Author: Sarah Cross
Author Info: Website / Twitter / Goodreads
Pub Date: April 10, 2012
Publisher: Egmont USA
Format: hardcover
Pages: 336
Purchase: Amazon / Barnes and Noble
Summary:
Mirabelle's past is shrouded in secrecy, from her parents' tragic deaths to her guardians' half-truths about why she can't return to her birthplace, Beau Rivage. Desperate to see the town, Mira runs away a week before her sixteenth birthday—and discovers a world she never could have imagined.
In Beau Rivage, nothing is what it seems—the strangely pale girl with a morbid interest in apples, the obnoxious playboy who's a beast to everyone he meets, and the chivalrous guy who has a thing for damsels in distress. Here, fairy tales come to life, curses are awakened, and ancient stories are played out again and again.
But fairy tales aren't pretty things, and they don't always end in happily ever after. Mira has a role to play, a fairy tale destiny to embrace or resist. As she struggles to take control of her fate, Mira is drawn into the lives of two brothers with fairy tale curses of their own . . . brothers who share a dark secret. And she'll find that love, just like fairy tales, can have sharp edges and hidden thorns.
Review:
I’m a huge fan of fairytale retellings, especially when they
take on the dark overtone of the originals. Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross
definitely had that going on for it. I liked the story itself, the idea that
these teenagers were trapped in these roles of the fairytale characters.
Destined to play them out whether they want to or not. Every time the story
finished it would be played again by the next generation, the trigger that
causes sleeping beauty to fall asleep or snow white to comatose being different
each time. The story sounds intriguing right. I’m still waiting for someone to
mention Cape O’ Rushes but this one has donkey skin which is one of my
favorites.
I didn’t connect to the story as much as I would have liked
to mainly because the main character was, well a brat. Mirabelle or Mira for
short was the kind of character I just wanted to smack. I have a hard time with characters that will
instantly trust person A but not person B, just because. She also took her
attitude a little too far and I kept thinking why are you so mean. I couldn’t
get past some Mirabelle’s selfishness and refusal to see the reality of
situations. At the same time she has been locked away by her over protective
“godmothers” and so I think it’s understandable that she might not have developed
the best ability to deal with life situations. Plus when she finds out she is
part of this weird world it can be shocking. So I tried and towards the end I
think I liked her a little better but still wasn’t feeling the love I was expecting.
As much as I was irritated with the main character, I really
enjoyed the other characters in the story that I it didn’t matter. Even the villains
because when you think about it they weren’t really villains by choice it was
just their role. You never know how things are going to exactly play out. I
liked that Felix stuck with his role and Blue kind of fought against it. You
can only fight so hard though because no matter what they do, they have a role
to play. I loved how so many mysteries and twist revolved around all of the
characters it made for a great well rounded plot.
I would love to see companion novels that revolve around
some of the other characters.