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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Actual Rating: 1.5. stars
Fairytale re-tellings are pretty awesome, and so when I read the plot summary of this novel I thought it sounded cool partly because it plays to the darker side of fairy-tales. It doesn’t hurt that the cover is pretty. Unfortunately, I had a rather tumultuous reading experience with it. Kill Me Softly had the potential to be a really refreshing, dark take on different fairy-tales but it missed the mark with its intense focus on flimsy romance and fairly weak writing. There were moments that were very interesting, but they were generally overshadowed.
Read my full review on Turning Pages.
Fairytale re-tellings are pretty awesome, and so when I read the plot summary of this novel I thought it sounded cool partly because it plays to the darker side of fairy-tales. It doesn’t hurt that the cover is pretty. Unfortunately, I had a rather tumultuous reading experience with it. Kill Me Softly had the potential to be a really refreshing, dark take on different fairy-tales but it missed the mark with its intense focus on flimsy romance and fairly weak writing. There were moments that were very interesting, but they were generally overshadowed.
Read my full review on Turning Pages.
As posted on TheReaderBee.com
I really adore a good fairy tale retelling, and lucky for me the genre seems to be really popular at the moment. A blogger friend of mine turned me on to Kill Me Softly, and I’m so glad I decided to give it a read. It definitely did not disappoint!
Mirabelle knows very little of her past life, thanks to her overprotective guardians. All she knows is that her parents died long ago, and are buried in a town named Beau Rivage, a place Mira is forbidden to visit. A week before her 16th birthday, Mira does the unthinkable and runs away to Beau Rivage, and there discovers a world she never, ever would have thought existed. In Beau Rivage everyone has a story, and with the help of a few new friends, Mira will discover just what her story is.
Mirabelle was a very interesting, determined character. She wanted to find out about her past life, and she set out to do exactly that. She didn’t always make the best choices, but she went after what she wanted, and found out about her life. I caught on to Mira’s story fairly early in the book, but was still intrigued enough by it to keep reading on.
The love interest in the story is between two brothers, Blue and Felix. I definitely picked a team early in the book, and stayed true to Blue until the end. The brother’s story is definitely mysterious, and the wait to find out just exactly what happened to them was agonizing. The secondary characters in the book were well written as well. While we do get a good bit of back story on each character, I still found myself wanting to know more about each character. If the author ever decided to give each character their own book, I would definitely read each and every one.
The book was very well paced, and flowed together nicely. I love that the storyline didn’t just center around one particular fairy tale. Every person had their own tale, and each one was interesting. All of my favorite characters wrapped up nicely in one book. Thankfully, there was not a cliffhanger ending at the end of the book. However, there were a few things that I felt were left unresolved, things that left me very curious.
Overall, I thought this book was great. The characters are intriguing and the storyline is highly addictive. If you’re into to fairy tale retellings, you should definitely check out Kill Me Softly. I’m really looking forward to reading more by this author in the future.
Thank you Kathy at A Glass of Wine for telling me about this book!
I really adore a good fairy tale retelling, and lucky for me the genre seems to be really popular at the moment. A blogger friend of mine turned me on to Kill Me Softly, and I’m so glad I decided to give it a read. It definitely did not disappoint!
Mirabelle knows very little of her past life, thanks to her overprotective guardians. All she knows is that her parents died long ago, and are buried in a town named Beau Rivage, a place Mira is forbidden to visit. A week before her 16th birthday, Mira does the unthinkable and runs away to Beau Rivage, and there discovers a world she never, ever would have thought existed. In Beau Rivage everyone has a story, and with the help of a few new friends, Mira will discover just what her story is.
Mirabelle was a very interesting, determined character. She wanted to find out about her past life, and she set out to do exactly that. She didn’t always make the best choices, but she went after what she wanted, and found out about her life. I caught on to Mira’s story fairly early in the book, but was still intrigued enough by it to keep reading on.
The love interest in the story is between two brothers, Blue and Felix. I definitely picked a team early in the book, and stayed true to Blue until the end. The brother’s story is definitely mysterious, and the wait to find out just exactly what happened to them was agonizing. The secondary characters in the book were well written as well. While we do get a good bit of back story on each character, I still found myself wanting to know more about each character. If the author ever decided to give each character their own book, I would definitely read each and every one.
The book was very well paced, and flowed together nicely. I love that the storyline didn’t just center around one particular fairy tale. Every person had their own tale, and each one was interesting. All of my favorite characters wrapped up nicely in one book. Thankfully, there was not a cliffhanger ending at the end of the book. However, there were a few things that I felt were left unresolved, things that left me very curious.
