Book Review: Kill Me Softly

Kill Me Softly

By: Sarah Cross

Published By: EgmontUSA

Publication Date: April 10, 2012

Page Count: 331

Buy it at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound

Source: ARC Kindly Provided by Publisher via NetGalley

Audience: Young Adult - Fantasy

This was a really enjoyable look at fairy tales, although a few things niggled me about it. 

Mira is nearly 16, and all her life she has been cared for by her two godmothers. As her birthday approaches she is planning a getaway though, because she feels a need to visit her parents' graves, which she has reason to believe rest in Beau Rivage - a town she has been forbidden from visiting. So she does what any teenager would... spends 9 months emailing herself love letters from a fictional boyfriend in San Francisco and then disappears off in the other direction. Niggle number one:  she has no idea what she is doing in Beau Rivage when she gets there despite 9 months of careful plotting. 

Mira spends some time just hanging out in diners and eventually meets a bunch of interesting young people, including Blue - who is kind of mean but not at the same time. Mira hangs out with them and Blue's brother, Felix, who is just dreamy and they start trying to help her find her parents' graves. As Mira spends more time with them, she realizes something funny is going on, and that they all seem to have bizarre birth marks, just like hers...

I really did like this idea about modern people having links back to fairy tales through curses that they would end up fulfilling eventually. I liked how the original Grimm fairy tales were woven into the cast of friends that Mira makes, and in particular, the curses that Blue and Felix were afflicted with were very interesting. It does take time to work out exactly what is going on though, as there were a number of characters to deal with and I did keep confusing people for a while. I loved the Viv/Henley interplay (Snow White & the Huntsman) and also Layla/Rafe (Beauty & the Beast), and I think it would be great to read a little more about how their curses play out in the future.  

Niggle number two: Mira is kind of easy; she has barely spent two days with Felix before she's fairly locked into a relationship where they live together. Now that could partly be down to a curse, but I thought it was a little silly. The one thing that you can be pleased about is that she doesn't completely throw herself at him, although it does look worrying for a moment or two! I did really like Blue though. He was so clearly the tortured hero of the book, and he was a very interesting and lovable character. Mira clearly thought so too, but it did take her a while to realize what was obvious.

All in all, this was a really enjoyable book and I think that fans of author Alex Flinn's fractured fairy tales would be delighted to read this story. The niggles were minor really and the story was a lot of fun.

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.