Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Lunar Chronicles #1

     "Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . 

     Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future."

I put off reading this book for a long time. I read the synopsis and thought it sounded kind of lame, then the hype for this book took off and I didn't read it purely because of the hype. Why did I even wait?

This book was really, really good. I love Cinder, I like that she has a lot of sass and humility Iko was also awesome. Heck, I loved all the characters. Even the bitchy "step-mom" and the rude sister(Pearl). Peony was a doll and what happened to her made me sad. Prince Kai sounds hot and like a real sweetheart. Not a "typical" cocky prince. His family is suffering as much as the rest of his empire. It makes him I guess relatable, for lack of a better word, to the rest of the characters.

I liked that the villain wasn't the mean step-mother, but the crazy Queen Levana, and the rest of her weird minions. The moon people, I felt wasn't explained very well. Obviously, this story takes place on earth a few thousand years in the future. But the why people were populating the moon and then starting their own society/government and how and what caused them to evolve into whatever it is they became, wasn't explained very well. But since there are 3 more books maybe it'll be explained by then.

This book was very fast paced, but not rushed either. The characters, the world, and the story all were amazing and I still can't believe that I waited this long to read this series. I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the series. And even though this is marked as a re-telling of Cinderella, it still very much felt like an original story.