Cinder458: Your blogaversary is coming up, right? EllaTheRealHero: Do all those Hollywood friends of yours know you use words like blogaversary?
Cinder458: Of course not. I need your address. Got you a blogaversary present.
Cinder got me a gift?
My heart flipped.
Not that I was in love with my Internet best friend or anything. That would be utterly ridiculous. The boy was cocky and stubborn and argued with everything I said just to be infuriating. He also had lots of money, dated models—which meant he had to be hot—and was a closet book nerd.
Funny, rich, hot, confident, book lover. Definitely not my type. Nope. Not at all.
Yeah, okay, fine, so he wasn’t my type by default because he lived in California and I live in Massachusetts. Whatever.
Cinder458: Hello? Ella?? Address??
EllaTheRealHero: I don’t give out my address to creepy Internet stalkers.
Cinder458: I guess you don’t want this autographed first-edition hardback of The Druid Prince, then. Shame. I had it signed it to Ellamara when I met L.P. Morgan at FantasyCon last week, so I can’t try to impress any other girls with it.
Not my type.
Not. My. Type.
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.
This is possibly one of the cutest contemporaries I have read since last year! It has quickly become a new favorite of mine because it gave me so many feels and I know I will want to reread it again just to experience the cute giddy feelings again.
The writing isn’t the greatest, the story isn’t the most original, but it is definitely such a cute. heartfelt story that I couldn’t help but love it.
Ella goes through one of the most heartbreaking experiences that I was gutted from page one and questioned whether I even wanted to read this book. I wasn’t expecting it to be as dark as it was at the beginning (and throughout). Ella loses her mom in an accident that left her crippled and scarred. She deals with depression, anxiety, and some of the worst cases of bullying I’ve seen in YA (at least in my experience). Her family wasn’t the warmest or most welcoming even though they have their reasons, but it was still heartbreaking to read everything she had to go through. She has a rough time trying to adapt to her new life and the only thing that was familiar and made her happy was Cinder. Cinder was her online best friend and faithful follower on her blog. They had some of the most funny and witty coversations that this book could have been written entirely of their IMs and I would have read it gladly.
Ella goes through a lot of development in this book and you can’t help but feel so proud of her (Plus Ella had a blog, so she was extremely relatable). She really pushes herself and tries to start over and fix relationships with those who have hurt her. Her whole relationship with her dad was sad, but touching and I am so glad we got to see them work things out. Even her relationship with her stepsister Juliette was one of my favorites. But I have to say…Cinder still takes the cake.
Brian Oliver AKA Cinder, definitely stole the show for me. He was sweet, cocky, loyal, supportive, protective, the right amount of jealousy, and everything you want in an awesome book boyfriend. They have the cutest romance story and the way he fought for Ella will make you swoon ❤ I know I did.
The fact that they met over their love for a book and became best friends because they had an “argument” was so adorable! It seemed fitting that that’s exactly how they would meet. Who wouldn’t love to find their soulmate while gushing over a common loved, favorite book. I think it’s every book lover’s dream.
Rob, though! Rob was so adorable and I would be lying if I didn’t say I was secretly rooting for him. He was so sweet and supportive of Ella that I actually wanted Ella to give him a chance. Even if he had a huge crush on her he knew how much she loved Cinder and stepped aside and became her best friend. What kind of guy does that? THE PERFECT ONES THAT’S WHO! Rob wanted nothing more than to see Ella happy and that alone makes him worthy of love.
The only complaint I had is that I wish the POVs were a little more consistent. We had Ella and Brian’s POV but it wasn’t equal. We would go 2-3 chapters of all Ella and then 1 of Brian. I wanted to hear more from him and have it be a little more 50/50.
Overall, this was such a cute retelling take on Cinderella. It kind of reminded me of A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. I really enjoyed reading this book. I got it on a whim and it ended up being one of my favorite contemps. Just ignore the cheesy cover 😉
Until next time,
the bookish khaleesi 