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4.08 AVERAGE
4.08 AVERAGE
I’m always so happy when a book that I expect to be average turns out to be one of the best I’ve read in a long time… and especially when I’ve been in such a terrible, never-ending book slump.
I remember that a couple of months back my book friends were raving about Cinder & Ella. I would have added the book to my TBR pile right then if not for my skepticism for the author. As it turns out, this book has all the elements that I completely adore in a book. But before I go all gaga over my love for the story and the characters, I’ll just give you a brief synopsis of what to expect in this lovely, feel-good, fluffy romance.
As the blurb promises, we have Ella and Cinder, two internet book buddies (BOOK BUDDIES YOU GUYS! LIKE US!! YAASSSS!) who share their love for a book series called the Druid Chronicles and are secretly in love with each other. Everything is good in their lives, till one day Ella has a horrible accident and loses almost everything. Cinder, knowing nothing about Ella’s real life, even her actual name, doesn’t know what to believe other than thinking her dead after her sudden disappearance. While Ella is hospitalized and recovering, trying to get a grip on her life that’s turned upside down, Cinder (a.k.a Brian) is getting all the media attention as the next “it” thing in Hollywood. They find each other again after months and realize that their feelings for each other are stronger than before; but… if only relationships in real life were as easy as the online ones…
So as the story goes, the title hints towards this being a rendition of Cinderella, and I won’t deny that it does have few Cinderella-sque moments, but the plot is so much more than a girl getting married to a Prince after one fine night at a ball! We have a female MC who has been through shit and has been treated like shit but unlike Cinderella, she doesn’t sit and weep in a corner waiting for a fairy godmother to fix it. She stands back, calls people out on their BS and doesn’t act rebellious or nasty for no reason. The story isn’t just about evil step mothers, step sisters and an aloof dad either. It also focuses on the strained relationships between the MC and her step family and as the story progresses, we see each relationship strengthen and witness the MC accept and begin to appreciate the importance of her new family and friends. But among all this, for me, the romance steals away the spotlight. The relationship that Ella and Cinder shared was beautiful and made me completely fall in love with this book. It was their friendship, their banter, their attraction, the way they understood each other, made each other happy, just about everything, that made their romance magical.
*happy sigh*
Anyway, the other thing I adore about this book, are the main characters. Ella is one of the most relatable and likable female characters that I’ve come across amidst all the angst ridden, snowflake, bimbo head cases we have as protagonists. As for Cinder, he is one of those characters you roll your eyes at but still really like. He uses cheesy lines, is a flirt, uses “woman!!” to address Ella way more than I like, treats Kaylee like shit (but she was a spoiled brat so I didn’t really mind) but is also a fellow book reader who follows bloggers, is passionate about his career and takes it seriously, (did I mention he reads books and gets into discussions about it?), is a celebrity with super-hot looks and is so in love with Ella that it just made me grin like a goof and like him more.
As for the other characters, well, Ella’s dad was an ass for majority of the book. The reasons he gave in the end gave me a better perspective on why he left Ella and her mom, but the way he reacted in certain instances just made me want to smack some sense into him. Ella’s principal and shrink were the worst actually. I think I disliked them even more than Ana. So get this, Ella’s shrink, who is supposed to help Ella, actually threatens to put her in a mental hospital because of her not socializing in school.
…
……
………….
Anyway, that’s one crazy shrink. The other douchebag we have in the story is Ella’s principal. He thinks that Ella should be in a school for the disabled because she is scarred and limps. That guy actually had the balls to say that he wasn’t responsible for students bullying Ella because she seemed to invite trouble. Like, why is this man even running the school?
Apart from them, Juliette, Vivian and Rob were pretty cool. Even though I highly doubt the existence of guys like Rob.
All in all, this book was really fluffy and full of drama till the end. It entertained me a hell lot and had me feeling all sorts of warm fuzzies by the time I was finishing it. That hasn’t happened in a very very long time.
So, 5 stars for Cinder-Ella awesomeoness alone!
I remember that a couple of months back my book friends were raving about Cinder & Ella. I would have added the book to my TBR pile right then if not for my skepticism for the author. As it turns out, this book has all the elements that I completely adore in a book. But before I go all gaga over my love for the story and the characters, I’ll just give you a brief synopsis of what to expect in this lovely, feel-good, fluffy romance.
