TBR Challenge: Adria Rose - Spacer's Cinderella

A broken shoe. A forbidden ball. A sexy cyborg with a secret.
Born on an abandoned colony barely held together by sealant tape and hope, Aurora Sato is at the very bottom of the social pecking order. Hard work and brains got her into a coveted spot in the quadrant’s top university… But her new supervisor is a woman who's not about to let an upstart like Aurora get anything close to a break.
And a break is exactly what Aurora needs right now. Her home colony is dying and nobody is in any rush to save it or her family. Aurora’s research project is their last hope, but only if she can complete it in time — an impossible task.
One night out is all she’ll allow herself. One night to forget her troubles. She never expects to meet a man who dazzles all her senses. Magnus Thorne is a battle-hardened, ruthless cyborg. Rich, respected and powerful, he’s too much for innocent Aurora. For one magical night he makes her feel like a princess, awakening a longing she doesn’t know how to quell.
But Aurora is in more danger than she realizes. And Magnus isn’t about to let her face it alone, no matter how hard she tries to shut him out.
He's determined to break every rule to save her from ruin. But will she trust him enough to let him?

Comment: We're back to another TBR Challenge post. One month apart seems to be enough time but when it comes to the challenge it feels as if only last week I was writing about the previous entry! 

Anyway, for March the theme is Not in Kansas Anymore and what I immediately thought of was of a place which isn't usual, and my mind went to science fiction. I got his book after seeing very positive grades out there and I'm quite glad I chose it, since the story is not only set up in space - very unusual - but the heroine is actually at a place not her homeland and had to adapt.

Aurora Sato is working on planet Calliope with a scholarship, so she can use the university's equipment and resources to develop her terraforming project, which she hopes to finish successfully and, then, help her home planet Tigris, which will run out of breathable air soon, and everyone there will be killed. She knows practically everyone in the planet has more and better means, and if not for her professional work and her teaching and her scholarship, she would not be able to afford to stay. 

Everything changes when her mentor and fellow professor Abe is accused of hiding information and is expelled. With him goes the sympathy of the university and the person in charge seems to want her to fail. At the same time she meets Magnus and they have an instant attraction. He is also a teacher at the university and Aurora feels their change is gone when she applies to a project conducted by him and his team, but the more they try to keep the distance, the more they find out things about one another that makes them like each other even more. Will there be any hope for them? Will Aurora be able to finish her project and save her family?

Until a certain point in more than half way through the story I was confident I'd give this story five stars. I was that engaged, that dedicated and that seduced by the world and the characters. Unfortunately, around the 70% mark things started to drag a little, a few situations weren't as incisive anymore, in my opinion, and I felt the plot lost some urgency. Nevertheless, as a whole, this was extremely appealing to me and I hope the author will publish more stories in the future, I might be interested in checking them out.

The setting of this novel is on a planet where money and influence matter. The university is recognized for its groundbreaking work and projects and it becomes obvious that society expectations determine some people have more or better opportunities than others. If things don't work out or when contracts end, people can be easily shipped out back home or into places which aren't as visible. The idea of this set up isn't much of a novelty in the world of romantic stories, but I felt the author developed the world building enough to make me eager to see how well Aurora would succeed.

In fact, a major element that made me love this book was Aurora herself and, in particular, the competence she demonstrated and how clever and professional she was at work, including her work ethics. A huge part of the story is set on how "goody two shoes" Aurora is for the most part, although one could say her attraction to Magnus and the fact they maintain a relationship while they both work in the same project should not happen. Despite this, I had the feeling all the elements were working out well, that the author had thought about a way to make the characters larger than life and I was rooting for their success.

As expected, especially considering the title, there is a difference in status between Magnus and Aurora but to me their differences were just a romantic reason for why they might become a couple. In reality, they have a lot in common, I really liked how they were both teachers and smart and a lot of the things they had in common (more than the physical attraction) were mental, in the sense that they matched each other and I could accept them as a functional couple at almost all levels. The money issues or the social hierarchy differences were obvious but to me never an impediment to their relationship.

A lot of the conflict in the story is Aurora's need to have a successful project and when certain problems arise, I was as nervous as if it was my own work, because of how important that was to Aurora. I also liked that, when possible, Magnus helped and apart from a few glitches, his help was always on point and without a price, which some might see as prepotence but which to me felt like friendly help. It somehow made sense to me and I never got the icky feeling. I also would say that the confirmation of their mutual acceptance of how much the other person meant, romantically, was delayed by this but ultimately an obstacle they overcame when love and need proved stronger.

As I've said, I was really enjoying this story a lot until a certain point, where a few situations seemed to drag, some more dramatic scenes were exaggerated,perhaps for plot reasons, I also had the feeling a few things were being repetitive even if in different settings, and I felt the urgency, the vibe let's call it that, started to be lost. the story remained interesting but to me it felt as if the cliches one would expect in these types of stories seemed more glaring and not as easily interwoven into the main story. At that moment, I could more easily put the book aside if I had to whereas before I wanted to read non stop.

Despite this, I loved the space setting, I loved the relationship dynamics and I liked the end, although I feel a few aspects weren't as developed as I feel they deserved. The bad guys are punished, the "cinderella" elements were cute and not over the top, there's a HEA and a few secondary characters which I liked seeing interacting with the main ones. All in all, this was a successful read to me, perhaps not perfect as I felt like it would be in the beginning, but I can understand, and now agree with, the positive opinions of other readers.

Grade: 8/10