Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram
Series: Cinder & Ella, #1
First published on August 15, 2014 by Bluefields
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Young Adult
Pages: 269
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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Get it on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3r8Wt2U
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.
Review
Omg! This is absolutely a great book to read after the appetizing and sinful holiday because of the fat inducing and tooth breaking foods, haha. I’ve known Cinder & Ella for quite a while now but it’s just now that I finally am able to read it. Well, I guess it’s better late than never eh?
Cinder & Ella is just a short story that you can just read in one sitting, but in my case, it’s just one lying. Haha, I actually read this story just before going to bed, and you know me, I’m a big example of a lazy person. And just as I expected, this story is so good that I can’t help but imagined myself being Ella.
This story is somewhat related to Kelly Oram’s other book, A is for Abstinence. Cinder (main male character) is the person that I am really thankful that he was introduced in the book that I’ve mentioned. Why? Because he’s the reason why Virgin Val finally had her perfect ending with the hottest rock star, Kyle…Aheem, now I am swaying away from this story, hahaha sorry.
In its first chapter, which was the prologue, I really can’t help but think that it’s somewhat different from her previous book, but luckily, it’s just in the first part. Because right at the mention of its main male lead, I instantly got hooked into it and the recognition made me enjoy it even more haha. Also, the second thing I’ve noticed about this book is that it happened too fast. Things happened to characters that I haven’t even given a chance to get to know them. I admit that it was a bit frustrating, but when I reached the part of meeting its other characters, I instantly forgot about that.
As I’ve mentioned above, in this story, Ella’s (main female character) life happened too fast that even me can’t fathom how cruel life can be. She lost her mom, and emotionally and physically lost her life. She was scarred and was always the center of stare and teases from other people who didn’t know her. And mind you, this is absolutely my very first book that I’ve encountered where the main character has disabilities. And you know what? I can’t congratulate the author enough for making this story really realistic. Because, duh! Most romance books always have this picture perfect characters that is really so hard to relate to. At least this time, it’s different. Though I agree that the plot of this story is a bit cliché. Both of them falling in love with each other when in the first place, they haven’t seen each other eh? And they only know each other online. Been communicating for three years but haven’t known each other’s true name? But in all fairness, Kelly’s ability to make you swoon and forget how cliché it’s plot never failed to amuse me and I’m sure you will too.
This story is actually full of drama so I’m recommending you to get ready your tissue and your eyes for I’m sure you’ll have blotchy eyes afterwards. This story is so heartbreaking and I can’t help but relate mostly to its scenes.
For this book’s characters, as usual, I don’t really have any complaints about them. All of them portrayed their roles and lines well and are so easy to picture out with. What I also noticed was that Brian, aka. Cinder wasn’t described in detail here. After my previously read book, I know I should be thankful for it right? But no, I am not. Because unlike Kyle or Kelly Oram’s other heroes, this one I think wasn’t introduced to its readers fully. I just think that there’s something missing. Haha, maybe that’s the reason why I fell in love with Rob (the most gentleman guy I’ve ever known) instead of Brian. I am really thrilled for you to meet him, and I’m sure you’ll go madly in love with him too. This story has both Ella and Brian’s POV.
I also love the addition of family problems in this story, which made this book a 100% realistic story. I can’t count how many times I cried on their confrontation part and how I cursed Ella’s dad, and Ella’s “step family”. This is truly a tear jerker guys. I don’t know if it’ll be in your case, but I’m always a cry baby so no doubt it will have that effect on me.
The only thing I didn’t like about this story was on how the two of them get to meet each other online. What a huge coincidence right? It’s just so hard for me to think about it, and the prospect of not being able to know each other’s true identity even if they’ve known each other online for three effing years! Oh well, maybe I’m just being nega, so don’t mind me.
So yeah, that’s totally the reason behind the four-star rating above. This isn’t one of my favorites from the author but this sure indeed entertained me and made me fall in love and love my family evenmore.
This book is highly recommended and I can’t wait for you to read it, *wink.
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