That was also when she was adopted and taken to the states with her new family. Unfortunately, her new mother and the eldest girl, Pearl, didn't appreciate having a cyborg as a family member. And the adopted father passed away not too long after bringing Cinder with him.
But Cinder has Peony, the younger sibling, and Iko, the android of the house, to keep her company.
When her adopted father died, though, Adri, her adopted mother, made her work for her keep and treated her just like an android to do her every bidding. Otherwise, Adri could sell her for money, since she was technically her ward, and Cinder didn't want that to happen.
It just so happens that Cinder is very good at fixing technical problems, so a lot of people bring their adroids, communication devices, and other technical devices to her and she charges them to fix it. It keeps her busy and brings in money to keep her stay at home.
One day, Prince Kai showed up at her shop, needing her to fix his android from his childhood. That was the day everything changed. Kai thought that she was just a normal human, and Cinder wasn't about to tell him that she was a cyborg.
Then her sister, Peony, got sick - critically sick - and Cinder was sold to use as parts and other materials to try to find a cure for this horrible disease. It just so happens that Cinder is immune to this disease. And the doctor who was treating her seems to know a lot more than he is telling Cinder...
Things go from bad to worse as the Queen of Luna comes to try to marry Prince Kai after his father, the king, passes away. Queen Levana has the ability to make anyone see any illusion she comes up with - so no one knows exactly what she looks like. To have a person of that power in control of the Commonwealth would be horrible, but a war is about to occur with the Lunars if Kai can't find a different solution.
Cinder is stuck in the middle, being immune to the disease and having attracted Kai's attention, but she doesn't realize just how in the middle she is until the doctor finding a cure informs Cinder of just who she really is.
Can Cinder help with the cure since she is immune? Will Kai be able to find another way to save his people now that he is king? Or will a war break out between the two species? And just who is Cinder? Read Cinder by Melissa Meyer to find out!
My Thoughts/Reflections
Many of my friends have read this and rated it very high, so I was intrigued to start reading it. But for some reason I found it very slow going at first. I think it's because this novel is a dystopian plus science fiction and I haven't read too many of that genre to really get into the setting.
However, I've heard that the sequel novel is superb and I knew I needed to get through this novel in order to fully enjoy Scarlet, since it's published now, so I trucked through it and actually enjoyed the story!
Cinder has accepted her fate of being a cyborg slave since she has lived with Adri, but she has used her skills for good and was able to fend for herself to fix machines and technology on hand. When Kai showed up at her shop, she was extremely shocked, but flattered that he would come to her and ask for her help.
I really liked Cinder. Even though I didn't understand half of the things she was fixing or how she was fixing them, she is a girl who does what she needs to do in order to survive. And she has perfected her talent for fixing objects, giving her a great image of a mechanic.
Like I said earlier, the setting is what threw me off, but I got used to it after reading past the first 200 pages. It did take awhile for me, but now that I've delved into this world that Meyer created, I can't wait to read more!
There really isn't a lot of similarities between this story and Disney's version of Cinderella, which I found refreshing and unique to other retellings. Meyer had a great way of detail to the point where I couldn't figure out what the heck was being done, but it seemed very legit that I didn't care if I understood it or not - that's how I could tell that Cinder knew what she was doing.
I'm really hoping that this series gets better, like everyone keeps reviewing about. It was a very interesting viewpoint of this story and I'm glad I finally got a chance to see why my friends gave a steller review for this novel.
So if you want a very unique, techy version of Cinderella, that also dabbles in other planet colonization and the world on a brink of another war, this would be the perfect book for you. I would recommend sticking this book out if you have trouble at the beginning, because it does get better and you'll want more by the end of the novel!
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