Cinder

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

(Book #1 of The Lunar Chronicles series)

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

The Good Stuff:

1) Cinderella is a cyborg mechanic. And as if that wasn't enough (and it totally is, you guys), she's strong and weak and creative and stubborn and young and foolish and wise and generally pretty great.

2) The world Marissa Meyer has created is fascinating! It's set in our possible future (126 years post-WWIV), and there's space travel and androids and all kinds of interesting things going on.

3) The Lunars - what fantastic baddies! They're genuinely threatening, and kinda scary.

4) Cinder's family dynamic and its impact on her self-perception is well-developed without being over-simplified.

5) Kai is a great prince! Like Cinder he's far from perfect, but he's intensely likeable, and the chemistry between he and Cinder is palpable without being over-the-top. There's no "I've seen you once and now I love you with the heat of a thousand suns" crap. Just a believable, age-appropriate start to a potential relationship.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

1) The plot is way, way predictable. I mean, the identity of the Lunar princess was incredibly obvious from the first couple of chapters. This wouldn't have been a problem if the rest of the book hadn't spent so much time and energy trying to draw out the non-existent mystery. I ended up doing some skimming as a result.

2) As fascinating as the world Cinder lives in is, I would have liked to see more of it. We get brief glimpses and short snippets, and I want more!

Overall, a quick and enjoyable read! I'll definitely be picking up the next book in the series.