As the blurb promises, we have Ella and Cinder, two internet book buddies (BOOK BUDDIES YOU GUYS! LIKE US!! YAASSSS!) who share their love for a book series called the Druid Chronicles and are secretly in love with each other. Everything is good in their lives, till one day Ella has a horrible accident and loses almost everything. Cinder, knowing nothing about Ella’s real life, even her actual name, doesn’t know what to believe other than thinking her dead after her sudden disappearance. While Ella is hospitalized and recovering, trying to get a grip on her life that’s turned upside down, Cinder (a.k.a Brian) is getting all the media attention as the next “it” thing in Hollywood. They find each other again after months and realize that their feelings for each other are stronger than before; but… if only relationships in real life were as easy as the online ones…
So as the story goes, the title hints towards this being a rendition of Cinderella, and I won’t deny that it does have few Cinderella-sque moments, but the plot is so much more than a girl getting married to a Prince after one fine night at a ball! We have a female MC who has been through shit and has been treated like shit but unlike Cinderella, she doesn’t sit and weep in a corner waiting for a fairy godmother to fix it. She stands back, calls people out on their BS and doesn’t act rebellious or nasty for no reason. The story isn’t just about evil step mothers, step sisters and an aloof dad either. It also focuses on the strained relationships between the MC and her step family and as the story progresses, we see each relationship strengthen and witness the MC accept and begin to appreciate the importance of her new family and friends. But among all this, for me, the romance steals away the spotlight. The relationship that Ella and Cinder shared was beautiful and made me completely fall in love with this book. It was their friendship, their banter, their attraction, the way they understood each other, made each other happy, just about everything, that made their romance magical.
*happy sigh*
Anyway, the other thing I adore about this book, are the main characters. Ella is one of the most relatable and likable female characters that I’ve come across amidst all the angst ridden, snowflake, bimbo head cases we have as protagonists. As for Cinder, he is one of those characters you roll your eyes at but still really like. He uses cheesy lines, is a flirt, uses “woman!!” to address Ella way more than I like, treats Kaylee like shit (but she was a spoiled brat so I didn’t really mind) but is also a fellow book reader who follows bloggers, is passionate about his career and takes it seriously, (did I mention he reads books and gets into discussions about it?), is a celebrity with super-hot looks and is so in love with Ella that it just made me grin like a goof and like him more.
As for the other characters, well, Ella’s dad was an ass for majority of the book. The reasons he gave in the end gave me a better perspective on why he left Ella and her mom, but the way he reacted in certain instances just made me want to smack some sense into him. Ella’s principal and shrink were the worst actually. I think I disliked them even more than Ana. So get this, Ella’s shrink, who is supposed to help Ella, actually threatens to put her in a mental hospital because of her not socializing in school.
…
……
………….
Anyway, that’s one crazy shrink. The other douchebag we have in the story is Ella’s principal. He thinks that Ella should be in a school for the disabled because she is scarred and limps. That guy actually had the balls to say that he wasn’t responsible for students bullying Ella because she seemed to invite trouble. Like, why is this man even running the school?
Apart from them, Juliette, Vivian and Rob were pretty cool. Even though I highly doubt the existence of guys like Rob.
All in all, this book was really fluffy and full of drama till the end. It entertained me a hell lot and had me feeling all sorts of warm fuzzies by the time I was finishing it. That hasn’t happened in a very very long time.
So, 5 stars for Cinder-Ella awesomeoness alone!
To be honest, I had really low expectations. I don't usually like retellings and I'm sick and tired of Cinderella. It's a wonderful tale, but it has been used so much it feels like there is nothing to it left. When my friend recommended this book to me, I was like "yeah, I'm sure it's great. Now you can take it back".
This book is pretty predictable, obviously, but it still suprised me how much I liked it.
I liked the protaginist Ellamara. she has personality and hobbies, she's witty and passionate. It made me sad when I read what happened to her. Not the accident per se, but what happened afterwards. What she had to endure at school, how people were reacting to her. People are cruel and thoughtless, my heart ached, I cried and it wasn't pretty.
The only thing what was somewhat disturbing for my is the whole I-don't-know-you-yet-I-love-you thing. We all watch "Catfish" on mtv, we KNOW how those things go. I get it, this is fiction contemporarty romance, so there must be social media included and so on, but still, how often those kind of relationships end well? Like not with a girl raped or murdered and left in the ditch somewhere? Or plainly with a guy (or a girl) actually turning out to be who they said they were?
"Cinder&Ella" is a retelling but not an obvious one. There are stepsisters and stepmother but are they as bad as they seem? There is Prince Charming (is he a real prince or just a douche?).
Special award should be given to Vivien's dads. They're awesome. Props to Vivien for Sugar Cane. It's amazing!
It's a cute but also hearbreaking story. The ending is quite predictable but it's a great read.
