Saturday 8 November 2014

Review of Cinder & Ella

Cinder & Ella

By Kelly Oram

About:


It’s been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she’s been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father’s home and her awful new stepfamily, she must convince her doctors that she’s capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she’s not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who’s ever meant anything to her—her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder. 
… 
Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There’s major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won’t make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he’s left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian’s bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn’t thrilled with the arrangement—or his fake fiancée—but decides he’ll suffer through it if it means he’ll get an Oscar nomination. Then a surprise email from an old Internet friend changes everything.


Source: Goodreads

My rating: 4.5/5

My Thoughts:

A total swoon-worthy read. As you can guess from the name, this is a re-telling of Cinderella but with twice as many twists and drama. Ella meets Cinder through her blog and their regular banter on books and movies makes them best friends. Neither knows the other’s real name, so Ella has no idea that Cinder Is in fact heart throb and movie star Brian Oliver. The day Cinder asks for Ella’s address to post her a signed first edition of her favourite book, she’s involved in a car accident that costs her mum’s life and leaves her crippled with permanent scars over her body.

I’m a sucker for love stories and I really shouldn’t have read this during NaNoWriMo because it’s too addictive to put down. I was waiting to find out when Ella would meet Cinder, what would happen, and so on. Of course there’s a happily ever after but Ella goes through so much and her pain was so real. People could be so cruel, and it was horrible to see how much she had to deal with, but I was so happy for her when she finally gets her fairytale ending.

One of the things I really enjoyed was the way the author explained Ella’s flaws. Although she had been through a lot, sometimes she caused the distance and bitterness between herself and others, especially her family. It made the story more realistic to learn that even Ella had a few things to work on.

Cinder (Brian) and Ella argue more than anything and their chemistry shone through the book. I liked the introduction of her friend Vivian’s gay fathers too, it was nice to mix it up. In the original story of Cinderella, Cinder’s animal friends help her dream come true, whereas here it was her step sister and friends. Cinder & Ella was an adorable and contemporary retelling of a much-loved classic.

Zed (:

Favourite Quotes:

“At least the stepwitches aren’t home. Jennifer may be tactless, but at least she tries to be nice. Witch One and Witch Two make the devil sound tame.”

“I can’t help it if all people want to talk about when they interview me is my abs and whether or not I’d consider dating a fan. It’s not my fault that I’m too damn good-looking to be taken seriously.”

EllaTheRealHero: Sure you can, rock star. You wouldn’t know normal if it bit you on your ridiculously good-looking face.
Cinder458: You’ve never seen my face. How do you know it’s good-looking?
EllaTheRealHero: Because no ugly person could have an ego as big as yours.

“There’s no way I’m going anywhere near the upstairs with Ana in the mood she’s in, and I really don’t care about Ella’s love life. Besides, she’s not supposed to be alone, anyway. What if she tries to throw herself off the balcony or something?”
Was there anyone in the world that didn’t feel the need to humiliate me?

“I didn’t realize upping our relationship to phone buddies would come with a boyfriend title. Does that mean I we ever meet in person, we’ll have to get married?”


“I don’t go out there much,” I admitted, laughing. “With my luck, we’d have an earthquake and I’d plummet down the cliff and live through it.”

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