Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram

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.


What's with the YA/NA read-hogging lately? Not to mention all these new authors, too. (For me, that is.) But I would say that I am on a good streak though. Because here I am with another great find...and I've a feeling that this will not be the last one.

(And isn't it the beauty of reading when you can't stop finding new good authors to read? That means more absolutely gorge books to read in the future!)

I honestly didn't take this book seriously at first glance. Because, hello? Cinder and Ella? How clichéd is that? But then I read the blurb and I thought, why not? By the time I finished this book though, I was hooked.

I am so totally in love with this book (and trying not to gush so much here).

This is a modern fairy tale with a twist. Or twists. I loved the virtual relationship between Ella and Cinder. I loved how they were able to honestly connect online even more than people who gave face to face relationships do. And I guess it was that foundation of three years worth of friendship that was their fallback when the going got tough when they finally met. And I loved how they managed to eventually trust each other with the world looking right at the end.

I was all cried out when I finished this book. KO, what have you done to me?! To make things better, it wouldn't hurt if there were more books about the rest of the great characters in this book. Yes, please. There won't be any complaints from this camp.


Final verdict: 10/10. Only love. Great must-read.