Book Review: Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Author: Marissa Meyer  website | twitter
Published: January 3rd, 2012
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan)
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy
Format: Nook Ebook (275 pages)
Source: Purchased, $9.99

Cinder is set in a futuristic world where all of that lovely future tech you see in Hollywood movies really exists. Cinder is a young, teenage cyborg who is also a gifted mechanic. Because of her mechanical parts, she’s considered a second-class citizen and the property of her evil stepmother. Her life is nothing glamorous -- at least, until Prince Kai enters the picture -- but she is by no means a meek, subservient type of character.

Some of the things I love about Cinder are her: sarcasm, selflessness, bravery, and strength. There are insecurities that she struggles with, but she doesn’t let them get the best of her. The romance between Cinder and Prince Kai is one of the highlights of the book. He’s charming and kind, torn between duty and his own desires. No love triangle in sight.

The worldbuilding is fascinating, but I can tell this is a novel that aims to set the scene for more novels in the same world without giving too much away. Some of these questions, I believe, will be answered in upcoming installments in the series. The Big Reveal is very obvious and though I found myself guessing the outcome from the very first clue, I didn’t mind. It was still interesting to find out how the characters discovered things that the reader already knows and how they react to them. I will definitely be checking out the next book in this series.

Extras
Prequel to Cinder: Glitches
Read the 1st chapter of Cinder: Chapter One FREE!

Do you like re-tellings? What are some of your favorite re-tellings or reboots?

Book Review: How to Date an Alien by Magan Vernon

Author: Magan Vernon  website | twitter
Published: December 5th, 2011
Publisher: Darkside Publishing
Genre: Young Adult, Science Fiction
Format: Nook Ebook (449 pages)
Source: Purchased, $2.99

Alex Bianchi hopes that interning at her dad’s classified military base will make her college application to Columbia stand out from the rest of the crowd. What she doesn’t know, but is about to find out, is that Circe Operations Center is actually an alien operation center where human and aliens live and work together on a daily basis.

At the beginning of the book Alex discovers that all sorts of different aliens live among us on Earth. There’s something of a hierarchy among the different alien races and the Caltians, the race of aliens that Ace is a part of, are sort of like the popular kids from high school. Throughout the book Alex spends increasingly less time with her fellow human interns and starts spending more time with her alien co-worker, Ace; the mysterious guy who keeps showing up to save her life.

Book Review: Every Other Day by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Author: Jennifer Lynn Barnes  website | twitter
Published: December 27th, 2011
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Format: Nook Ebook (237 pages)
Source: Purchased, $11.29

On every other day, Kali D’Angelo can pass for a normal teenage girl. Sure Kali’s mother took off when she was only three and she doesn’t have the most stellar relationship with her father, but she’s still more or less human. At least that’s what she wants everyone to believe. Because every other day at dawn, Kali turns into a super-fast, decidedly non-human hunter of preternatural beings that may or may not be listed on the endangered species list.

Kali’s status as a social unknown takes a drastic turn toward the spotlight when she is befriended by Skylar Hayden. Skylar is eternally optimistic, even when she finds herself in the crosshairs of the school’s cheerleading team. Kali’s plans to keep the normal and and not so normal parts of her life separate are shot to bits when she notices an ouroboros symbol on the small of Bethany Davis’ back. The same Bethany Davis who is the daughter of her father’s colleague, dating Skylar’s brother, and one of the school’s resident mean girls.