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ec_newman's review against another edition
3.0
I need to process before I write this. I'm not even sure about the rating I gave it.
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This is a strange book for me to review. In matters of concept and world, this book is pretty cool. A whole town filled with a twist on fairytales and characters, and a strange relationship with destiny and fate. The tattoos that mark the characters/types is also fun. Big fan of that.
The rest of it is just strange. You know how when you read a first time writer, or you write something early in your writing and it's like it exists in a vacuum? Like the adults are absent so much that it's unbelievable. Or the characters go so much with the plot and momentum that it's hard to believe that no one is stopping and thinking, 'hey, this is weird and I need a moment to process.' That's this book. The main character goes to Beau Rivage to find her parents' graves, etc. but after maybe a day or something, she's completely taken in by the citizens of the town and it's like her parents don't matter. She falls in love quickly (which I hate) even though. It's kind of twilight zone or dream-like in the sense that I can't quite buy the world and the circumstances. And that really threw me.
Also, the characters are less charming and more annoying. I continued reading because the concept of the story was enough to propel me forward, but in the end, I rolled my eyes a lot at the characters (insta-love or love in a a matter of days really isn't my thing).
So would I recommend it? Maybe. If you liked fairytale retellings and twists, liked the show Once Upon A Time, but darker and weren't bothered by the above story issues. Which when Once Upon A Time goes the direction of inconsistency and you're not bothered, then you might really like this book.
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This is a strange book for me to review. In matters of concept and world, this book is pretty cool. A whole town filled with a twist on fairytales and characters, and a strange relationship with destiny and fate. The tattoos that mark the characters/types is also fun. Big fan of that.
The rest of it is just strange. You know how when you read a first time writer, or you write something early in your writing and it's like it exists in a vacuum? Like the adults are absent so much that it's unbelievable. Or the characters go so much with the plot and momentum that it's hard to believe that no one is stopping and thinking, 'hey, this is weird and I need a moment to process.' That's this book. The main character goes to Beau Rivage to find her parents' graves, etc. but after maybe a day or something, she's completely taken in by the citizens of the town and it's like her parents don't matter. She falls in love quickly (which I hate) even though
Spoiler
it's toxicAlso, the characters are less charming and more annoying. I continued reading because the concept of the story was enough to propel me forward, but in the end, I rolled my eyes a lot at the characters (insta-love or love in a a matter of days really isn't my thing).
So would I recommend it? Maybe. If you liked fairytale retellings and twists, liked the show Once Upon A Time, but darker and weren't bothered by the above story issues. Which when Once Upon A Time goes the direction of inconsistency and you're not bothered, then you might really like this book.
rebelkiss's review against another edition
4.0
Except for the potential statutory rape that nearly happened, this book was awesome. BUT...the ending left me wondering what happened to one of the Romantics?
misspippireads's review against another edition
4.0
I always look forward to reading a new fairytale story. I knew Kill My Softly was rewritten tales and the font captured my interest. The bloody rose did not inspire me to read the book. If you're put off by the cover, open the book and start reading!
Sarah Cross weaves together several fairytales, both well-known and obscure. Those who live the life of a fairytale character are marked with a sign. Nothing happens until they turn sixteen. On their sixteenth birthday, their tales begin to take shape in their lives.
Cross focuses on only a few of the characters who live in Beau Rivage. The main character is Mirabelle who is discovering the history and stories in Beau Rivage. I was familiar with the stories Cross chose, but she also kept me on my reading toes. The reveal at the end was breathtaking.
So far, Kill My Softly is a standalone piece. Mirabelle's story (for the most part) is concluded. I still wonder about the other characters who came alive in this novel. I think Cross would have a fantastic Beau Rivage series if she shared the fates of her other fairytale characters. I anxiously await more stories!
Reviewed from a library copy.
Sarah Cross weaves together several fairytales, both well-known and obscure. Those who live the life of a fairytale character are marked with a sign. Nothing happens until they turn sixteen. On their sixteenth birthday, their tales begin to take shape in their lives.
