Lol. 3.8 stars. Again. I’m terrible.

You can also read this review on my blog

Gather around, children. It’s list time.



1.Not enough Winter.
For a book entitled Winter, this sure didn’t focus on the sweet princess all that much. Which was such a shame, because she was honestly the best.

2. Not enough Wincin.
This series FINALLY gets a non insta-love pairing, and we see so little of it! And wtf was their ending even. Didn’t they deserve a kiss? THEY DESERVED A KISS.

3. Not enough Scarlet and Wolf.
Insta-love aside, these two work well together as a pairing. Individually, they’re good characters. I wish we’d seen more of them.

4. Too much Cress.
You guys know how I feel about her. I don’t need to elaborate. BUT, in case you don’t know, you can find out here

5. Levana.
Wow okay, I don’t know how many times I have to say this but, A TRAGIC STORY DOES NOT A SYMPATHETIC CHARACTER MAKE.

Yes, yes, she had a tragic past. Boo freaking hoo. It doesn’t excuse her actions. Doesn’t even explain her actions, tbh. Even with this backstory and supposed reason for her being the way she is,

Levana is still a flat, static antagonist, evil for the sake of being evil. We deserved better than that.

6. The final battle.
Look, I’m not going to deny that the build up to Cinder’s face-off with Levana wasn’t good. It was. And because of this good build-up, I expected something dramatic and cool. A face-off to knock my socks off. Is that what I got? No. What I got was something more akin to the boss-battle in a Scooby Doo cartoon. YA edition.

7. The writing
While decidedly better, it's still more tell than show. Boo.

8. The world-building.
Dude, they were on the freaking moon. Meyer had the opportunity to create a beautiful setting. But I still don’t have much of a picture of Artemisia. There was the palace, a bunch of tunnels, sectors and a dome. That’s pretty much what I’ve got.



1. Winter.
She was such a freaking sweetheart. I loved her. Why wasn't there more of her?

2. Jacin.
A grumpy, loyal, sarcastic, salty man with a penchant for giving people weird nicknames? GIMME!

3. Scarlet and Wolf.
She’s still tough, he’s still adorable. What more can I say?

4. There wasn’t as much romance forced down our throats this time around.
Thank God. I mean, yes, this was still very romance heavy, but not as much as we’ve seen in the previous books.

5. Not as much stupidity. YAY.
No, for real, I only yelled at the characters three times for being dumb, which is SUCH a huge improvement considering how dumb everyone was in the previous books. *Looks at Kai*

6. The plot
Again, it was kinda predictable. But the writing was compelling, and it took a few liberties instead of forcing us Snow White parallels.

7. The characters (that I cared about) were actually very easy to root for.
You cared for them. You wanted to see them succeed.

8. The thought that went into the story.
Meyers has left clues about the characters and their stories throughout the entire series, which says a lot about how well she planned this book. She knew all the characters that were going into play, and how their stories would turn out (more or less), and you’ve got to appreciate that.


I know I usually do my Dislikes List at the end and start with the Likes, but I didn't hate this book, and I wanted to end the review on a happier note.

This was extremely entertaining. A little soppy at times, sure, but dude I got through Cress. This was nothing. Until the final face-off with Levana, I was actually going to give this book four stars, for the sheer enjoyment factor, if nothing else. It was, without a doubt, the best book in the series. But unfortunately, I couldn’t forgive that sad, sad fight. It was too easy, and a little lazy. I didn’t want to see

the gang be dumb af and be used as Levana’s puppets to fight each other,

but that’s what I got. It was all very anti-climactic and I had to dock points.

Overall, though, it was a good book. Will I be singing its praises from the rooftops? No. But I’ll give it my stamp of approval nonetheless.