Book review: Cinder

 Cinder (The Lunar Chronicles book 1)

By Marissa Meyer

Even in the future, the story begins with Once Upon a Time. . . .

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. . . .

Sixteen-year-old Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She's a second-class citizen with a mysterious past and is reviled by her step-mother. But when her live 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. Because there is something unusual about Cinder, something that others would kill for.

This was an interesting read. It was like a mix between Cinderella, Star Wars and an anime show called Aldnoah.Zero. I think doing a take on the classic fairy tales but making it futuristic/sci-fi is a great idea. The story moved at a pretty good pace and kept me reading intently until the end. There were moments that I didn't love in it and some of it was just kind of meh but overall it was pretty interesting and now I need to read the rest of the series to see what happens next.  

Book Review: Girls in Pants

 Girls in Pants: The Third Summer of the Sisterhood

By Ann Brashares

"The Pants came to us at the perfect moment. That is, when we were splitting up for the first time. It was two summers ago when they first worked their magic, and last summer when they shook up our lives once again. You see, we don't wear the Pants year-round. We let them rest during the year, so they are extra powerful when summer comes. 

We thought it was a big deal two years ago, our first summer apart. Now we're facing our last summer together. Tomorrow we graduate from high school. In September we go to college. And it's not like one of those TV shows where all of us magically turn up at the same college. We're going to four different schools in three different cities (but all within four hours of one another---that was our one rule).

As life changes go, it's really, really big. If you're my dad, you say, "Hey. You'll see each other at Thanksgiving." But if you're me, you realize that life as we've known it is over. Our shared childhood is ending. Maybe we'll never live at home again. Maybe we'll never all live in the same place again. We're headed off to start our real lives."

As a lover of cozy summer movies and books, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series is a favorite of mine, both the movies and books. I read the first book and then found this one---the third---at a church flea market where you could cram as many books as you were able into a bag and buy the whole lot for 25 cents. (or was it a dollar? Either way, it was a great deal) Without having read the second book I decided I could read this one anyway because I saw both of the movies already. This book had content from the second movie as well as a few things that were in neither movie. I didn't feel too lost having not read the book before this one, but I would still like to read it at some point. These books are actually wonderfully written and are the epitome of a cozy summer read. After finishing this one I scoured Book Outlet for similar cozy summer books because that was all I wanted to read after reading this! When you're feeling down or in need of a light read, I highly recommend this series! Do start with the first book and read them in order though, especially if you haven't seen the movies. They are the perfect mix of coziness, sadness, drama, friendship, romance and summertime goodness!