Cross focuses on only a few of the characters who live in Beau Rivage. The main character is Mirabelle who is discovering the history and stories in Beau Rivage. I was familiar with the stories Cross chose, but she also kept me on my reading toes. The reveal at the end was breathtaking.
So far, Kill My Softly is a standalone piece. Mirabelle's story (for the most part) is concluded. I still wonder about the other characters who came alive in this novel. I think Cross would have a fantastic Beau Rivage series if she shared the fates of her other fairytale characters. I anxiously await more stories!
Reviewed from a library copy.
christiana's review against another edition
3.0
I think if this had been a 20something girl and this book an adult book, I would not be nearly as hard on it. There are some situations in this book I just found unbelievable for a 17 year old girl. I did like this book, but mostly in spite of myself. The main character was not all that likable, but I really enjoyed the twists and turns of this story as well as the interweaving of fairy tales.
Also, I hate this narrator. I don't know how it happened, but I ended up listening to this right after her reading of Anna and the French Kiss. I was not happy about this occurrence. She sighs during her speech and speaks very slowly. You've been warned.
Also, I hate this narrator. I don't know how it happened, but I ended up listening to this right after her reading of Anna and the French Kiss. I was not happy about this occurrence. She sighs during her speech and speaks very slowly. You've been warned.
sandeeisreading's review against another edition
3.0
MY REACTION AFTER READING THE BOOK:
It is actually mixed emotions for me on this book.
THE GIST
Mira (or Mirabelle) never knew who her parents were. She grew up with her two godmothers who loved her unconditionally although they were pretty strict about stuff and Mira has no clue why. One of her godmother's orders was never to come to Beau Rivage where her parents were buried. But still, Mira's curiousity and will to find her parent’s grave were far stronger than her wanting to obey her obedience to her godmothers.
Mira arrived at Beau Rivage and she realized things were not always as it seems. At Beau Rivage she meets Blue and his friends who seemed normal at first look but whom each have their own secrets up their sleeve.
The more Mira stayed in Beau Rivage, the more she finds out more about herself. She finds out that she was not so different from the people living here. Like Blue, Freddie and the others, she also have the Marchen mark which is a mark that identifies them which role they have to play in a certain fairy tale.
But the fairy tales that they are in doesn’t always end in happily ever after. Their futures are not theirs to make and Mira doesn’t want to accept that. She will do whatever it takes to find a way around her curse and make the choice on who she wants to be and who she wants to be with.
FIRST IMPRESSION
I was really looking forward to reading this book because of its synopsis from Goodreads. I always love a good fairytale spin-off and I was not disappointed. Although, I didn’t give it a perfect score for reasons I’ll be explaining later I would have to say that this book was a good one. It could have been better though.
CHARACTERS
Mira
I don’t know where to start with this girl. Mira actually started out okay but as the story progresses she’ll really get to your nerves even to the tiniest neuron or cell or whatever!
That was what I looked like when Mira was getting pretty upsetting.
That was what I wanted to do when she was being so unbelievable stupid and immature!
I have tons of negative things to say about Mira so I won’t even elaborate on her because she was the type of character I hated the most. I didn’t like Bella or Nora but Mira was the worst! Oh my goodness. She made it to the top of my “HATED HEROINE” list. All you have to know about Mira is that she was the female lead who is not who I thought she was. I thought she was nice and all but she was a deceiver and a user. I hated her. PERIOD
Blue
Oh Blue! Now he is a character that everyone will like. Seriously, he looks like a tough cookie on the outside but really this guy has something heavy on his back. He might have been an a**hole to Mira at first but that was because he cares. Mira on the other hand was just plain stupid. Blue may not have been a Prince Charming Somnolent or whatever but I think he would have proven enough to me to make me think he deserved to be one. If Blue was an anime character, he’ll probably look something like this:
Blue, you deserved someone better than Mira!
