Review : Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Summary (from Goodreads)

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.

Personal Thoughts

Kill Me Softly was one of those books that had such an attractive cover that made me want to immediately read it and think that it would be one of those books that I wouldn't hesitate to give 5 stars. I dislike how pretty covers can lead me astray and force me to read a book that ends up being a slight disappointment to me.
The premise of the book was intriguing, however the book itself fails to deliver completely.

We are introduced to the protagonist, Mirabelle or Mira, who's about to run away from her god-mothers' home in order to go find the graves of her dead parents in Beau Rivage a week before her sixteenth birthday. Mira's god-mothers have prevented her from going to Beau Rivage and are very secretive of the town. Mirabelle's god-mothers are strict and restrict her from doing a lot of things. Wanting to know more about her parents, she decides to leave her god-mothers and heads to Beau Rivage.  However, she comes to realize that weird things keep occurring in Beau Rivage.

My main problem with this book arises from the main character, Mira. I found her to be too selfish and bratty for my liking. I love when heroines are strong, brave and take up things into their own hands, but Mira was way too naive. She tried relentlessly to act adult-like and mature, but she proved herself to be very childish on numerous occasions. I found her to be completely unlikable. She never paid attention to what people kept saying and formed her opinion herself. Let me ask you something, if several people insist that this one guy who's very nice to you is dangerous and you should stay away from  him, what would you do ? Would you ignore and insult the people warning you? Will you run back to the dangerous guy ? Would you buy "sexy nightgowns" to spend the night with him ?
I don't know about you guys, but my answer to the above questions would be a big fat NO.
Mira, on the other hand, would reply yes to all the above questions. The decisions she took were unfathomable and ridiculous. I found myself wondering why she was doing it, but I just couldn't find any legit reasons. However, once she realizes how wrong she was, she did attempt to improve her behavior, but by then I had already taken a dislike to her.

There are several different secondary characters in this book. I found all of them to be quite likable. They all had their story and their own fairy tale, which made them have unique personalities. Each of their personalities were very interesting and it was fun to see them interact with each other.
My favorite characters in this book have to definitely be Freddie and Blue.
Freddie was such a sweet and innocent guy. He kept trying to help Mira and I found his character to be extremely friendly and likable. However, Mira kept constantly hurting him by her words and I really felt bad for the poor guy because all he was trying to do was help her out.
Blue, on the other hand, had a mysterious vibe to him that made him super attractive. He had a confident air to him that at time made him look like he had a huge ego. He was the kind of guy who didn't like to have things in his life messed up. Nevertheless, he was nice whenever he wanted to be. In a way, Blue was very vulnerable and it made his character seem all the more captivating and realistic.

The romance in this book was not my cup of tea. There was a serious case of insta-love in this book. Mira fell head over heel in love with Felix, Blue's older creepy brother, upon meeting him. She knew next to nothing about the guy. Yet, she didn't hesitate even once when he offered to give her a room to stay. Her trust for him was so very annoying. I hated how fast she jumped into a relationship with him because I didn't get to see why she liked him so much.
It was also clear from the very beginning that Blue liked Mira a lot more than he let on. They were constantly bickering and arguing concerning Mira's safety, but Blue was truly worried about her. Mira strongly disliked Blue since she found his constant nosing around in her's and Felix's relationship. Towards the event, a change in Mira's emotions occur that completely infuriated me.
Overall, I think the romance was quite a failure for me.

I'll move on to some more positive aspects of Kill Me Softly and that's the plot itself. Kill Me Softly had an intriguing, captivating and refreshing story-line. I loved the idea of fairy tales that Sarah Cross implemented into this modern day story. I thought she did a fantastic job weaving fairy tales into the story. I also applaud her for the pace at which the story moved. It was refreshing to read such a fast-paced novel after such a long time!

Sarah Cross is an original writer with a vast imagination. Her writing style was simple, but very addictive. Although, I wasn't a huge fan of her main character, I did enjoy the story itself. The suspense and unexpected twists at the end made the book quite enthralling. I don't know for certain if the book will have a sequel, but if there's going to be one, I hope that the author doesn't let the attitude of the main character, Mira, drown the potential of this author.

Overall, Kill Me Softly was only an okay book for me mainly because of the main character and the poorly executed romance. Other than that, the book was fairly enjoyable. I recommend Kill Me Softly to people who would like to read a new and original story.

Rating

Cover : 5/5
Plot : 3/5
Characters : 2/5
Writing : 3/5