I love fairy tale retellings and this one promised to be completely different while still having the important features of the Cinderella story we all know and love,.It takes place in New Beijing far into the future. I love the world the author started to create and I hope the explanations and world building continue in the next books. The world is ravaged by a plague, the moon colonists are waiting for their moment to pounce on the planet and cyborgs and androids are commonplace. The character of Cinder ticked all my YA female protagonist boxes. She was strong, not at all simpering and was just generally kick ass. The character of Prince Kai fell a bit short for me and I was left feeling kind of mad at him towards the end of the book. Which isn’t really what we want, is it? I violently disliked Cinder’s “evil stepmother” and wanted to slap her stepsister. But I was sad when Cinder’s other stepsister was struck down by the plague. There are certain plot points I felt were a bit predictable, certain things were said between the characters that let me know exactly where the author was going to go, but I don’t mind that so much as long as the rest of the story makes up for it. And it did in this case. The one thing that drove me crazy was the giant cliff-hanger at the end. I think the other books in the series are different fairy tales retold in the same world, so I wonder if we’re ever going to find out what becomes of these characters…I might cry if I don’t find out. I highly recommend this if you’re enjoying the plethora of fairy tale retellings that are hitting bookshelves lately. I’m loving them.