Felix
Felix was Blue’s brother and the guy who Mira was crazy in love with. He was nice and all but like Blue he has his secrets. I don’t really blame him. It was in their nature. I won’t tell you what it is though because Blue’s and Felix’s curse to me is what made me love this book. Felix was nice and all but hell he was still an ass to me.
FREDDIE, VIV, JEWEL, LAYLA and RAFE
They are Blue’s friends and eventually became Mira’s too. They were all cursed just like the rest of them. Freddie was destined to save a princess (I won’t tell who but I guess it is pretty obvious). Freddie was a sweetheart but all the animals following him around was damn creepy. Viv was the Snow White Somnolent. She has a stepmother who hated her just like in the original ones and a weird relationship with her gardener. Jewel vomits stuff and based on her name you’ll know what kind of things she throws up. She treats it as a good thing though because her sister was cursed with the same thing only she wasn’t throwing up gems like Jewel but some rather nasty stuff I won’t even mention. Lastly, there’s Layla and Rafe. Rafe was a womanizer and Layla can’t stand him but in the event that Rafe becomes the Beast, it’s Layla’s responsibility to teach him how to love and all that stuff.
MIRA + (BLUE or FELIX or FREDDIE) = SHE DOESN’T DESERVE ANY OF THEM
Clearly, Mira’s way too immature to end up with any of these guys. They are actually great especially Blue and I think he deserves someone better than a girl who buys a lingerie for a guy he just met. It made me want to slap her in the face left and right so that she’ll wake up from her madness. Freddie has been a good guy basically but all Mira does to him was shout at him or be mad at him and really, he doesn’t deserve her either. As for Felix, although he is what he is, I don’t like Mira for her. I don’t want her to end up with anybody because she’s pathetic.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“I keep telling myself that love isn’t something that destroys you. Because I don’t want to believe that it is. That it has to be. But every relationship I’ve been in has ended in disaster. So it feels like... love destroys you. Like that’s all it does.”
“Because, if you could love someone, and keep loving them, without being loved back . . . then that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.”
HIGHLIGHTS
- The world building was just awesome. I was surreal, magical and enchanting. Kill me softly was actually based on the original Grimm Fairy Tales the story is quite twisted. It being twisted the right way was what made me like the book.
- The storytelling was superb. Good thing it was in a third person POV because if it was on Mira’s POV I would have shelved this book a long time ago.
- It was moderately paced. Although I like fast paced book, I think it was only proper that Ms. Cross didn’t hurried the pace of the book because the whole feel of uncovering the curses gradually made me understand what was happening better.
- Blue was an outstanding character. I liked him from start to finish.
- This book was based on the Grimm’s Fairy Tale but still I thought it was original and well conceptualized.
FINAL WORDS
I seriously would have wanted to give this book more than just a 3 but I couldn’t. I liked the concept, the vibe, the pace of this book but all of that goes tumbling down the drain because of the main character. And not only that I also felt that the romance part of the book was a little forced. I didn’t really feel that much connection with Blue and Mira because Mira has been drooling over Felix for almost the entire book until just nearly the end of the book. It didn’t connect right with me.
This book has tons of potential. I’ve read reviews on this book too and most of us have almost the same comments about Mira. She was an imbecile. I just hope that the main character was way better than her so I could have probably enjoyed this book more.
I would recommend this book to people who’d want a different taste of faeries and fairy tales. It was a good read but it wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be when I first received the book. I was slightly disappointed. I will however look forward to more of Ms Cross’ work. She has so much talent in creating worlds beyond imagination and I think she has a lot more in store for us.
RATING
It is actually mixed emotions for me on this book.
THE GIST
Mira (or Mirabelle) never knew who her parents were. She grew up with her two godmothers who loved her unconditionally although they were pretty strict about stuff and Mira has no clue why. One of her godmother's orders was never to come to Beau Rivage where her parents were buried. But still, Mira's curiousity and will to find her parent’s grave were far stronger than her wanting to obey her obedience to her godmothers.
Mira arrived at Beau Rivage and she realized things were not always as it seems. At Beau Rivage she meets Blue and his friends who seemed normal at first look but whom each have their own secrets up their sleeve.
