Book it Chewie

I basically blasted through this book in a single sitting - not because I was 100% hooked to it, but because I felt kinda daunted by the monster that is Wise Man's Fear. Also, this was a library book and I've gotta keep face. And it was pretty short in comparison to what I normally pick up.


I can't lie, I actually ended up with double the amount of cons than pros written down in my notebook (mostly pedantic, though) yet despite that, I really enjoyed Cinder. Like, really enjoyed it. My most enormous fears at the start of the story mostly revolved around whether or not Kai and Cinder's relationship would be some insta-love whirlwind type deal. There is little in the reading world that can turn me off a book more than that – and yet, my fear was baseless. Cinder does clearly fall for Kai, but Kai's affections, while (somewhat) clear, are actually put into question on more than one occasion. At the end of the book, he does what he thinks is right for the good of his people and planet, not for the sake of one single person. Which, theoretically, is the moral thing to do, regardless of feelings for that person.

However, Cinder does become sort of bland whenever Prince Kaito comes into the scene. She turns into a very cliché teenage girl, stumbling over her words and having very little in the way of observable personality. This doesn't really change until the last...maybe third of the book, when Cinder's secrets from Kai are getting more difficult for her to deal with. Only then do we start to really see her whenever Kai's about.

The PoV changes between Cinder and Kai were also a little watery I felt. I couldn't help but feel that many parts of the story existed only for info-dumping, like most of the interactions between Cinder and Dr Erland, and to an extent the scenes following Kai. It was clear that without it, we wouldn't have nearly a clear idea of everything that was going on, but it did feel a bit obvious sometimes.

Now, I am a huge sucker for political fantasy, and I actually really enjoyed the stressful scenes that followed the Earthen and Lunar leader(s). That, and the letumosis sub-plot really grabbed me and didn't want to let go.

And the fact that this was a retelling of a girl that, for many of us, was a childhood star. Except that she's some bad-ass mechanic cyborg chick from the future. Hell yes.

I couldn't go as into detail with this review as I might've wanted (it's six in the morning, and I'm really tired, and I really did fly through the book), but all in all I enjoyed it. It was easy to get into, easy to follow, and I had a lot of fun reading it. Again though, if I have to be honest, the totally nifty concept of Future Cyborg Cinderella just is so awesome, and was definitely a very deciding factor. I can't wait to get my hands on the sequel.