I'm finding it harder and harder to rate books lately without a half-star system. Really, this book deserves 3 1/2 stars. It was a pretty decent read. Cinderella with cyborgs is definitely original, at the very least. Cinder herself was pretty great-- she wasn't a damsel in distress by any means, and she wasn't naive enough to have any faith in anything her stepmother or evil stepsister said. That part was very refreshing. Cinder is a strong heroine who can take care of herself and get things done. 
 The storyline was very interesting, if odd. Unfortunately, a big part of it was predictable right from the beginning, but everything else was a surprise. As if the author knew that readers would be able to guess the big secret, so kept everything up until then unpredictable. 
 I never did quite get used to the setting. Cinderella in Beijing, essentially. Relocating a story quite so dramatically just felt wrong (although the relocation was hardly the most drastic of the author's changes). I don't know if I'm just too critical or jaded or what, but Japanese names thrown into stories (Prince Kaito, Sakura Street, etc) just seem like a cheap and desperate way to draw in the otaku crowd. "Hey, read my book! I know about Japan and manga and stuff! Here, have some Japanese words! Isn't my book so cool?" I know it's not fair, and probably not the author's intention at all, but I see it so often in young adult books nowadays that it just makes me sigh and roll my eyes every time, and truly does lessen my enjoyment of a book. (And don't get me wrong, I AM one of the manga-reading, Japan-fan crowd.) 
 I did enjoy the book, though, and had no problems getting through it. The pacing was good, and the drama, politics, and romance were all very well proportioned. The ending of the book left the next book totally open. There are so many ways the series could go. I look forward to reading the sequel.