Fairest (The Lunar Chronicles, #0.5) by Marissa Meyer
Published: January 27th 2015 by Feiwel & Friends
Pages: 256

Mirror, mirror, on the wall.
Who is the Fairest of them all?

Pure evil has a name, hides behind a mask of deceit, and uses her "glamour" to gain power. But who is Queen Levana? Long before she crossed paths with Cinder, Scarlet, and Cress in The Lunar Chronicles, Levana lived a very different story—a story that has never been told . . . until now.

New York Times –bestselling author Marissa Meyer reveals the story behind her fascinating villain in Fairest, an unforgettable tale about love and war, deceit and death. This extraordinary book includes a special full-color image of Levana’s castle and an excerpt from Winter, the exciting conclusion to The Lunar Chronicles.

“Love is a conquest. Love is a war.”

Actual rating: 4.5 stars

Queen Levana Blackburn of Luna is easily the most intriguing character out of the Lunar Chronicles. Fairest offers the chance to discover her backstory, and see things you've never seen before. As a loyal fangirl to Meyer's writing, it didn't take very long before I started reading this book. It therefore didn't surprise me that I enjoyed every page I read. Be careful: this is a story about how an innocent girl turned into a vicious and ruthless leader, and does what it takes to get what she wants. In other words: it's heart-wrenching.

Because of this book I got to see a side of Levana I'd always dreamed of seeing. When the book starts out she is a weak, naive and sensitive little girl with dreams too big for this world. She dreams of love and being loved. We all know she eventually ends up being the ruler we are all familiar with, yet her character development throughout the novel is simply fantastic and wonderfully done. There are reasons behind her behaviour I didn't expect to encounter in a lifetime. It was fantastic and not-so fantastic to see. Even after all the insane things she does, Levana remains that kind of villain I adore. Clearly she is the kind of character one either loathes or loves. As it's love for me, I loved being in her head to read her thoughts and feelings. After a while I couldn't help but pity her, and I know I'm not the only one.

Besides Levana, there was nothing but love for all the other secondary characters. Even Channary, who I have an extremely complicated love-hate relationship with. For God's sake, she was the most cruel being there is and I cannot imagine the amount of lives she'd destroyed. I could never understand the things she did, and quickly labeled her as the complete psycho who was still, in a twisted and sick way, a captivating character.

As Fairest takes place before the events of Cinder, we now see what caused Levana's hatred for both Winter and Selene and witness the relationship they had with her. Levana's motivations for causing the supposed death of Selene made of course no sense, and I now wonder what could have happened to Winter after being taken in Levana's custody. All in all, the appearance of the two young princesses in this book added another layer of foundation to Meyer's world, and therefore made my love for The Lunar Chronicles grow even more. As if that was even possible.

Even characters I'd never heard of before Fairest, made it quickly into my heart. Solstice was a mysterious and definitely a compelling character. It's like I almost experienced Levana's jealousy towards her, but especially her love for Evret. I don't know what to feel when it comes to these two. There were a lot of scenes in this book that dealt with their complicated relationship. So much I eventually became more stressed out and anxious than Levana herself. All the way through she kept trying to make their relationship work she eventually drowned in their so-called love. Quite depressing, yet absorbing to read.

The story of Fairest has to be the best thing about this book. Although a lot of scenes were already known, I loved how those played out before my eyes, and gorgeously written at that. On the other hand, this novel contained a lot of other background stories from Levana's life I had no clue about. Some even brought actual tears to my eyes and made Fairest a beautiful read.

In a nuthshell, Fairest was exactly the kind of book I needed in the anticipation of Winter. It tore my heart out and made me feel all kind of emotions, but I don't regret anything.

Bridge of Snow (Winner's Trilogy, #0.5) by Marie Rutkoski
Published: January 28th 2014 by Tor Books
Pages: 14

Ignore the stirrings of war. Let the carriage to a royal ball wait. There is a story to be told: of a starless night, a mother and her sick son, and a mortal who falls in love with the snow god, and will do anything to have her...

“She looked at the boy. He knew her weakness for storytelling. And it was, after all, only a story. Still, she wished he had chosen a happier one.”

Oh, wow. As if I didn't have a love for fairy tales already, Marie Rutkoski wrote an extraordinary tale about love and loss which I couldn't help but adore. Her beautiful writing style shows through, and made me experience more emotions in fourteen pages than I usually do with actual novels.

