This series contains 4 main books, a novella, and a collection of short stories; ‘Cinder‘; ‘Scarlet‘; ‘Cress‘; ‘Winter‘; ‘Fairest‘ (the novella); ‘Stars Above‘ (the collection). I read all but ‘Winter‘ in 2024.
These books are modern, science-fiction fairy tale retellings. (‘Cinder‘ is based on Cinderella, ‘Scarlet‘ is based on Little Red Riding Hood, ‘Cress‘ is based on Rapunzel, and ‘Winter‘ is based on Snow White. ‘Fairest‘ is a retelling of the Evil Queen’s story – (from Snow White).

Brief summaries of the main books

Cinder...
Cinder is a second-class citizen, a skilled mechanic, and a cyborg with a mysterious past, hated by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. She lives in New Beijing where a deadly plague and a threat from Luna, the moon colony, loom. When her life becomes intertwined with Prince Kai’s, Cinder finds herself in the centre of an intergalactic struggle for power. To protect the world’s future, she must first uncover the secrets of her past.

Scarlet...
Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing.
There are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother, or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet first meets Wolf, a street fighter who may know something about her grandmother’s location, she doesn’t want to trust him. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana.

Cress...
Cress, a girl imprisoned on a satellite since childhood who’s only ever had her net screens as company. All that screen time has made Cress an excellent hacker. Unfortunately, she’s just received orders from Levana to track down Cinder and her handsome accomplice.
When a daring rescue of Cress goes awry, the group is separated. Cress finally has her freedom, but it comes at a higher price. Cress, Scarlet, and Cinder may not have signed up to save the world, but they may be the only hope the world has.

Winter...
Princess Winter is admired for her grace, kindness and beauty, despite her scars. She’s said to be even more breath-taking than her stepmother, Queen Levana…
There are stirrings against Levana across the land, and with the help of Cinder and her friends, Winter might find the power to launch a revolution and end a long raging war.

To describe these books any further and to say exactly why they were amazing reads, would be to spoil their events for a potential reader. So, I will leave the descriptions simple and spoiler free.

I really loved this series, I tried to pick a favourite, but they are all amazing reads. I loved the world that Marissa Meyer created. I enjoyed how the author kept the main parts of the fairy tale, like Cinderella losing her shoe, and made them fit the futuristic version of the story. The descriptions of the characters were wonderful and I loved their journeys. I would definitely recommend this series to anyone who loves adventures and fairy tale retellings.

“Broken isn’t the same as unfixable.”
― Marissa Meyer, Winter

You can find out more about these books and the author through Marissa Meyer’s Instagram which can be found using the following link…
https://www.instagram.com/marissameyerauthor/?hl=en

I give these books an average of :