Cinder & Ella (Review)

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Title: Cinder & Ella
Author:  Kelly Oram
Publisher:  Bluefield  
Published Date:  15^th August 2014

Rating: 5 Stars

*Thank you to ebooks4review for the review copy*

Synopsis: What would you do if your anonymous Internet best friend turned out to be Hollywood’s hottest celebrity?

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.

With a heartwarming online celebrity romance reminiscent of Jennifer E. Smith’s This Is What Happy Looks Like, bestselling young adult author Kelly Oram has struck gold with her new adult contemporary retelling of the timeless classic Cinderella. 

Review: I had read a positive review for this somewhere, but it didn’t stress how amazing the book was. Because honestly, I loved every single second of it and I am definitely going to reread this again at some point. Oh, and I am crossing my fingers and hoping against hope that someone makes this into a movie because it is completely worth it!

This is a brilliant retelling of Cinderella. What makes it so perfect is the fact that it is close enough to Cinderella to be a retelling and for us to identify how it would relate to the fairytale, but then different enough as well so that I could never quite predict was going to happen next. In my opinion, that’s as good as a retelling can get.

The book also had a huge shock which seemed like a plot twist in itself. The first thing that happens is Ella is in a car crash that cripples her and also kills her mother. I read it within the first few pages and BAM. I was already sucked in.

It was also about a pretty relatable subject because I am an online social media butterfly, which means I do have online friends (I have to, I mean, blogging!) So I can really relate to the idea of having an online best friend, and it’s also a subject I know a lot of people tend to shy away from writing about. It was cool that Kelly Oram did.

I really loved the secondary characters in this novel because even though they weren’t the main characters, they were also so well developed and so realistic. Everyone had their own problems and issues they were trying to overcome as well. Naming some would be Scotty, Rob, Juliette and Vivan.

Ella – the main character went through a really tough time. As I mentioned, a lot happens to her at the beginning. And yes she cries sometimes, and yes she moans, but those times are few and far between. And the amount of times when she is strong definitely outweighs her weak times, and I would be able to understand when she does break down. In general she went through an awful lot and manages amazingly well.

 

Brian/Cinder – He always had Ella’s best interests at heart and was a great best friend. I already have a best friend like him online, but everyone deserves one as well :D

The writing style was amazing. Kelly’s writing made me laugh, made me feel like crying (okay, I cried. I don’t understand why I cry at the happy books and not at the sad ones. I’m weird like that) and made me smile in the middle of a room full of people. Reading books like this and You Had Me At Hello reminds me how important a great writing style can be in a novel.

This book touches on so many themes. I won’t go into too much detail because this review is already gushing amazing things about these books. But some of them are family/divorce, bullying, being different/disabled and dealing with death and depression.

It only took me two days to read. And when I should be doing a lot of studying for exams and schoolwork and tons of other stuff, two days is as good as one sitting.

There was a great ending as well. Please, go read this. I command you! :3

Olivia’s Question: Do you have friends online?

Olivia-Savannah x