Uh nooo! Did it just end? There? Such a cliffhanger! :\

So now I have to basically complete reading all my Popsugar challenge books as quickly as I can and then get back to completing this series. I mean, c’mon, now I NEED to know what happened next!

I took up a YA novel after a considerably long time. And I specifically took this one up because –

1) It was on my Popsugar prompt (First book in a series)
2) It is a retelling of the old poor-girl-meets-rich-prince fancy fairy tale “Cinderella”. (And I love retellings)

So let us look at what we have here (sans spoilers of course)
A vile step-mother – Check
An equally vile step-sister – Check
A weirdly wired girl (like literally) who doesn’t fit in the societal norms – Check
A prince – Check
An evil queen – Check
A ball – Check
A glass slipper – Oh come on, that’s outdated!
A fairy god-mother – Oh no, this isn’t magic! It is science. Biometrics, magnetic fields, androids, comm chips, networks! So nope, there is no fairy god-mother! And yet this is a dystopian fairy tale.

126 years after the last world war, World War IV, New Beijing has to now fight a different kind of war. A city set in the Eastern Commonwealth, one of the allied ‘Earthern’ countries, is ravaged by a deadly plague that is spreading all over the world.

Prince Kai, who is a subject of much drooling of young girls, has been suddenly put in a precarious position by fate where he has to take over the reins of running his country. Luna, a country on the moon, whose inhabitants are Lunars, is threatening a war against Earth – their evil queen Levana’s infamy stems from the fact that she is so power-hungry that she has killed her own family for it.

Cinder, a cyborg, is a brilliant mechanic who owns a quaint little store in a small locality. Her guardian, who is also her step-mother, has a long lost grudge against her, making their relationship strained and pained and hateful and Cinder is planning already to run away from the place. But in a city where everyone has an installed chip inside their wrists, would it be possible for her to escape? Or is there something else planned for her?

I love the way the story shaped up. While I had already guessed the supposed “mystery” right at the beginning, the final reveal of it still had a gasp escape from me. In my opinion, the book is quite imaginatively written and while a few characters aren’t well-etched just yet (maybe they would be in the next book), the protagonist’s character is very well defined. Cinder is sharp, intelligent, logical, strong and courageous.

It is lucidly written; is fast paced and despite a few flaws has a very appealing and exciting plot. In the next book, I am hoping to know more about Prince Kai and a few other characters, especially, a one Dr. Erland who is the royal scientist exploring antidote options for the plague.

So while I hurry up with the other books on my current list, would love to hear from those who have read the full series about how was the experience for them.