"I'm sure I'll feel much more grateful when I find a guy who thinks complex wiring in a girl is a turn-on." 
 What is this book about? 
 Cinder is a retelling of the classic fairy tale Cinderella. The twist however, is that Cinder is a cyborg instead of a real life girl and that she lives the futuristic city of New Beijing. Also a couple of World Wars have obliterated the Earth and there are very creepy people living on the moon. So besides dealing with the expected horrible stepmother and stepdaughter, Cinder also has to find her way through a plague-ridden city and help save the prince from the scary Lunars. Expectations for modern women are high nowadays. 
 Why is it boring? 
 It is a retelling of a very famous fairy tale, so you kind of know what you can expect. Besides the source material, the story is lacking a bit in interesting characters and it felt that this first book was mostly set up for the rest of the series. 
 Who would you recommend it to? 
 If you like YA series, fairy tales with a bit of an edge and lots of swooning over handsome princes, pick this one up. 
 Why should I read it if it's boring?! 
 I got hooked enough to want to read the second part and lately that hasn't happened to me all that often with YA series. It seems pretty difficult to really do something new with source material that is this known, but Meyer does put her own spin on it by adding a bit more cool with a cyborg mechanic tomboy in the main lead. Although Cinder can be a bit ditsy, overall she's a likable main character just trying to do the right thing. Her robot-friend Iko serves as comic relief, and although I wasn't a huge fan of the ensemble, I can totally image that other people love her enthusiastic remarks, cheering Cinder on. I do think the book could have used a bit more of... well everything. The dialogue could have been snappier, the story could have been tighter and the characters could have had more character. Cinder is better then a lot of YA series out there, but it's not a good enough first installment to really rise up.