The more Mira stayed in Beau Rivage, the more she finds out more about herself. She finds out that she was not so different from the people living here. Like Blue, Freddie and the others, she also have the Marchen mark which is a mark that identifies them which role they have to play in a certain fairy tale.
But the fairy tales that they are in doesn’t always end in happily ever after. Their futures are not theirs to make and Mira doesn’t want to accept that. She will do whatever it takes to find a way around her curse and make the choice on who she wants to be and who she wants to be with.
FIRST IMPRESSION
I was really looking forward to reading this book because of its synopsis from Goodreads. I always love a good fairytale spin-off and I was not disappointed. Although, I didn’t give it a perfect score for reasons I’ll be explaining later I would have to say that this book was a good one. It could have been better though.
CHARACTERS
Mira
I don’t know where to start with this girl. Mira actually started out okay but as the story progresses she’ll really get to your nerves even to the tiniest neuron or cell or whatever!
That was what I looked like when Mira was getting pretty upsetting.
That was what I wanted to do when she was being so unbelievable stupid and immature!
I have tons of negative things to say about Mira so I won’t even elaborate on her because she was the type of character I hated the most. I didn’t like Bella or Nora but Mira was the worst! Oh my goodness. She made it to the top of my “HATED HEROINE” list. All you have to know about Mira is that she was the female lead who is not who I thought she was. I thought she was nice and all but she was a deceiver and a user. I hated her. PERIOD
Blue
Oh Blue! Now he is a character that everyone will like. Seriously, he looks like a tough cookie on the outside but really this guy has something heavy on his back. He might have been an a**hole to Mira at first but that was because he cares. Mira on the other hand was just plain stupid. Blue may not have been a Prince Charming Somnolent or whatever but I think he would have proven enough to me to make me think he deserved to be one. If Blue was an anime character, he’ll probably look something like this:
Blue, you deserved someone better than Mira!
Felix
Felix was Blue’s brother and the guy who Mira was crazy in love with. He was nice and all but like Blue he has his secrets. I don’t really blame him. It was in their nature. I won’t tell you what it is though because Blue’s and Felix’s curse to me is what made me love this book. Felix was nice and all but hell he was still an ass to me.
FREDDIE, VIV, JEWEL, LAYLA and RAFE
They are Blue’s friends and eventually became Mira’s too. They were all cursed just like the rest of them. Freddie was destined to save a princess (I won’t tell who but I guess it is pretty obvious). Freddie was a sweetheart but all the animals following him around was damn creepy. Viv was the Snow White Somnolent. She has a stepmother who hated her just like in the original ones and a weird relationship with her gardener. Jewel vomits stuff and based on her name you’ll know what kind of things she throws up. She treats it as a good thing though because her sister was cursed with the same thing only she wasn’t throwing up gems like Jewel but some rather nasty stuff I won’t even mention. Lastly, there’s Layla and Rafe. Rafe was a womanizer and Layla can’t stand him but in the event that Rafe becomes the Beast, it’s Layla’s responsibility to teach him how to love and all that stuff.
MIRA + (BLUE or FELIX or FREDDIE) = SHE DOESN’T DESERVE ANY OF THEM
Clearly, Mira’s way too immature to end up with any of these guys. They are actually great especially Blue and I think he deserves someone better than a girl who buys a lingerie for a guy he just met. It made me want to slap her in the face left and right so that she’ll wake up from her madness. Freddie has been a good guy basically but all Mira does to him was shout at him or be mad at him and really, he doesn’t deserve her either. As for Felix, although he is what he is, I don’t like Mira for her. I don’t want her to end up with anybody because she’s pathetic.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“I keep telling myself that love isn’t something that destroys you. Because I don’t want to believe that it is. That it has to be. But every relationship I’ve been in has ended in disaster. So it feels like... love destroys you. Like that’s all it does.”
“Because, if you could love someone, and keep loving them, without being loved back . . . then that love had to be real. It hurt too much to be anything else.”
