Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram

Cinder & Ella by Kelly Oram
Publisher: Bluefields
Genre: Contemporary, Romance
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis: "It’s been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she’s been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father’s home and her awful new stepfamily, she must convince her doctors that she’s capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she’s not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who’s ever meant anything to her—her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder.

Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There’s major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won’t make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he’s left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian’s bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn’t thrilled with the arrangement—or his fake fiancée—but decides he’ll suffer through it if it means he’ll get an Oscar nomination. Then a surprise email from an old Internet friend changes everything."

Jennifer: You go ahead and talk to your boyfriend, Ella!
Ella: Cinder? Are you still there?
Cinder: I didn’t realize upping our relationship to phone buddies would come with a boyfriend title. Does that mean if we ever meet in person, we’ll have to get married?

Cinder & Ella had been internet bestfriends for almost three years. It started when Cinder, aka hollywood actor Brian Oliver, was browsing online and stumbled across Ella's book and movie review blog. Her post about The Cinder Chronicles drew him to it. He saw her picture once, so it's not one of those cliche stories where the celebrity guy decided to make friends with a faceless internet girl. On the other hand, Ella knew nothing about her friend Cinder except that he's rich, confident, and a book lover like her. They're both fanatics of The Cinder Chronicles book series, which holywood was making into a movie called The Druid Prince, starring Cinder/Brian himself.

I loved the romance so much! All throughout the story I had this goofy smile plastered on my face. I actually liked this book better than Isla and Happily Ever After by Stephanie Perkins. I swooned a lot and shipped Cinder & Ella hard!

"They give you everything you need. They always do nice things for you, hoping it might make you happy. They try so hard to help you, and you throw it back in their faces all the time."

What surprised me the most about this book was the touching family development. Since her mother's death, Ella started living with her dad and his new family; her step-mother Jennifer and step-sisters Juliette and Anastasia. I didn't expect her relationship with them would stir my emotions. It was subtle compared to those heavily emotional books but it was there and it was so effective.

Overall, this book exceeded my expectations and I truly enjoyed it! I hope the author writes more bestfriend/friends-to-lovers books or anything with slow-building romance next time because she definitely knows how to make her readers swoon! Please, please, Kelly! ❤

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Kelly Oram wrote her first novel at age fifteen—a fan fiction about her favorite music group, The Backstreet Boys, for which her family and friends still tease her. She's obsessed with reading, talks way too much, and likes to eat frosting by the spoonful. She lives outside of Phoenix, Arizona with her husband, four children, and her cat named Mr. Darcy.

Author Links:
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