Kill Me Softly
by Sarah Cross
Publication: 20th April 2012
Publisher: EgmontUSA
Pages: 336
Genre: Fantasy
Age Appropriate: Young Adult
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.
To say that I loved this book is an understatement, I was entranced from the very first page, I loved the concept of this world and the fairy tale elements made this a magical and wondrous read.
I loved how it had a similar theme to the tv show Once Upon A Time which I also love, the idea that fairy tale characters are real and all living in a town called Beau Rivage is a fantastic idea.
Mirabelle 'Mira' is about to turn sixteen in a week's time, at her christening when she was three months her parents were killed when the building they were in caught fire, so ever since then she's raised by her tw0 godmothers far away from her birthplace.
Mira has been restricted from being allowed to do a lot of things among them touching anything sharp, she has also been told that she's not allowed back to her birthplace, intrigued and wanting to visit her parents graves she runs away one night eager to see the place she was born.
Once there she takes shelter in a casino and it's there while trying to stay inconspicious that she is accosted by a boy around her age Blue who tells her to get out of his hotel after running away and hiding she is found by Blue's older brother Felix who is a whole lot nicer than Blue and offers her a room for free to stay in and after listening to her story agrees to healing her find her parent's graves since she's had no luck of her own.
But Mira comes to find that not everybody is who they appear to be and that she's in the middle of a town full of fairy tale characters and that also includes Blue and Felix.
She becomes friends with: Viv (Snow White), Henley (The Huntsman), Felix (Prince Charming), Layla (Beauty) and Rafe (Beast) among others and discovers that she is Sleeping Beauty and that all those years of her godmothers not allowing her to touch sharp things had a purpose.
But not everybody is happy with their 'curse' as they call it, and happily ever afters aren't all they're cracked up to be, you see there is not just one Sleeping Beauty or Snow White but a whole lot of the same fairy tale characters who all have the same fate and some aren't happy with their happy ever afters.
So while Mira continues her relationship with Felix all the while Blue is trying to warn her off she discovers that the two brothers share the same curse and neither will tell her what that is but for them with their curse's they don't get a happily ever after.
I loved Mira and Blue's scenes together they had me laughing and you were just hoping that they'd end up together.
All the characters in this story were interesting to read about and there was never a dull minute, my only wish is that somehow this could be made into a series perhaps with some of the different characters that are still awaiting their stories to carry out.
This is definitely going on the re-read pile.
I give this 5/5.