A Book Set in Another Country

For this item, I read Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

I've heard people talking about this book for a while now. I originally bought it back when I bought Emerald Green (in February, I believe?), but I had so much other stuff to read that I simply didn't get around to it until now. I started it less than a week ago and the first time I picked it up, I read one hundred and fifty pages. Skip forward five days and I've finished the almost 400 page book. So yes, it was good.

I liked Cinder because it was very suspenseful and quite a page turner. The main character, Cinder, was a bit preoccupied with silly things, but she was also smart and interesting. Starting with the fact that she's a cyborg. If you don't already know, Cinder puts a science fiction spin on the well known fairy tale, Cinderella. It's set in a fictional country in Asia, after World War IV. 

Cinder is brought up like Cinderella- an outcast in her own home, raised by a neglectful step mother with her two step sisters. Unlike Cinderella, she has no intention of going to the prince's ball. She's also a crazy talented mechanic. Throughout the book, she becomes a large part of the initiative to end the common and deadly illness, Letumosis. Meanwhile Prince Kai struggles to maintain peace with the queen of the Lunars- a mostly magical race of people that moved to the moon a while back.

One of the only problems I had with this book was that Cinder was a bit extreme. She was the best mechanic around (so amazing even the prince would seek her out), she was a cyborg and several other twists that I don't want to spoil, but add up to be quiet a lot of specialness in one person. 

However, I loved Meyer's writing. It was detailed enough for the images to be clear in my mind, yet simple enough to keep the story constantly moving. It's the kind of writing I aspire for. I'll definitely be looking for the rest of the books in the chronicles!