I first saw this book on shelves years ago, saw the cover, read the blurb and thought "So a retelling of Cinderella as a robot? No thanks." and walked away. Dumb. A family member recommended it a few months ago so I opened myself up a little to the idea. I finally read it and.... this book is awesome! It hints enough to the original fairytale to be recognizable, but has some great new themes with a scifi twist. It's an enjoyable story.

I'm reducing my focus on fiction for a bit while I focus on a new goal, learning Russian and Mandarin. I'm about 4 chapters in on this book and I can already tell it has phenomenal advice. Some of these ideas were floating in the back of my mind for a while without concrete form, and feel completely logical. I'm enjoying it immensely. This book has great advice regardless of the language you're learning.

I just finished Oblivion, a flip POV book in the Lux series. I gave it a so-so rating because it didn't flow well for me. I'm still glad I read it, but I'm re-reading book 1, Obsidian, and it's so much better. There are some great flip POV books out there, but this one drags a bit and it's repetitive as the author tries to keep Daemon's thoughts and actions in alignment with the original. She's a good writer, but this one fell flat for me.

Have you ever stared at a painting so long that the colors blur and you can‘t tell what you‘re looking at anymore? There‘s no form, face, or shape—just color, just swirls of paint? ... I think people are like that. When you really look at them, you stop seeing ... the acne scar or the dimple in the chin. Those things start to blur, and suddenly you see them, the colors, the life inside the shell, and beauty takes on a whole new meaning.