The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer

I have heard a lot of hype about the Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer, both from friends & from students. After some intense pressure from those around me I finally decided to pick them up. All the hype was worth it! This series was amazing!! So let's start with a quick spoiler-less summary.

Cinder is an orphaned cyborg, with no memory of her past, living with her stepmother & stepsisters. A plague is devastating the Earth & they are on the verge of war with the Lunars (a branch of humanity that lives on the moon & has the power to manipulate the minds of those around them). The only way Earth can avoid this war is if there is a marriage alliance made between one of the royal family members & the Lunar Queen Levana, a cruel & manipulative woman. Stories have it that she not only killed her sister (the queen before her) but her 3 year old niece, Selene, just so should could remain queen. Now just as everything is about to fall apart for Earth the Princess Selene is found, alive after all these years! Together with her & her friends can they over thrown Levana & restore peace to the two worlds?

Cinder is the best mechanic in the whole Eastern Commonwealth. So it's really no surprise (except to her) when the crown prince, Kai, shows up incognito at her shop one day to have her fix his tutor droid. Not only does she find him charming, but she ends up striking up a friendship with him. But in a world where cyborgs are treated as second hand citizens, she hides from him the fact that she is a cyborg.
When Cinder's youngest stepsister, & the only one in the family that actually likes Cinder, becomes sick with the incurable plague ravaging the planet, Cinder's stepmother throws a fit, thinking it is all Cinder's fault. So she volunteers her for a government sanctioned testing on cyborgs, to help find a cure for this disease. It is a death sentence. However after being injected with the disease, instead of succumbing to it, Cinder's body starts to fight it. That is genuinely when Cinder's problems start. The doctor doing the experiments discovers that she is a Lunar. But not just any Lunar. One the doctors has been searching for for years. The missing Princess Selene. 
When the Lunar Queen Levana comes down to Earth to negotiate a marriage alliance with the crown prince, recently turned emperor after his father's death from the disease, Levana catches a glimpse of Cinder & knows that she is a Lunar. All heck breaks loose because for years there have been laws prohibiting Earth from housing Lunar "refugees". At a ball to announce the marriage of Emperor Kai & Queen Levana, Cinder comes to warn Kai that she's been informed by one of Levana's spies, that once the two are married, Levana plans to kill Kai & take over Earth. Kai still not knowing Cinder is a cyborg & a Lunar (the Lunar Levana is after), tells Levana the marriage is off. But Levana manipulates & reveals what Cinder is to not just Kai but the whole world, which leads to an ultimatum for the new emperor... Marry her or give him the fugitive Lunar for Levana to sentence for her crimes, the price for being a Lunar refugee is death. So a man hunt ends up ensuing for Cinder. 
The rest of the series is full of her adventures, & the adventures of new friends that help her fight her way to reclaiming her crown. 

I really loved this series! It was action packed, had great characters, new twists to old stories, & some great scenes! I have to say I have 4 favorite characters! Cress (the Rapunzel retelling) is this super tiny Lunar shell (meaning the mind manipulations don't work on her & she also can't manipulate others) that has been locked up on a satellite for being a shell. As she has grown up, she's learn how to hack like no one in the galaxy. Out of fear & the hope of love, she has spied for Queen Levana for years on the people of Earth. She is actually the someone that tells Cinder of Levana's plans after her & Kai are married. She is spunky & probably my favorite female character!
Iko is my next favorite. She is Cinder's android. She has been through everything with Cinder. However at one point in Cinder, the evil Stepmother has Iko torn apart as retribution to Cinder & because of a "faulty" personality chip that makes Iko very human like. Through the series, Cinder carries Iko's personality chip with her until she is able to find a new body for Iko. Unfortunately for her, the first "body" Cinder can find is a ship. She spends a good book & a half as this ship, the Rampion, before she is given an actual body. One of the latest models of escort droids. It is this form that Iko keeps for the rest of the series. It has to be repaired multiple times do to damages during major fight scenes. However being a droid, Iko becomes a key member of Cinder's forces, because she can't be manipulated by Lunars, or really killed for that matter. Not to mention Iko adds some of the best comic relief.
RIGHT BEHIND CARSWELL THORNE! So Cinder meets Thorne after she is captured at the end of Cinder & she's trying to escape prison. They end up going on the lamb together & the Rampion, the first body CInder finds for Iko, is actually Thorne's ship. Well rather he stole it from the American Republic, & it's one of the reasons he's in jail. Thorne is this Flinn Rider kind of character. He's kind of an ego maniac. He thinks everybody's in love with him & that he is God's gift to the world. However, for being a thief & fugitive he ends up being one of Cinder's first & most loyal friends on her journey to get her throne back. He also ends up being the one who gets Iko's permanent body for her. Oh & one of my favorite bits, is he ends up in Cress's satellite with her when it crashes into Earth. At which point he goes temporarily blind & they have to make their way across the desert in search of their friends. Him & Cress end up being a thing by the end of the book. Some of the GREATEST lines in the book actually come from Thorne!!
And last but NOT least, there is Wolf. He is actually special Lunar soldier. He's been genetically tested on since he was a child & because of this while he can't manipulate others like a Lunar he has very animalistic traits. He's abnormally strong, practically indestructible, & has heightened senses. Unfortunately the Lunar make these wolf soldiers because they have such a primal drive that all they seem to be able to focus on is their bloodlust, making them EXTREMELY dangerous. However Wolf ends up helping a French girl named Scarlet (you guessed it... from the Little Red Riding Hood retelling) & his drive for bloodlust is over ridden by an even stronger instinct to protect her. He ends up becoming a great driving force for Cinder's group. And probably one of the biggest contributions he makes to their fight, is that being a mutated Lunar, he is harder to manipulate & helps Cinder master her abilities. Personally I love him because he's just this big teddy bear disguised (against his will) as this monster. 

Seriously though... his series was GREAT! A LOT of "what just happened" moments. & great story retelling. It isn't every day someone thinks to turn Cinderella into a cyborg with super powers, who's trying to fight her way back to her throne on the Moon after having her aunt try to kill her as a child & being smuggled to Earth & hidden. AMAZING!