MARISSA MEYER
(Book 1 in The Lunar Chronicles)
(Note: there are other editions of the cover)
Synopsis:
Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless Lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . . Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg.
She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.
Content:
Language: Not present
Violence: Depictions of Cinder struggling as she is taken to a research lab, a few mentions of Queen Levana's cruelty, Cinder's backstory involves a fire (car crash), and perhaps a few more slight skirmishes. There is also the plague mentioned in the synopsis: no one has survived it and there are a few descriptions of what it does to people (not violence, but it should be mentioned here).
Sex: A kiss, one almost-kiss, and developing feelings.
LGBTQ: A one-line joke about a transgender operation.
My Review: The Lunar Chronicles is one of my all-time favorite series. It's so good! A lot of people say they didn't really like Cinder but liked Scarlet better. I did like Scarlet better, but Cinder is still really good! The romance is sweet (and develops much more over the next few books) and I like all of the characters. I also really like Meyer's writing (if you've read Gilded or Instant Karma, the writing style is different in the Lunar Chronicles).