Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Publisher’s summary: 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.

My Take: What can I say? Cinder was amazing, stunning, magical, fabulous, beautiful and fun! Cinder is supposed to be a futuristic retelling of Cinderella, and although Cinderella will always be a classic, I actually like this version a whole heck of a lot better! The writing flowed perfectly, the characters were amazingly well-developed, and the worlds described in Cinder were beautifully and ingeniously created.

I wanted to read Cinder in what feels like forever! But because of my consistently growing to-read and to-review list, Cinder kept getting pushed to the bottom of my reading pile. So I was more than thrilled when I was asked to review the audio version of Cinder (read by Rebecca Soler)! And let me tell you, Rebecca Soler is a fabulous reader! She completely immersed me into the story, and the voice she created for each character was perfect!

As I said before, the characters were spectacularly well developed. I grew a strong attachment to Cinder, and I loved her snarky personality. Iko (Cinder’s family android) was probably one of my favorite characters. She’s sweet and quirky, and I loved each and every scene she was in! And just like the original fairytale, Cinder also has two stepsisters; one is absolutely adorable, while the other is a snotty spoiled brat I wouldn't mind slapping around occasionally! And Cinder's cruel stepmother Adri is one-nasty-woman! Several times I was rooting for Cinder to claw Adri's eyes out! And of course, I can’t forget to mention the outright wicked Queen Levana! I'm crossing my fingers and I’m hoping for a horrifically, miserable destruction of that woman in future books of this series!

The way the story ended left me extremely eager to continue reading the other books in this series! I really want to know where Cinder’s story will go, and I’m more than a little excited to read Marissa Meyer’s retelling of “Little Red Riding Hood” (in Scarlet), “Rapunzel” (in Cress) and “Snow White” (in Winter)!