by Cinder slain and the wolf soldiers having attacked anyone they could get their hands on. Cinder dives off the balcony into the lake. Her systems are damaged and she almost drowns, but is saved by Thorne and Jacin. Levana, in a bid to quell the uprising from the disastrous trial, announces Cinder is dead as images with a fake body are released to prove it.

Cinder, Jacin, Thorne, Iko, and Cress take up refuge in an old mansion, fixing Cinder to the best of their abilities. They raid the closets for a disguise outfit for Cress and Thorne, who will sneak into the coronation.

Meanwhile, Scarlet and Winter find the wolf soldiers and they barely convince them not to eat them. However, the soldiers realize that Winter has sacrificed part of her sanity in a vow to never use Lunar manipulation again. When Levana's thaumaturges arrive, alerted to Winter's presence, they insult the soldiers and are killed. The soldiers decide to join Winter and Scarlet and venture outside to find supporters to rally. Once arriving in a lumber sector, an old crone, who is Levana in disguise, offers Winter a sour-apple petite, Winter's favorite candy. However, the petite is laced with letumosis and Winter faints. After Scarlet tries to help, she gets infected too alongside the many soldiers around them. Winter is put into a suspension tank.

Wolf wakes up after being transformed into a "mostly-wolf" soldier. A thaumaturge gives him food, only to punish him as he tries to take it to teach him obedience. His memories seem to be tampered with as he has vague, twisted memories of Scarlet. He is placed on Levana's guard for the coronation ceremony.

During Levana's coronation, Cinder, Jacin and Iko break into the labs that house all the shells in comatose states to steal the letumosis cure. They become trapped in the room with all of the antidotes and Iko provides a distraction to a thaumaturge and guards outside so that Jacin and Cinder can retrieve the vials. They transport the vials to LW-12, where Winter and Scarlet are. All but seven of the infected get the cure, those seven dying before they could be helped, and Jacin pulls Winter out of the suspension tank to give her the antidote.

Cress and Thorne go to the coronation at the palace. As they attempt to sneak into the control room, they are stopped in the hallway by a Lunar woman. After the Lunar woman manipulates Thorne to kiss her and say he loves her, Cress is heartbroken. Hearing guards, they run and hide in a dark garden-like room. Cress is still upset and admits her frustration with Thorne never seeing her as he does other girls. He proceeds to kiss her and tells her that the girl must have glamoured herself to look like Cress because he thought he was kissing her. They are interrupted by guards (who fail to recognize them) and move on. They are later spotted by guards as they hurry down a hallway and Thorne distracts them while Cress hides in a closet. They get separated and Cress wills herself to keep going while Thorne is captured. Cress continues to the Security Center. She finds Kai in a hallway, who helps her by distracting a guard (he asks to be let into a vault) so she can pass. She successfully gets in with help from Kai (who also gave her his portscreen), and loads Cinder's recording as well as unlocks the revolting sectors so they can riot, but gets trapped inside.

Jacin and Winter are to go in the terrain-speeder to already revolting sectors to rally. As Cinder begins her revolution, she goes down to the gates to meet everyone as Cress has already successfully opened the gates. They swarm around the front of the palace. Levana has just been crowned empress when Wolf attacks her and Cinder's message distracts everyone. Though he fails to kill her, he lacerates her neck. He is then forced to act as her guard/shield. They go down to the front gates to meet Cinder and her people. Cinder is taken down quickly as her cyborg brain has not been working since the submersion and she is unable to fight off Levana's control. Iko shoots at the queen, who ducks, though it hits Wolf. When the queen's true face (previously recorded by Cinder) is revealed in a new message, she loses control and runs into the palace. A fight ensues and Cinder and Iko struggle as Wolf attacks Iko.

Cinder and Iko (who is now severely injured) hurry into the palace in search of Levana. They find Kinney outside of the coronation room as he redirects Cinder to the throne room and Cinder sends him and Iko to help Kai. Nobody is left in the room aside from Lunars as they are told Kai is headed to the ports with the other Earthens (after forcing the Lunars to help him with his bomb threat). They go down the servant halls and find Kai as Kinney offers to be the pilot.

Cress is found and offers the guard and technician a chance to switch sides when they detect Kai's ships, ones with bombs capable of destroying the domes.

Aimery attacks Jacin and Winter as she is almost forced to strangle Jacin before Scarlet and Wolf come. Winter claims Scarlet before Aimery can and forces her to stab Aimery. Jacin tackles Scarlet to make her stop once Aimery is dead. Winter's mind can't handle Lunar manipulation after refusing to use the gift for so long and shuts down.

Cinder proceeds to find Levana who has Thorne in the throne room, tied up by the balcony. Every step forward Cinder takes, Thorne is forced to take one back. Levana tells Cinder that Cinder's mother, Queen Channary, forced Levana to self-immolate herself as a child and made her this way. She then demands Cinder relinquish all claims to the throne or she kills Thorne. When Thorne calls her bluff, Levana has him jump, with Cinder catching him at the last moment. They wrestle and Thorne is about to shoot her (under Levana's control) when Cress comes and shoots the gun out of his hand, injuring him. Still being controlled by Levana, Thorne stabs Cress in the stomach. As Cinder is distracted with trying to kill Levana, Throne stabs Cinder in the thigh (apologizing to everyone the entire time). Scarlet and Wolf show up as Scarlet gets controlled by Levana and Cinder is forced to knock her out. Wolf rushes to her aid and as the only one not able to be controlled, as he helps Scarlet and Cress. Levana and Cinder battle it out, both turning their own guns on themselves. Levana feigns penance, then stabs Cinder in the chest, who in turn shoots her. Levana dies, while Cinder survives due to being a cyborg.

In the aftermath, Wolf and Scarlet reaffirm their feelings for each other, Thorne and Cress officially become a couple, while Jacin kisses a recovering Winter awake, later hinting at his feelings. Amidst all this, Cinder agrees to sign the Treaty of Bremen with Earth, thus symbolizing a true alliance between Earth and Luna, and is later crowned Queen of Luna. She discusses with Kai about abdicating the throne and establishing Luna as a republic as he gives back her old cyborg foot and asks if she would ever consider being an Empress. Cinder says she would consider it and drops the foot, a reminder of a past in which she was scorned, into the palace lake.

Characters[]

Trivia[]

  • Winter was in development for and subsequently took around two years to complete.
  • Winter was a USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling novel.
  • Marissa has stated this in an interview: "Winter is based on Snow White, and will be the epic conclusion of the story. Princess Winter, Levana's stepdaughter, has been raised in the luxurious courts of Artemisia, Luna's capital city, and has seen firsthand the destruction that can be caused when people abuse their Lunar gift. As a result, she's sworn an oath to never use her gift at all, which has come with the side effect of slowly driving her mad. There's only one person she feels she can trust—Jacin Clay, her best friend since childhood. Unfortunately, as a royal guard, Jacin is already under her stepmother's control."[citation needed]
  • Marissa Meyer has stated in a tweet that if one were to combine all of the deleted scenes from Winter, it would have ended up longer than the entirety of the published text of Cinder.

Foreign Editions[]

Winter is translated & published in the following countries:


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