This book is pretty predictable, obviously, but it still suprised me how much I liked it.
I liked the protaginist Ellamara. she has personality and hobbies, she's witty and passionate. It made me sad when I read what happened to her. Not the accident per se, but what happened afterwards. What she had to endure at school, how people were reacting to her. People are cruel and thoughtless, my heart ached, I cried and it wasn't pretty.
The only thing what was somewhat disturbing for my is the whole I-don't-know-you-yet-I-love-you thing. We all watch "Catfish" on mtv, we KNOW how those things go. I get it, this is fiction contemporarty romance, so there must be social media included and so on, but still, how often those kind of relationships end well? Like not with a girl raped or murdered and left in the ditch somewhere? Or plainly with a guy (or a girl) actually turning out to be who they said they were?
"Cinder&Ella" is a retelling but not an obvious one. There are stepsisters and stepmother but are they as bad as they seem? There is Prince Charming (is he a real prince or just a douche?).
Special award should be given to Vivien's dads. They're awesome. Props to Vivien for Sugar Cane. It's amazing!
It's a cute but also hearbreaking story. The ending is quite predictable but it's a great read.
Swoon 😍😍😍 I wasn't expecting this book to be so amazing! Loved it!
challenging
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Cinder & Ella begins when Ella gets into a horrific car accident. Then months later she finally gets the courage to contact "Cinder" again. He's been her best friend for the last three years, but she's never actually met him and doesn't know his real name. When she contacts him, she surprised to discover that he actually thought she may have been dead. Now, these two are back to being major friends. But Ella is going through a whole lot dealing with her new "family" and the kids at school. Life is pretty difficult for this young woman, and it seems the only person really there for her is Cinder. But Cinder is dealing with his own issues, and has know idea how to tell Ella who he really is. These two must put the truth out there before it is all too late.
This has got to be the absolute BEST "Cinderella" adaptation I've ever read PERIOD! I can not believe how awesome this book was. And the sad fact is, I put it off because I hate Cinderella adaptions because of the stepsisters and evil stepmother, but this one was so different it was like on a whole new level. I utterly adored the story line. Not only that, but I totally fell in love with both of the characters as well.
Ella is an extremely strong woman dealing with a whole lot of loss, and just trying to continue on with her life.
And while Cinder sort of pissed me off with the way he handle certain things, I still adored him too. These two make a perfect couple. And the happy part was it wasn't just a story about was romance, it was also a story of friends, love, acceptance, and a whole lot more.
This has got to be the absolute BEST "Cinderella" adaptation I've ever read PERIOD! I can not believe how awesome this book was. And the sad fact is, I put it off because I hate Cinderella adaptions because of the stepsisters and evil stepmother, but this one was so different it was like on a whole new level. I utterly adored the story line. Not only that, but I totally fell in love with both of the characters as well.
Ella is an extremely strong woman dealing with a whole lot of loss, and just trying to continue on with her life.
And while Cinder sort of pissed me off with the way he handle certain things, I still adored him too. These two make a perfect couple. And the happy part was it wasn't just a story about was romance, it was also a story of friends, love, acceptance, and a whole lot more.
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Great Novel about Grief and Soulmates
As a book nerd, I was immediately grabbed by the summary: every-day girl is IM buddies with a movie star and doesn’t know it. They ‘met’ when he read her blog post about their favorite book, The Cinder Chronicles. Over the next 3 years, they become best friends even though they’ve never met. He’s texting with her when her life is destroyed by a horrible accident which kills her Mama and leaves her with 70% of her body burned and unable to walk. After being in a medically-endured coma for 3weeks, she spends months in the hospital, enduring surgery after surgery and fighting to be able to walk again.
Things get harder when she gets out of the hospital: she moves to LA to live with the man who walked out on her when she was 8. He has the picture-perfect model wife and her beautiful, blonde twin daughters. Ella is half-Chilean, with golden brown skin and brilliant blue eyes. To make matters worse, her father has packed up her things, but didn’t take some of her most important: author-signed books that she and Mama had collected, with a picture of them and the author in each one.
Adjusting to her new life is hard. The older of the twins encourages their school the bully her, there’s always tension at home, and she has no friends, save Cinder/Brian. Brian, as I mentioned, is a movie star. When she finally writes him to apologize for dropping off the face of the earth, he can’t believe it. When she didn’t answer his texts, he thought maybe she was mad. But when she didn’t blog, he knew something was wrong. That and never answering emails made him believe she was dead. So he’s overjoyed. They begin their correspondence and even start talking on the phone. Each is worried what the other will do if they find out the truth: he’s mega-star Brian Oliver, pretending to be engaged to his costar, and she’s Ellamara Rodriguez, a woman who is disfigured and disgusting to looks at.
