Kill Me Softly by Sarah CrossPublication Date: April 10, 2012
Page Count: 336
Published by: EgmontUSA
Source: Borrowed From Library
Synopsis From Goodreads:
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.
I'm going to be really honest and say that this book had a shit ton of problems. Did I enjoy reading it? Definitely, yes. But I also had to overlook a lot of the issues I had with it to enjoy it. Did I mention there were a lot of problems with this book? I feel bad that I had such high hopes for this book and I ended up being disappointed with it.
Let me start by saying that I really liked the writing and the creativity of the story. I thought it was very original and a tad bit quirky. But the details are what really brought the book down in my mind.
The book started off great, and at first I thought Mira was an intelligent 15 year old who wanted answers about her life. After not getting background info from her overprotective godmothers, Mira runs away to the small town where she was born hoping to learn more. But the town of Beau Rivage is far from normal. It is literally a fairytale town. Mira is completely clueless when she arrives,and must rely on the help of strangers. Unfortunately, she meets 2 brothers and is immediately thrust between them as they fight over her - Felix wants her to stay so he can 'help' her, but Blue wants her to leave. NOW.
The story gets even stranger when Mira meets Blue's friends. It takes a while, but Mira finally figures out that they are all characters from fairytales - and they are all cursed to live out the fairytales which they are from. Mira learns that she is also a character that is destined to live out a fairytale. Sounds weird, I know, but it all seemed so normal to them that it almost started to feel normal to me.
I had quite a few problems with this book though. We are instantly hit with a love triangle and insta-love. Like BAM with a sledgehammer, head over heals insta-love between Mira and Felix. Completely inappropriate because Felix is 21 and Mira is only 15! Can we talk about how illegal this is in all 50 states? Inappropriate behavior continuously overtakes common sense, and we get Mira in a sexy nightgown strutting herself through a casino while trying to find Felix to seduce him. No 15 year old would be allowed on the gaming floor of a casino, so this was just a lame attempt to show how far Mira was willing to go to get her man, whom she met 2 seconds ago and barely knows. Blue attempts to tell her how stupid she is and comes to her rescue about a million times, and even saves her from Felix. But Mira refuses to believe that she is in danger, even when Blue tells her YOU WILL DIE if you don't leave. What a stupid and selfish little girl. I don't know why Blue even bothered with warning her about his brother or why he tried to get her away from his brother. Oh wait, I DO know why. Blue told Mira it was because HE saw her first. And his brother, Felix, always wants what Blue has.
I really hate to blast a book because it offends my morals, but this book just had so much inappropriateness going on that it is hard to overlook. However, I really did like the writing. I thought the idea of a land of fairytales right in the middle of ordinary society was clever and very creative. I liked the secondary characters - fairytale characters - and how they all interacted with each other, even though they knew what their futures held. I enjoyed learning about how the curses came to be, and the 'gifts' that fairies can bestow to lessen the curses. I thought that the birthmarks that all of the characters have was really different.
I really wanted to love this book. There was so much promise, but it didn't live up to my expectations. I didn't hate all of it, but I didn't love all of it either. I wasn't able to connect with or relate to any of the characters. The ending was unbelievable and just so-so, and some of the plot lines were left hanging.
Kill Me Softly is definitely a book that I would not recommend. Even if it is a creative story, it still has so many issues that I can't imagine telling anyone it's good enough to spend (or waste) their time on.
2.5 of 5 stars
Sibling triangles usually bother me a lot too. I never like Mira and Felix (who would?), but I think the insta-love might have been because he was a romantic and made to seduce people. I also thought it was really annoying that she wouldn't listen to ANYONE when they told her to stay away. It's part of the reason I didn't love it as much as I thought I would, even though I really liked it.
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