A cyborg mechanic and the crown prince fall for each other as a plague and a Lunar queen push their world toward war.
- Score
- 79.9
- Spice
- 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️Sweet
- POV
- third
- Ending
- HEA / HFN
Tropes
Content warnings
Curated signals, not an exhaustive guarantee.
If you liked this, read
What readers think
Readers consistently praise the inventive high concept — Cinderella as a cyborg mechanic in plague-ridden future Asia — and Cinder's resourceful, grounded voice, which avoids the passive-princess trope entirely. Prince Kai's charm and Queen Levana's theatrical menace are frequently cited as standout elements. The main criticism is predictability: readers who know fairy-tale tropes will see major reveals coming well in advance, and the futuristic New Beijing setting feels under-explored given its promise. Some also note the book functions primarily as a series launcher, with a cliffhanger that leaves subplots deliberately unresolved. Goodreads ratings sit comfortably above 4.0 stars across hundreds of thousands of reviews, with the series broadly regarded as one of the more successful YA fairy-tale retellings of its era.
Read it if
- · Readers who love fairy-tale retellings with a fresh genre twist — sci-fi worldbuilding replaces magic without losing the wonder
- · YA fantasy fans who want a fierce, mechanically-minded heroine navigating class prejudice and political intrigue
- · Anyone seeking a fast-paced series starter with a large ensemble cast and escalating stakes across four books
Skip it if
- · You dislike predictable plot beats — the Cinderella parallels telegraph most major reveals
- · You want deep romantic development; the slow-burn here is very slow and the series commitment is long
- · You prefer standalone novels — book 1 ends on a cliffhanger and the payoff requires the full quartet
If you liked this
- · For fans of Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas who want a cleaner, more science-fiction-tinged series starter
- · For fans of An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir — oppressive political regime, fierce heroine, forbidden romance
- · For fans of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins who want fairy-tale structure layered over dystopian action
- · For fans of Graceling by Kristin Cashore — capable young woman discovering her true nature in a corrupt political world
In this series
Part of The Lunar Chronicles — read in order:
Full series profile & spice/trope breakdown →Which dark romantasy heroine are you? Five choices in a forest that wants you dead.
Take the quiz →