Overall, I thought this book was great. The characters are intriguing and the storyline is highly addictive. If you’re into to fairy tale retellings, you should definitely check out Kill Me Softly. I’m really looking forward to reading more by this author in the future.
Thank you Kathy at A Glass of Wine for telling me about this book!
GoodReads Synopsis: 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.
My Thoughts: I thought this was an incredibly clever book. Cross was able to create a world where fairy tales are played out in each generation…and we aren’t talking the Disney sanitized version of the fairy tales, and they are grim. As these tales are played out in each generation they are tweaked enough to accommodate the fact that it’s the 21st century. For example, Mira is walking through Beau Rivage with her friends when she notices two girls and as something catches her eye she sees both these girls have bandaged feet. She deduces that these are Cinderella’s step-sisters because in the original version of the story the sisters cut toes off their feet to try and fit into the glass slipper. I’ve never read the original Grimm’s tales, and this book, more than any other I have read, makes me want to do just that.
There was the usual bit of “instant love”…but in this case, I think it helped the storyline with Felix. Felix’s curse is as a romantic, in other words women are supposed to fall head over heels in love with him. Maybe Mirabelle did it a little faster than most, but it helped the story along. And let’s be honest…the fairy tales is where I think the whole “instant love” thing originates from.
The other characters are just fun. Did you ever wonder what Beast was like before he was cursed and became Beast? What about Prince Charming? I loved Cross’s interpretation of these characters before their curses kick in. As much as I complain about stories becoming series…I would love to see more from Cross along this line or with these characters. This book, “Kill Me Softly”, easily ranks as a new favorite of mine!
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.
My Thoughts: I thought this was an incredibly clever book. Cross was able to create a world where fairy tales are played out in each generation…and we aren’t talking the Disney sanitized version of the fairy tales, and they are grim. As these tales are played out in each generation they are tweaked enough to accommodate the fact that it’s the 21st century. For example, Mira is walking through Beau Rivage with her friends when she notices two girls and as something catches her eye she sees both these girls have bandaged feet. She deduces that these are Cinderella’s step-sisters because in the original version of the story the sisters cut toes off their feet to try and fit into the glass slipper. I’ve never read the original Grimm’s tales, and this book, more than any other I have read, makes me want to do just that.
There was the usual bit of “instant love”…but in this case, I think it helped the storyline with Felix. Felix’s curse is as a romantic, in other words women are supposed to fall head over heels in love with him. Maybe Mirabelle did it a little faster than most, but it helped the story along. And let’s be honest…the fairy tales is where I think the whole “instant love” thing originates from.
The other characters are just fun. Did you ever wonder what Beast was like before he was cursed and became Beast? What about Prince Charming? I loved Cross’s interpretation of these characters before their curses kick in. As much as I complain about stories becoming series…I would love to see more from Cross along this line or with these characters. This book, “Kill Me Softly”, easily ranks as a new favorite of mine!
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was a creative idea and I liked the whole "twisted fairy tale" plotline, but the ridiculous nonstop teen melodrama completely took me out of anything good about it. I gave up after about an hour because I was going to give myself a migraine if I continued rolling my eyes every thirty seconds. DNF.
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
If you really know your fairy tales, the secret of the Valentine's is not much of a secret at all, but I still enjoyed the journey. Mira was a tad bit annoying, but with all that going on in her life, I can almost forgive her. I wasn't terribly happy with how things ended; I don't know if this is going to be part of a series or not, but the resolution left something to be desired.
All I can say is PEDOPHILIA! A 15 year old girl and a 21 year old love interest - can you scream 'statutory rape' any louder? Any 21 year old man that touches a 15 year old girl should be in jail. I am so, so fed up with authors perpetuating disgusting, abusive relationships hid under a cloud of swooning insta-love! Sarah Cross, as a woman who hopefully respects those of your fellow gender, please, please discontinue the publication of this book. It sets a terrible example for young women that it's ok to fall in love and let older men touch you. As long as he's hot it's ok, right? The heroine is so naïve, stupid, and weak, the male love interests are all stalkers and very creepy, and the plot it so cliché. One of the worse and most horrifyingly anti-feminist books I've read this year.
Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross began as an interesting spin-off of fairy tales and in the beginning captured my interest. As I progressed through the novel I began to see the problems.
At first, this book sounded like a YA take of "Once Upon a Time" on ABC about fairytales coming to life in the town of Storybrooke. However, reading the book it has nothing in common, but the fairy tale like tendencies.
This book was entirely too uneven when it comes to plotting, since a lot of plot points were revealed far too early and one had to wonder what the rest of the book was going to be about. I wished the pacing was better because that is one problem I had with the novel overall.
