Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Goodreads Blurb

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’ve got tons of mixed feelings about this book. Well, al lot of good feelings and one bad. Still!

The bad? Mira. I was so annoyed by Mira! She was supposedly shy and followed other people’s rules, but throughout the entire book, she was the complete opposite.  She was reckless and ignored every warning thrown at her. And you can’t call her naïve either. She knew exactly what she was getting into. But oooh, she thought she was different than others, right? Yeah. Yeah.

And she always, always, got defensive when she was told to stay away and snapped at everyone, even Layla. The sweetest person on Earth! She didn’t wonder why?

Now, I adored all the other characters, even the ones mentioned once! Freddie, Jewel, Layla, Rafe, Henley, Viv, Caspian, Will, and especially Blue and Felix! Each of them played their part in their fairy tales well, without trying to. It was so cool seeing them play out their parts in a more modern way, of course! I couldn’t find any reason to hate them at all! They were cursed, they couldn’t help it and even if they could, they were all so awesome!

Okay, I strongly disliked the romance. There was a sort of love triangle, but Mira was really only focused on Felix. Why I didn’t like them as a couple? I basically summed it up in my dislike paragraph of Mira, but it was also super fast. And what annoyed me was that Mira seemed to fall for him because of his good looks and what he did for her. I mean, didn’t she think there was some ulterior motive? But even I have to admit, it was super sweet what Felix did for her!

As for Blue and Mira…(ROMANCE SPOILER) I hated that Mira only seemed to choose Blue when Felix was out of the picture. I mean, there were a few…stray glances here and there but they both made sure to show their hate for each other.  (OVER)

But both of them were insanely sweet! If, you know, Mira was a better character, I’d probably had loved both relationships. After all, with two hot guys like that, it’s kind of a given!

Plot wise…nothing really happened much during the first part of the book. It was mainly Mira getting information and tightening bonds with her newfound friends. And honestly, I didn’t mind. It was actually pretty fun seeing how Mira interacted with them and how she reacted with more and more info, not to mention learning what was going on myself. The second half is where things spin out of control. Fairy tales within fairy tales, curses awakening, etc. It was madness! The good kind, of course.

World-building, I loved! The fairy tales come to life thing actually made a lot of sense (you know, if faeries were real. And if curses were.) They were well thought out and didn’t leave any holes for confusion. The only small thing I didn’t get was: why were they confined to one small town? But it did make everything infinitely more interesting!

I’d definitely pick this up if you’re a fantasy lover and are more…compassionate toward what characters are going through. After all, tons of people loved Mira’s stubbornness, but I guess I wasn’t one of them! If you grew up reading fairy tales, you have to read this! It mixes in every fairy tale, focusing on Sleeping Beauty, but it was awesome that Mira wasn’t really waiting around for her Prince to show up. That may be the only good part of her! But yeah. It’s definitely an enticing book for every Disney/Grimm fan! Just, don’t be prepared for a happy ending.

Pages: 336

Series: Standalone

Genre: retelling/Romance/Fantasy

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Release Date: April 10, 2012

Rating: 3 stars