Although I've read Cinder three months ago, when I didn’t yet have a blog, I feel like I need to write a review now. It’s one of my favorite books and it definitely deserves 5 stars from me. At first when it came out and everyone was making big deal out of it, I didn’t even look twice at it. A mechanic, cyborg girl? A Cinderella retelling? A SHOE on the cover? Pfff, no no. But then I found out this great genre, steampunk (yes, I’m at steampunk again, but I won’t mention it again in this review since this book is not really that steampunk-ish), which I fell in love with. And Cinder was tagged as “steampunk” on Goodreads, and also "dystopia", two of my new favorite genres. I decided to give it a chance then and it was love at first page.I won’t be talking about plot too much. In a few sentences - Cinder is a cyborg girl, living with her stepmother, who never stops to remind her that she’s a second-class citizen. She also has two stepsisters and one of them, Peony, is Cinder’s best friend and the other, Pearl, is spoiled and cruel. Cinder works as a mechanic at the Market, where she meets handsome Prince Kai. There’s a plague on Earth that’s killing increasingly more people. Evil Lunar queen decides to visit Earth and Prince Kai to make peace, but that doesn’t come without consequences. Cinder finds herself in the midst of all drama, not knowing yet what kind of power she possesses.
This was actually my first fairy-tale retelling book and I expected an easy plot, without major turns, because we already know what happens, right? Well, I was wrong. It had great world building, which is always an important factor for me. There were lots of details to the story - events, characters, plague, androids - that made it magical and not too light at all. There were some twists of events I didn’t see coming at all. While some of the characters were very tipical for fairy tales, like evil stepmother, there were some who were complicated and original. I loved Cinder. She could feel very lonely in a big city of New Beijing with her family suppressing her, but she never felt sorry for herself. She’s a strong girl, trying to fix her leg with her own skills (literally). I loved her right away and basically the same was with Prince Kai - he’s a sweet, funny boy and I loved watching their romance slowly develop - but there wasn’t a “happily-ever-after” ending from Cinderella, this book is so much more than that and I loved how romance wasn't the whole point of the story.
The Lunar people were very captivating and I can’t wait to read more about them in second book. They live on the moon and have the power to manipulate their looks, along with feeling they rouse in other people. That makes cold Queen Levana very dangerous, when she comes visit Prince Kai and the people on Earth realize that. They fear and dislike Lunars and don’t want to unite with them, but Levana has her own cunning intentions.
The ending leaves us with a cliffhanger but simultaneously introduces us to a different story. Scarlet is the main character of second book, but we get to see more of Cinder, too. I can’t wait to start the second book to see what happens next. The cover of third book, Cress, is already out and it’s gorgeuos, the most beautiful of the three! I recommend this series to every fantasy fan. I’m really glad I gave it a chance, I would miss a great book otherwise.
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