My Reaction in a Nutshell: 
 Not your average Cinderella story. 
 The Long Version: 
 The Lunar Chronicles (TLC) is super popular on Tumblr, and after finally seeing so many great things about the series online, I finally decided to give it a try. Now, I've heard that Cinder is the worst book in the series. People said not to give up on TLC just because they didn't like Cinder. So I went in basically expecting a shit-storm similar to the first Throne of Glass book. However, I am glad to inform you all that if Cinder is the worst book in the series, then Scarlet, Cress, and Winter will basically be guaranteed 5 star ratings. 
 Cinder is a loose retelling of the popular Cinderella story. And I do mean loose. Yes, many of the key parts of the infamous Cinderella story are present (prince meets common girl, common girl has two step sisters, common girls has a terrible stepmother, common girl runs the house, there's a ball, common girl loses an identifiable item). However, Meyers is able to put a fresh spin on it all (I want to leave you all surprised so I won't spoil things). 
 In all fairness, I did see many of the plot twist coming. And no, that wasn't just because it's a Cinderella retelling. I liked the hints in this novel to Winter and other fairytale characters. I can't wait to see how Meyers weaves all of these popular tales together in this futuristic story. 
 ***UPDATE*** (3/19/2017) 
 Two things I do want to address that I didn't in my original Goodreads review: 
 1. This is a series staring POCs and has strong Chinese influence even though Meyer herself is not Chinese (although she claims that she did a lot of research before writing the series). 
 2. There is one joke that is transphobic. Meyer had her writing partner post her clarification of the "joke," but that is the only place I have seen her address it (and it wasn't even her doing the posting). It's one of those things where I can (sort of, if I try really hard) see what the author had in mind, but that doesn't change the fact that many readers (myself included) interpreted it as a transphobic joke. It's hurtful, unnecessary, and adds nothing but pain to the plot. 
 ***TRIGGER WARNINGS: abuse, mind control, non-consent medical treatments, forced suicide, imprisonment, plague, death, transphobic "joke"