Kill Me SoftlyPublisher: Egmont USA, 2012Genre: YA Fairy Tales
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.
Mirabelle is tired of her 'secret childhood,' she wants to return to the place where her parents died, the place of her birth, the place her godmothers have forbidden her from going. A week before the sixteenth birthday she runs away to Beau Rivage, where people are not what they seem and living a fairy tale life is a curse. Mira is part of it too, but she refuses to give up and simply accept her destiny. Curses, villains, knights, and damsels in distress, Kill Me Softly will enchant you with this very original twist to the original fairy tales we all know and love.
Sarah Cross brings to light the true dark nature of the original fairy tales. Her creativeness absolutely blew my mind, and I was immersed in a world where fairy tales do come true but you really wouldn't want them to. When Mirabelle runs away from home, the last thing she expects is to find out her life is a fairy tale and she's destined for something she doesn't really want. I liked Mira's attitude towards this. She declares that she won't just accept her fairy tale, and she actively looks for ways of changing her fate. However she was also very naïve about other things. Like she didn't think twice about accepting Felix's offer of staying at the Dreams Hotel for free, and silly enough she's in love with him the day after. I thought this could have been part of Felix's curse magic, but that made no sense because Mira resists Blue and he has the same curse. Also, later on, she also just sort of accepts the whole fairy tale curse thing easily. I was expecting either a freak out session or something, but she takes it in stride and that's it.
All the characters fit so well with the original fairy tales, yet they were unique at the same time. They lead these sort of tragic lives because they already know how their stories end, but they try to make the best of them. The idea of the curses and the categories for each one was very interesting. I can even see a guide being made about the different curses and categories, like the one in the novel. I was hoping though to see more of the curses fulfilled, not just presented. Blue's curse kept me on edge the entire book because we get these flashbacks to the thing he's done that he's hiding. The hiding bit is because of the curse, so be patient when things aren't being explained. It's not because they don't want to, it's because of the curse! It all just added to the mystery and kept me turning page after page. And then knowing the curse was even worse, because really of all the horrible curses out there, his is definitely the most terrible. Blue is so sweet, all the things he does for Mira, and the incredible self-control he has to have around her, made him one of my favorite characters. And the two of them together are just hilarious with their love/hate banter.
Kill Me Softly is definitely the perfect blend of fairy tales with an added touch of mystery, suspense, and romance. This is not the usual happily ever after! I tell you know, I stood up and started pacing at 3am while reading the ending because I could not just stay still while all of that happened! And really the entire novel kept me on my toes. This looks to be a standalone novel, but I really hope Sarah Cross writes more about this amazing world she's created and these wonderful characters she's brought to life!
*I received this book via Netgalley from the publisher*
Favorite Quotes:
~Wishing to be less beautiful~
"You look beautiful," the mirror said. "Exquisite."
The mirror…spoke? Mira squinted to see if there was a speaker box attached. Like…maybe you could buy a mirror that came with preset phrases: press a button and it would say, "You're gorgeous!"
But Viv seemed upset, not flattered. She swore and yanked the pins from her hair, black waves spilling to her shoulders, then flipped her head upside down and mussed her hair with her hands. "Worse?" she asked with a pinched look on her face.
"Still beautiful," the mirror replied. "More beautiful than she is."
~A sword is more heroic~
"How many of these do you have?"
"Swords?" Just one. It's in the trunk."
"The trunk?"
"You never know when you might drive past a house covered in briars. Where a princess is sleeping. It's good to have something to hack through them. So you can rescue her."
"Wouldn't a hatchet work better?"
"A sword is more heroic," Freddie mumbled.
~A naked blade~
A naked blade hid nothing, feared nothing. She wanted to be like that. Because that was how you found yourself, created yourself. You didn't hide. You didn't wait for the perfect moment to settle on you like a butterfly, like magic. You went out and made magic. Made your own wishes come true.
