What You Need to Know about the Lunar Chronicles Before Reading Series Ender Winter

Fairy tale romance, androids, space travel, mysterious diseases, computer hacking: the Lunar Chronicles series has everything you could want in a good read. And with the release of fourth and final book Winter around the corner, I’m finding it nearly impossible to think about anything else—which is why, for the sake of those of you who need a refresher, I’ve put together this handy, kinda spoilery guide to The Lunar Chronicles thus far. Warning: if you read this, you’ll want to buy Winter as soon as it comes out.
With Cinder, Scarlet, Cress, and Winter, Marissa Meyer combines fairy-tale characters Cinderella, Snow White, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood into one epic retelling…told in a distant steampunk future. With robots. Ever since a mysterious childhood accident, Cinder has been a cyborg. Which, in the city of New Beijing, means she’s essentially untouchable, a gifted mechanic whose own metal parts bar her from having the same rights and privileges as a normal human. So when her stepsister falls ill to the deadly lunar disease, Cinder’s stepmother sends her to the palace to be used for plague research—except, it turns out, Cinder is mysteriously immune to the sickness.

Stuck in the palace while the doctor looks into her strange immunity, Cinder starts to grow close to Prince Kai, the heir to the throne of the Eastern Commonwealth. Several things stand in the way of their friendship: Cinder’s own forgotten past, which the doctor seems to be getting close to uncovering, and Kai’s struggles to keep his empire independent of Levana, the Lunar Queen, who’s intent on marrying him. With tensions between Luna and Earth on the rise, it seems there’s no way out of the match, especially not with Levana’s lunar ability to cast a glamour to manipulate humans into doing what she wants.
But Cinder isn’t just immune to the lunar disease; she is a Lunar. In fact, she’s Selene, the real heir to the Lunar throne, long presumed dead by Queen Levana and everyone else.

In Scarlet, Cinder is still reeling from the discovery of her newfound identity. Not only is she a wanted fugitive, on the run from both the law and the murderous Levana, but she’s also pretty sure Prince Kai hates her. Plus, she’s picked up an only slightly trustworthy companion in the form of Carswell Thorne, a convicted thief who may or may not be mostly useless.
Meanwhile, Scarlet is tracking down her missing grandmother with the help of Wolf, a shy street fighter with a strange tattoo. Their search takes them across France and straight toward Cinder, but along the way they discover a few alarming secrets about Levana, the lunar sickness, and the army of mutant Lunars invading the Earth. When Scarlet, Wolf, Cinder, and Thorne combine their information, they may be able to form a resistance against Levana—but they’re running against the clock, since Kai’s forced marriage to Levana (and her subsequent Earth takeover) is looming closer and closer.

Their only hope is to find Cress, a brilliant hacker locked in a satellite, who might know how to put a stop to Levana’s attacks. But when the rescue mission goes wrong, Cinder, Wolf and Scarlet are separated from Cress and Thorne. As they struggle to reunite, Cinder forms a plan: stop the royal wedding and start a Lunar revolution.
Now, with Kai on board and Levana openly at war against planet Earth, Cinder’s only hope for success is Winter, Levana’s beautiful but fragile stepdaughter, who has slowly been going insane on Lunar. But as long as Winter’s not quite as crazy as she seems, everything might just work out okay. (Maybe.) (We hope.)
Winter goes on sale November 10, and is available for pre-order now.