BLOG TOUR!!!! I miss doing blog tour honestly. Where I do all the itsy bitsy details of my post - fine - talking I mean. :P I love talking and I miss reading so much it hurts. Well, anyway, I present you.... CINDER & ELLA by none other than, my favorite author of all time, KELLY ORAM!!!
She's one of my favorite author. And she deserves a reward for doing such a job well done in Cinder & Ella. I have another favorite book, thanks to Kelly!
On to the Guest post! I give you Kelly Oram and her thoughts on Online relationship!!! ;)
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Hey everyone! First I want to thank Lexie for having me on the blog today to chat about my new book. I’m so excited to be here, and I’m even more excited for people to read Cinder & Ella. I love Cinderella. It’s been my favorite fairy tale since I was a kid, and from the moment I started writing books I knew I would someday write my own adaptation of the story. The only question was: how did I want to do it?
One of the hardest aspects of Cinderella is trying to tell a romance wherein the two leads don’t know each other and don’t have scenes together. Take the Disney version of Cinderella for example. Cinderella and the Prince only have two scenes together in the entire movie—the night of the ball, and the end where they get married. I suppose that worked well enough for them but when I sat down to write an entire book that was supposed to be a YA romance, having only two scenes between my love interests just wasn't going to cut it. I needed to find a way to get my two main characters interacting throughout the entire book while still being able to keep the mystery of my Cinderella’s identity for my Prince.
Since I wanted to do a modern contemporary retelling, I tried to think about how two strangers could fall in love these days and my brain automatically went to the Internet. Internet relationships are becoming a lot more common these days. I have several married friends who met their spouses online. And while that wasn't the case for me, some of my closest friends are people I have never actually met in person.
Online, we can find other people who share our same common interests, our same passions. We can find chat forums and blogs where we’re able to be ourselves and not be afraid what people will think of us because everyone on the forum loves the same thing we do. Me, for example, I am a Backstreet Boys fan fiction nerd. Oh, in real life, when I tell people I love to read random stories about the Backstreet Boys, people look at me like I’m crazy. But I am not alone in this random, geeky hobby. There are tons of people just like me, who love the exact same thing I do. And you know what? They are the freaking coolest people in the world!
I have made some of the greatest friendships with random strangers online, and I know that nowadays, most people can relate. Maybe not to the backstreet Boys fan fiction part, but to whatever your personal passions is. Pick your poison. There is something out there for everyone. For Cinder & Ella, it’s a love of reading, a love of fantasy, and especially for a certain book series that they both love called The Cinder Chronicles. They met online because of this passion, and because of the anonymity of their relationship, they were able to be themselves when in the real world they both have their own physical barriers that prevent them from making such honest relationships with the people around them.
I think that because most people can relate to having an online passion of some kind, or online relationships, people will really connect with these two characters and fall in love with their romance. At the very least I hope my readers can all say they know how hard it is to be our true selves, and might be able to understand the appeal of an anonymous relationship.
One of my favorite aspects of Cinder & Ella is being able to relate to their feelings and watch their anonymous online relationship jump from the virtual world to the real one. I can only imagine how exciting and terrifying that could be all at the same time. I had a lot of fun with their relationship, and I think the fact that they were anonymous to each other for so long is what gives them so much depth. It’s what makes their love so strong, and (hopefully) it’s what will make you fall in love with them as much as I did.
I have to get going now, but I want to leave you with a short teaser. This excerpt is from Cinder & Ella’s first telephone conversation, where they’re actually talking about their anonymous relationship and why they like it. Enjoy!
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Thank you, Kelly!!! That is awesome! I love your new book. I can totally relate in a way. I have a LOT of internet or online relationship. I have online friends who understands me in a way that my real life friends here with me doesn't. I don't mean that my online friends are not real, it's just that they mostly live in USA, or Europe or India or Colombia or even South Africa that it's not easy to do a meet ups like here in my own country. They understand my obsession passion for books. They understand that I like hoarding stuffs. Lol. By that I meant, I like pens, stationery stuffs and I have lots of it, also makeups. Though I don't always put on makeup, I like buying them. :p
Cinder & Ella's relationship is really what I felt with my friends. Minus the falling in love part. lol. I mean, I love them as friends and I would definitely LOVE to meet them someday. Either me going to US or them going for a vacation here. ;)
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TITLE: Cinder & Ella
AUTHOR: Kelly Oram
GENRE: Contemporary, Young Adult
RELEASE DATE: 1st October 2014
RATING: 
BOOK BLURB:
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.
REVIEW
This was such a cheesy story which I definitely enjoyed! All the feels! I have it! Kelly Oram is simply one of the best writers. And I am off to preorder the book. Wonder if it'll release a paperback or hardback? Whatever would be available for my collection. :)
Some might say the story is cliché, used a lot. I read a lot of novels like this but as always there was the difference. For one, Oram wrote this so cleverly I am in awe of her. She made us laugh, snort, pissed off with some of the characters like Kaylee and all those bullies, be in love with Cinder/Brian and most of all, bawl like a baby with the family drama.
I love the family development. I love how it was written out for us to see that they can improve. The can be better. That they have their stories just awaiting to be uncovered. It was not easy reading the family situations like Ella have. With her handicap and issues and scars, I am saluting Ella. Oram shows that Ella is only human, a girl who lost it all but then found out that she still have someone or some people who really care for her.
I also like the online relationship part. I can relate. Makes me think that one day, I can definitely meet my online friends. Like meet up with them BEA starts. ;) I'm not closing the possibility it might happen someday. I am looking forward to that day.
People might argue with me that the story is just so-so, or whatever. One thing I know, I ENJOYED EVERY SINGLE MINUTE OF READING THIS STORY. I LOVE JULIETTE, VIVIAN AND HER DADS. I LOVE THE FANTASYCON SCENE. AND YOU PEOPLE MUST READ THIS. I can't stress it enough. JUST DO IT, BUY THE BOOK! SPREAD THE WORD, SPREAD THE LOVE OF CINDER & ELLA. <3
Kelly Oram is one of my weakness. Lol. I was stressed the whole week but after reading Cinder & Ella, I'm okay. I'm good.
Definitely worth reading, worth your time and money. Go to Amazon now! :D
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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.
GIVEAWAY
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