I also didn't like a lot of the characters from Felix to Freddie. Even though Freddie is supposed to be a good character I thought he was way too feminine for a guy (the whole animal magnet was a HUGE TURN OFF for me). It was silly to be quite honest, and I really didn't like his character because he never really grew at all. He knew what he was supposed to do throughout the entire book, and he didn't change a bit. Felix was annoying because he was twenty-one and Mira was in love with him. I dislike it when authors write about those kind of relationships.
At first, this book sounded like a YA take of "Once Upon a Time" on ABC about fairytales coming to life in the town of Storybrooke. However, reading the book it has nothing in common, but the fairy tale like tendencies.
This book was entirely too uneven when it comes to plotting, since a lot of plot points were revealed far too early and one had to wonder what the rest of the book was going to be about. I wished the pacing was better because that is one problem I had with the novel overall.
I also didn't like a lot of the characters from Felix to Freddie. Even though Freddie is supposed to be a good character I thought he was way too feminine for a guy (the whole animal magnet was a HUGE TURN OFF for me). It was silly to be quite honest, and I really didn't like his character because he never really grew at all. He knew what he was supposed to do throughout the entire book, and he didn't change a bit. Felix was annoying because he was twenty-one and Mira was in love with him. I dislike it when authors write about those kind of relationships.
Read in one sitting. I love fairy tale retellings and this was a very different twist on fairy tales!
Mira has spent all of her fifteen years sheltered by her two godmothers. They have raised her since her parents died in a fire when she was a baby. On the eve of her sixteenth birthday, Mira decides to run away to her hometown of Beau Rivage to find out more about her parents and to find their graves. She concocts and elaborate scheme to run away with decoy emails and bribed classmates, but once she gets to Beau Rivage her plans fall apart. She has no idea how to begin her search so she camps out in a casino. There she is discovered by two brothers (separately). Blue, seventeen and surly, warns her away and tries to get her out of the casino. Felix, twenty-two and runs the casino, immediately offers her a room and anything she wants. Of course she falls for Felix, but she becomes friends with Blue and his friends. Turns out the town of Beau Rivage is full of fairy tale characters under curses from actual fairies. At some point in your childhood you will get a mark that identifies what type of character you are and what role you will play. Mira's mark makes her Sleeping Beauty. She also meets Snow White, the Huntsman, Prince Charming and many others. But it is Blue and Felix's curse that is the most mysterious. No one will tell her about it other than to warn her to stay away. But of course that doesn't work mainly because Mira is pretty stupid.
I found this book fairly ridiculous. I love the concept of it. A town with fairy tale characters and curses and more along the lines of the Grimm tales not Disney. I think Once Upon a Time does this much better but it is still a fun concept. But then you get to the characters. Mira is so smart in making her plans to run away, but then once she gets to Beau Rivage it is like she took a stupid pill. She falls in love with Felix after a DAY! And all because he is nice to her and comps a room. No one mentions the fact that she is 15 and he is 22...hello illegal and creepy! Everyone tries to warn her about him (all very vaguely of course), which doesn't work and only makes her more determined to be with her true love even though she is strangely attracted to Blue too. I will admit that I found Blue and Mira's weird, mean courtship entertaining, but I still don't get Mira. Almost all of the side characters were more interesting than her and a whole lot smarter. I can't emphasize enough how irritatingly dumb she is. Even after Felix tries to kill her she is still starry-eyed and she has pretty much given up on her quest to find her parents. Whatever! I am not even going to mention the stupid ending and how unlikely that was. There are much better fairy tale books out there. Don't bother with this one.
I found this book fairly ridiculous. I love the concept of it. A town with fairy tale characters and curses and more along the lines of the Grimm tales not Disney. I think Once Upon a Time does this much better but it is still a fun concept. But then you get to the characters. Mira is so smart in making her plans to run away, but then once she gets to Beau Rivage it is like she took a stupid pill. She falls in love with Felix after a DAY! And all because he is nice to her and comps a room. No one mentions the fact that she is 15 and he is 22...hello illegal and creepy! Everyone tries to warn her about him (all very vaguely of course), which doesn't work and only makes her more determined to be with her true love even though she is strangely attracted to Blue too. I will admit that I found Blue and Mira's weird, mean courtship entertaining, but I still don't get Mira. Almost all of the side characters were more interesting than her and a whole lot smarter. I can't emphasize enough how irritatingly dumb she is. Even after Felix tries to kill her she is still starry-eyed and she has pretty much given up on her quest to find her parents. Whatever! I am not even going to mention the stupid ending and how unlikely that was. There are much better fairy tale books out there. Don't bother with this one.