Cinder & Ella, Kelly Oram

This book was really touching and one of the main reasons for me to start this blog. I really liked Ella and felt with her, sometimes I even shed some tears :D
So, here is my very first review, I hope it's not too bad!

The protagonists of this book are already named in the title. Well, of course their names are not actually Cinder and Ella but Brian Oliver and Ellamara Rodriguez respectively. They got to know each other on Ella's blog Ella's Words of Wisdom where she writes reviews, but they specifically started writing (or arguing) over the review of their favorite book series The Cinder Chronicles.

Ella is the average 18 year old girl. She's not ugly, has friends and also occasionally a boyfriend. She loves reading and writing reviews for books. Up until the car accident, in which she lost her mother and burned about 70 percent of her body, she lived with her mom in a small apartment in Boston. After the accident, she had to move in with her father and his family in California. She doesn't seem to be welcome there but she won't let that get her down.
I thought it was really impressive how she managed to live on her life, even though she had to suffer incredible loss. It was really admirable and everytime she crumbled, I suffered with her and I even started to cry sometimes.

Brian is the typical Hollywood celebrity who tries to establish himself in the world of entertainment. His first big role is the role of Prince Cinder of The Cinder Chronicle's first  book, The Druid Prince. In order to be taken seriously, he has to agree to a fake engagement to his co star Kaylee (and there is the obstacle to our love story!).
Brian is a confident and arrogant young man who actually knows what he wants but still does what the others tell him to do in order to reach his goal. He loves writing emails to Ella and arguing about their different points of view. I really adored this character, since I love arrogant male protagonists, I don't know why but I just really like them :D

Of course there were a lot of secondary characters, especially Ella's stepsisters and best friends. They were really interesting but I felt like they are missing some depth to their character, do you know what I mean? I really hope so :D
This kind of story (boy likes girl, girl likes boy, but there is at least one obstacle they have to overcome) is really common, but it was written so beautifully, I sometimes even forgot that it was some kind of retelling of the Cinderella story :D
In the end, I really loved this book and recommend it to anyone who loves romances and a bit of drama!