Complete with heart-wrenching flashforwards and one of the most important life lessons of them all, Bridge of Snow is highly recommended for those who loved The Winner's Curse.

The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Curse, #2) by Marie Rutkoski
Published: March 12th 2015 by Bloomsbury Children's
Pages: 368

Lady Kestrel's engagement to Valoria's crown prince calls for great celebration: balls and performances, fireworks and revelry. But to Kestrel it means a cage of her own making. Embedded in the imperial court as a spy, she lives and breathes deceit and cannot confide in the one person she really longs to trust ...

While Arin fights to keep his country's freedom from the hands of his enemy, he suspects that Kestrel knows more than she shows. As Kestrel comes closer to uncovering a shocking secret, it might not be a dagger in the dark that cuts him open, but the truth.

Lies will come undone, and Kestrel and Arin learn just how much their crimes will cost them in this second book in the breathtaking Winner's trilogy.

“If you won’t be my friend, you’ll regret being my enemy.”

Thank you Bloomsbury Children's for providing me with an advanced reading copy for review.

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

I don't think I'll ever be able to explain in detail how different The Winner's Crime from the previous installment in Rutkoski's trilogy, The Winner's Curse. Though it's still the same story, the tone of this book is so much darker and involved a lot more conspiracies and back-stabbing. At parts I loved with while others were lacking. It actually turned out to be an okay read for me, but I can't shake off the feeling of knowing there are still great things to come.

The flaws I first mentioned in my review of The Winner's Curse had a lot to do with the pacing and the course of the story. There is nothing wrong with the story on its own. I loved it. In my opinion the first book felt like it was the absolute base the trilogy needed to continue, and that the second book would do very well in enriching both the world and the story. It absolutely succeeded in doing so. The overall tone of this book was much darker and throughout the book there was a sort of atmosphere where anything could happen. The stakes were almost at their climax and kept building upon each other as the story progressed. There was no such thing as certainty of what could possibly happen next. Also the world developed in a way I would not have expected. A sneak-peak is given to discover a completely different area of Rutkoski's world which had nothing to do with Herran or Valoria, and therefore it was something thoroughly enjoyed reading.

The pacing in the first book is nothing compared to the one in The Winner's Crime, and I don't necessarily mean it in the most positive way. I had my reasons for not being annoyed too much by the slow pace, as most fantasy novels require patience in order to completely become invested with it. At one point in the book, my patience shattered in tiny pieces and flew all over the place. There wasn't anything that made me want to finish it in one sitting. Skimming the book wouldn't do much good either, as with Rutkoski's books it's necessary to be fully concentrated. That it also the reason why I took almost an entire month to finish it. In some ways I could say the pace ruined a great deal of the book for me, but there were always other aspects that made it so great again. Such as certain characters.

Now I seriously loved how the two main characters were put in completely different environments, and thus had to deal with way more serious topics than other ones -- like their love affair -- we'd seen in the first book. Kestrel, for example, remains as cunning as ever. Even now when she's in a completely different position, she still knows how to play and even beat her own game. She was sometimes faced with difficulties such as outsmarting the emperor towards the end, but that was one refreshment I adored. It became more and more difficult for her to act wisely, which led to taking decisions that threw the book in a completely different direction. In other words, it could have been my only motive to read on. I may have been frustrated with her when taking risks, as it was already clear from the start there had to be consequences. Then again, I couldn't help myself but to love her.

Arin isn't a character to my heart. No matter how hard I try, I don't think I'll ever be able to connect with the guy. He acted so superiour when he was supposed to be a slave. You could already guess I grew more frustrated with him, as he sees himself as a king now more than ever. In the end I found myself simply not caring what he did, where he went or what risk he took. I'm not too sure if I'll ever end up loving him, because for now it's still a no. I'm therefore more than glad when it turned out the romance aspect of the book had faded to a minimum. I didn't buy their love in the first book, and it didn't improve with the little love scenes they had.

I don't know what to think of the ending. It surely left me in a state of shock and broke my heart. I wanted to scream at my e-reader, simply because that was a marvelous plot twist I hadn't seen coming in a lifetime. Now I cannot even predict in the slightest way where the last book may be going. All I know is that I'm up for a final book filled with political intrigue, back-stabbing and secrets to be revealed.