Reading this book was wonderful. The chapters tell the story from either Ella’s or Cinder’s perspective. This gives us a chance to get to know and care about them both, and for us to root for their happily ever after. I *felt* Ella’s pain with her: pain as she adjusts to living with her father, pain from the ridicule at school, pain over her bumps with Cinder that inevitably happen. I’m not sure how many times I cried, but it was more than a few times. That may not sound like an endorsement, but it is. The book isn’t maudlin or depressing. I’m not someone who likes those types of reads and this is one of my favorite books I read all year, finished on the last day of the second decade of the 21st century. The book is realistic in its depiction of its characters and their conflict (no 2D characters here). No one is painted as the bad guy; even stepwitch sister Ana gets treated with empathy rather that painting her with the villain brush. This is story about loss and finding your way through it and I’m glad that it doesn’t rush things or drag. I’m eager to start the next book.
Also recommend the audiobook. While sometimes I read something sounding a different way, the female narrator did a great job of differentiating the characters as well as making the male voices believable.
As a book nerd, I was immediately grabbed by the summary: every-day girl is IM buddies with a movie star and doesn’t know it. They ‘met’ when he read her blog post about their favorite book, The Cinder Chronicles. Over the next 3 years, they become best friends even though they’ve never met. He’s texting with her when her life is destroyed by a horrible accident which kills her Mama and leaves her with 70% of her body burned and unable to walk. After being in a medically-endured coma for 3weeks, she spends months in the hospital, enduring surgery after surgery and fighting to be able to walk again.
Things get harder when she gets out of the hospital: she moves to LA to live with the man who walked out on her when she was 8. He has the picture-perfect model wife and her beautiful, blonde twin daughters. Ella is half-Chilean, with golden brown skin and brilliant blue eyes. To make matters worse, her father has packed up her things, but didn’t take some of her most important: author-signed books that she and Mama had collected, with a picture of them and the author in each one.
Adjusting to her new life is hard. The older of the twins encourages their school the bully her, there’s always tension at home, and she has no friends, save Cinder/Brian. Brian, as I mentioned, is a movie star. When she finally writes him to apologize for dropping off the face of the earth, he can’t believe it. When she didn’t answer his texts, he thought maybe she was mad. But when she didn’t blog, he knew something was wrong. That and never answering emails made him believe she was dead. So he’s overjoyed. They begin their correspondence and even start talking on the phone. Each is worried what the other will do if they find out the truth: he’s mega-star Brian Oliver, pretending to be engaged to his costar, and she’s Ellamara Rodriguez, a woman who is disfigured and disgusting to looks at.
Reading this book was wonderful. The chapters tell the story from either Ella’s or Cinder’s perspective. This gives us a chance to get to know and care about them both, and for us to root for their happily ever after. I *felt* Ella’s pain with her: pain as she adjusts to living with her father, pain from the ridicule at school, pain over her bumps with Cinder that inevitably happen. I’m not sure how many times I cried, but it was more than a few times. That may not sound like an endorsement, but it is. The book isn’t maudlin or depressing. I’m not someone who likes those types of reads and this is one of my favorite books I read all year, finished on the last day of the second decade of the 21st century. The book is realistic in its depiction of its characters and their conflict (no 2D characters here). No one is painted as the bad guy; even stepwitch sister Ana gets treated with empathy rather that painting her with the villain brush. This is story about loss and finding your way through it and I’m glad that it doesn’t rush things or drag. I’m eager to start the next book.
Also recommend the audiobook. While sometimes I read something sounding a different way, the female narrator did a great job of differentiating the characters as well as making the male voices believable.
I read this book for the first time years ago when I was in highschool.. I just had to pick it up for a reread again now. I forgot how much I love this book. It's campy, it's cheesey, it's tragic... and I absolutely love how over the top it is. I ordered the second one as soon as I finished it and I cannot wait to read it. Devoured this entire book in one sitting
I thought about giving it three stars because it was a good book albeit a cliche story with so many similarities to the hundreds of adaptations either in teen movies or teen books. but this particular version was so dramatic, with many of the main and even secondary characters stories being so different and striking, that it made me have a lot of fun. Sure, it’s cliche and the love story is cheesy. But it was different, it made me curious and it even made me laugh. I can’t describe it in another way that is not *dramatic* — but with the kind of drama Mexican soap operas are made of. It made me involved, it made me cheer for their happiness, it was fun, but it didn’t change my world.