HIGHLIGHTS
- The world building was just awesome. I was surreal, magical and enchanting. Kill me softly was actually based on the original Grimm Fairy Tales the story is quite twisted. It being twisted the right way was what made me like the book.
- The storytelling was superb. Good thing it was in a third person POV because if it was on Mira’s POV I would have shelved this book a long time ago.
- It was moderately paced. Although I like fast paced book, I think it was only proper that Ms. Cross didn’t hurried the pace of the book because the whole feel of uncovering the curses gradually made me understand what was happening better.
- Blue was an outstanding character. I liked him from start to finish.
- This book was based on the Grimm’s Fairy Tale but still I thought it was original and well conceptualized.
FINAL WORDS
I seriously would have wanted to give this book more than just a 3 but I couldn’t. I liked the concept, the vibe, the pace of this book but all of that goes tumbling down the drain because of the main character. And not only that I also felt that the romance part of the book was a little forced. I didn’t really feel that much connection with Blue and Mira because Mira has been drooling over Felix for almost the entire book until just nearly the end of the book. It didn’t connect right with me.
This book has tons of potential. I’ve read reviews on this book too and most of us have almost the same comments about Mira. She was an imbecile. I just hope that the main character was way better than her so I could have probably enjoyed this book more.
I would recommend this book to people who’d want a different taste of faeries and fairy tales. It was a good read but it wasn’t as great as I hoped it would be when I first received the book. I was slightly disappointed. I will however look forward to more of Ms Cross’ work. She has so much talent in creating worlds beyond imagination and I think she has a lot more in store for us.
RATING
alliehwilliams's review against another edition
3.0
Love, love, love the way Sarah Cross writes. She has a talent for being descriptive without laying it on too thick and for creating an intriguing, original world while still being faithful to the original tales (to a point...) I really, really, REALLY wanted to shake Mirabelle who at times was doing the TSTL thing a bit too much for my tastes but I tried to give her a pass due to being so sheltered and somewhat backwards. This book had better be the first in a series because there are some serious loose ends that need to be tied up. I will be back for #2 if so...hopefully it will be Layla's story.
brisbookreviews's review against another edition
4.0
Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross is about a fifteen year-old named Mirabelle. Living with her overprotective Godmothers, Mirabelle's past has always been an unexplained secret. Desperate to find out about any detail of her past and her parents, Mirabele runs away to Beau Rivage, her birthplace, and discovers more about herself and the town than she never could have imagined.
So, I have to say right away while reading the first half of Kill Me Softly I kept thinking "ooh..i love this!" "ooh this is so good!" but somehow towards the last half my interested and excitement sort of fizzled away. I really wasnt a big fan of Mirabelle's character, she just didnt win me over. The other characters in the book were fantastic and I found myself wishing the book were more about them. (I always try to stay as spoiler free as possible so Im going to skip other characters names lol) I really did enjoy Kill Me Softly, it was refreshing, interesting and witty.
4 out of 5 stars
Special thanks to NetGalley and Egmont USA for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
So, I have to say right away while reading the first half of Kill Me Softly I kept thinking "ooh..i love this!" "ooh this is so good!" but somehow towards the last half my interested and excitement sort of fizzled away. I really wasnt a big fan of Mirabelle's character, she just didnt win me over. The other characters in the book were fantastic and I found myself wishing the book were more about them. (I always try to stay as spoiler free as possible so Im going to skip other characters names lol) I really did enjoy Kill Me Softly, it was refreshing, interesting and witty.
4 out of 5 stars
Special thanks to NetGalley and Egmont USA for providing an e-galley in exchange for an honest review.
fyrekatz's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked the story of this and will be reading the second book soon... got it from Netgalley! :)
dez_rider's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
bevs5482's review against another edition
3.0
I liked this book for the most part. It was interesting to see all the different fairy tale characters before they fulfill their roles! Parts of the story really seemed to drag by. I didn't always like the immaturity of some of the characters but over all an enjoyable book.