Midnight Wings (Rove City Series, book 1)

By Ariele Sieling

Blurb: 
In El's fantasies, she pilots a fighter jet for the intergalactic fleet. In reality, she's a mechanic whose social grid ranking guarantees she'll never advance beyond the lowest grunt work, and a slave in all but name to her cruel and self-centered stepmother and stepsisters. The most she can hope for is a few stolen moments of happiness practicing on her sisters' flight simulators, or talking to the mysterious stranger she met on an illicit night of stargazing.

When the queen announces a competition to find new pilots for the fleet, El knows this is her chance to escape. But her stepmother will never let her compete—and then she learns that her new friend, the one person she thought she could trust, was hiding a secret that changes everything between them.

It's a good thing she has a lot more friends than she thinks she does.

Exciting, fast-paced, and hopeful, this science fiction retelling of Cinderella is the first in the Rove City series.

Review: 
This book was just what I needed when I started it, it was perfect. I got this book through book sirens and it was described as a retelling of Cinderella crossed with sci-fi. I really wondered how the author would pull it off as it was very unusual, but I'm pleased to say that they have done an amazing job.

The reason why I couldn't give the book a full 5 stars was because towards the end I struggled to keep my concentration and I could feel myself going into a reading slump, maybe this was because it was a different style of writing that I'm use to or just not the genre of books that I needed in the moment. 

Throughout this book I felt really sorry for El because she was doing a full time job while cleaning and going round after her step mother and step sisters; doing the list of chores that they gave her. The way they treated her was also really horrible and what made me feel sorry for her, because they just made her life hell. Her step mother took every bit of wage that she earned as payment for looking after her since her father passed away and the bother that it caused them. The step sisters are a bit more understanding and we start to see this at the end of the book. They allow her to go on the flight simulator so she can practice her pilot skills, but the more she practices, the more her step sisters ranking increases. I think that's the only true reason why they allow her to go on the simulator.

There is a romance within this book just like there is within Cinderella. I love how El first met the prince and I loved their meetings ever since. It's just perfect and is setting up a true romance that I would love to read about. And for me to say that I'd love to read about this romance when I'm not really a romantic type of reader shows that this romance is just perfect for this book. There is not much romantic action such as kissing but a lot of meaningful moments in my eyes. I love how it develops and the different situations that they find themselves in.

El's personality is a bit complicated but that is to be expected; she is a servant, she is really self conscious and worries about the prince finding out about her social ranking and not talking to her anymore. But obviously as times goes on we discover what the prince thinks and does around El.

Another thing that is great within this book is El's character development, we see how she becomes more trusting in the people she works with which is lovely because that's how friends should act. I also love how she becomes more daring and goes out more to meet the prince in the middle of the night.

I feel that the story of this book develops the correct amount for it's length and that there is a lot of action for the amount of characters within the book. I loved how their was a hint of a love triangle but I'm pleased it never worked out with the other guy because I much prefer the prince. As most of us would.

I would definitely recommend this book if you love a Cinderella retelling and a hint of sci-fi. Also if you love character development and slight romance.

Favourite Character: El

Read: 02/05/20 - 05/05/20

4 stars out of 5

Written by Sammie