Rereading Winter by Marissa Meyer

This is it.  I don’t want to say that this will be the last time I read Winter or The Lunar Chronicles but I am ready to move on.  This was a very lovely series that was just fun to read.  So here we go. My last few observations Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, Winter, Kai, Throne, Wolf and Jacin.

  1.  I liked all the romances but Scarlet and Wolf’s is the best.  Wolf is torn from his family, forced into the army, his body physically altered and none of this he wanted.  He spent the entire series fighting what was done to him so he could have his own choice.  That he wasn’t just a monster he was made to be and Scarlet saw him.  Maybe from the very beginning when he was just sitting in the tavern, maybe in the fight pit or maybe on the train but she saw HIM and even after everything, that’s all she ever saw.  That’s love.
  2. I do love Throne’s devious plan to prove he’s worthy of Cress’ love.  That my friend is a criminal mastermind.
  3. Winter is adorable.  I’m not sure what I think of Jacin.  He’s still a jerk but he does have his reasons.  If I was raised in the Lunar court I would probably be like that too.  I saw that they both truly cared for each other but I wasn’t quite connected with them as a couple as the others.  Maybe since I only really got one book with them and they spent most of the book apart from each other.
  4. Cinder is amazing.  After everything that she has been through.  She still finds away to be fair to Adri and  Peony when they had never been fair to her.  A lesson we all can learn.  She will make a great leader.  I think that best leaders are the ones who don’t want to but do when needed.
  5. I do hope that she and Kai do stay together
  6. I’ve said this before but I do love the friendship between Cinder and Throne.  He was the first to follow her and to go along with what she wanted and needed.  True at first he thought their would be money involved but he was game for everything.  I think that is what made he final battle that much more powerful.
  7. Levana is a terrible person but she also had a terrible upbringing.  I read Fairest, the prequel, and we find out that she was never shown love from her parents.  Her sister was cruel to her and was responsible for her own burn injuries.  She had always felt inferior and really just wanted to be loved.  She was the second daughter.  The second woman in his husbands life.  Well really the third after Winter.  She was never anyone’s first until she ascended to the throne and only because she manipulated everyone.  I’m not saying any of this excuses her behavior but terrible people are not created in a vacuum.
  8. Whatever Marissa Meyer will write next. I’m totally going to read it.

What did you all love about The Lunar Chronicles?

Rereading Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

scarletNow on to Scarlet. I do love this book too.  I love the no nonsense of Scarlet.  The almost innocence of Wolf. Captain Thorne cockiness.  Cinder’s sarcasm. Kai’s sarcasm and Iko as a ship.  Just like I did with my rereading of Cinder, he’s a few observations I may have missed or didn’t think much of the first time around or just things that I love about this story. *Spoilers*

  1. Seriously, is there a better character as Iko ever.  Whether she is a regular android, a ship or an escort droid, she’s the best.  I mean that.  No way the team can accomplish anything if Iko wasn’t there.  She’s very Data like (Star Trek reference!) in her quest to be be and feel more human.  She’s a total optimist in the face of the immense odds and gets everyone going when they feel that can’t go on.  She’s the best!
  2.  When Kai starts to think that the Lunar’s are spying on him, why doesn’t he have his office swept then?  Why wait?  The worst thing that could happen is that there are no bugs and he was just paranoid but the best, he could have stopped  their spying a little sooner.  Of course, who knows what Levana’s reaction would have been then but she was probably going to attack anyway.
  3. Wolf not knowing what Tomatoes were and saying he was from Paris probably should have been a bigger red flag that he was not actually from Paris.  I’m not all that familiar with French food beyond pastries but I’m sure he would have at least seen a tomato before.
  4. How much time did Dr. Erland spend on building new hand and foot for Cinder?  Is that what he was doing when he was hiding from Levana instead of researching the antidote? Or did he have spare cyborg body parts at the ready and once he found her pulled out what he needed once he found her? And if Cinder hadn’t been arrested, when would he have given it to her?
  5. Anyone else want to talk about how creepy it was that Throne wanted to take an unconscious Emile hostage?
  6. How cute was Wolf when Scarlet suggested that she was his Alpha female?  Love seeing men blush.
  7. Let’s give props to Michelle Benoit.  She keeps the biggest secret the world has ever none for 11 years and still doesn’t give it up under severe torture.  Sacrifices herself and her son to do so and still was able to do some serious trash talking before she dies.

I feel like there was more  I wanted to say but I can’t remember.  I really should write these things done.  Next up, Cress.

Rereading Cinder by Marissa Meyer

cinderEarlier this month, we posed the question, should you reread the previous books before reading the final book in the series or just dive in.   Kate on the other hand has gone back to the beginning of The Raven CycleOf course, she still has five months until the final book The Raven King comes out.     I decided to go ahead and read Winter, the final book in the Lunar Chronicles.  Which was fantastic! I loved it so much that I decided to take my friend Valerie’s advice and read the last book and then go back to the beginning.  So I did and there were some things that I didn’t noticed or didn’t think were important at the time that now that I’ve read the whole series seems silly.  So let’s the observations begin. Obviously spoilers will follow.

  1. In almost every scene that has Sybil or Levana in it the narrative always points out that the blond guard behind them.  This of course is Jacin.  We don’t know that, in fact he is only named once in Cinder. It does bring up the question, if he’s just a guard then why spend so much time reminder the reader that he’s there.  It should have been the first clue that he would play a bigger role.
  2. How nonchalant Dr. Erland was in hearing that droids were harvesting id chips from letumosis victims. We learn in Cress that he is responsible for the genetics behind the Luna’s Wolf army so he probably knows or at least on some idea as to why the androids would be taking the chips, more then what he said.
  3. Adri selling off Iko.  She’s been sitting on a goldmine for years and didn’t know it.  I guess that is partly her husband’s fault for not telling her about his work, you know just in case something happens like catch the plague.  It also makes me wonder how involved she was in his work or in his life?  She seems to be like someone who married for comfort then love.  She is lucky that Cinder saved Iko.
  4. Why doesn’t anyone ask why Levana is so insistent on catching Cinder?  If Levana is so sure that she is just a shell or just another Lunar then why would she threatened war over her?  These are red flags people! did no one think, maybe we should look further into Cinder’s background, like how she got to earth in the first place.

Stay tuned for more observations for Scarlet.