Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Goodreads : 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.

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life 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

Cinder is set quuuiiiittttteeeee a while in the future. Like , more than 1000 years if I remember right. Actually , I don't remember at all but it's a long time until the book takes place. Anyway , Cinder is sorta sci-fi retelling of the Classic story of Cinderella which dates back around 9th Century I think - don't quote me here.

Cinder is a cyborg in the Eastern Common Wealth in a world where the Plague has made a come-back , becoming the most feared thing to the world. Or that could be Lunars.... we'll touch on that later.

Like the story , she lives with her step-mother and step-sisters but unlike the story she is a mechanic. A cyborg which works as a mechanic. Seems pretty fitting.

Lunars ,like I mentioned earlier, are a race which live on the moon - hence the name Lunars , I suppose. Because Luna means Moon and they live on it so that makes them Lunars. Get it? Oh the puns (Is that even a pun? It sorta is but sorta isn't? hmmmm). These people have the power to control peoples mind using bioelectricity , which is kinda scary. Like , ANY of them can force you do something. Like shoot yourself for example - which Queen Levana tries to make Cinder do near the end.

The story basically follows Cinder through her life as she gets to know the Emperor (Prince Kai) and her life slowly gets more and more dramatic because of the Lunars.

Basic story line explained , lets move onto Characters! :

Cinder -like I said- is a cyborg and is one of the main female characters. She is described to have mousy brown hair and to have a boyish figure. Which makes me extremely happy because I do not have a feminine figure either and I can at least share that with her. She is very sassy at times , and basically is working everyday of her life for her 'Family'. I hated all of them. Apart from Peony. Peony made me happy.

Emperor Kai is basically her love interest and I ship it to the max. He is amazing and if he wasn't fictional I would try and kidnap him to make him love me. I seriously would. Basically , he's a royal Harry Styles - just has different looks and way more likable.

Iko is Cinder's only friend. Literally. And she's an android. Iko gave me life. She is me and I am her. Simple as.

PEONY MADE ME CRY! LIKE , WHY! How could Marissa do that to us. I want reasons! She was the sweetest thing and she didn't deserve that. Not at all. She was so kind to Cinder and loved her like a real sister and didn't care that she was cyborg and she just gave me TOO MANY FEELS.

Pearl on the other hand deserved Peony's fate. She was just like Disney's Cinderella Step-sisters and I hated every bit of her. She could've died for all I care and it wouldn't phase me one bit. I didn't like her. Nope. Same to Adri.

 The world in this book wasn't so bad , if you took out the Plague , and the cyborg hating , and the Lunars. I could've dealt with it... probably. But anyway's , the whole of the world is a actually briefly mentioned (I want to know why Queen Camilla is in charge of England. Rule of thumb , each name must be used at least twice in British Monarchy. It would probably be another King William or Queen Victoria or something).

Overall , I gave this book a rating of 5 stars on Goodreads and I put it on my favourite shelf! I loved Cinder with all my heart and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series and maybe write up a review of each of those. Maybe. I would recommend this to anyone who likes sci-fi or fantasy. And to those who like the ToG series.

Bye! ,
Bookish Delights x

My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga

Goodreads : Sixteen-year-old physics nerd Aysel is obsessed with plotting her own death. With a mother who can barely look at her without wincing, classmates who whisper behind her back, and a father whose violent crime rocked her small town, Aysel is ready to turn her potential energy into nothingness.

There’s only one problem: she’s not sure she has the courage to do it alone. But once she discovers a website with a section called Suicide Partners, Aysel’s convinced she’s found her solution: a teen boy with the username FrozenRobot (aka Roman) who’s haunted by a family tragedy is looking for a partner.

Even though Aysel and Roman have nothing in common, they slowly start to fill in each other’s broken lives. But as their suicide pact becomes more concrete, Aysel begins to question whether she really wants to go through with it. Ultimately, she must choose between wanting to die or trying to convince Roman to live so they can discover the potential of their energy together. Except that Roman may not be so easy to convince

Why do I always pick the sad books. WHY! That aside , this book is brilliant and I loved it. Maybe not as much as the other book's I've reviewed , based on the fact that this book wasn't entirely my thing. But I did enjoy it a lot.

As the Summary says , this book is about two teenagers who make a suicide pact because they're depressed. One , is science nerd , Asyel and the other is a former basketball champ , Roman who both find each other after Roman posts a message asking for a suicide partner. This leads to a friendship that turns into more pretty quickly , as they bond through the pact.

I feel awkward writing a review on a book that is about a real serious problem , and so I hope that anything I say will not come off the wrong way.

I loved Aysel. She was really realistic and I found her to be actually very developed , unlike a lot of characters I read about. Her story broke my heart , and her relationship with her mother was actually a lot like mine with my father. She was an amazing character in short.

Roman also broke me... a lot. His story made me cry even more! I felt so bad for him throughout the book and I'm so annoyed that I'm not in the book and that I couldn't help him myself.

I don't want to say much else , because I will go to deep and I will cry. And I probably will spoil it.

So , I have to end it here. Overall , I gave this book a rating of 4 stars and I recommend it to everyone.

Goodbye ,
Bookish Delights x