Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

Author: Sarah Cross

Publisher: EgmontUSA

Narrator: Kim Mai Guest

Audiobook: Random House Audio Publishing Group

Date of publication: April 2012

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.

I have very mixed feelings about this book.  On one hand, I liked it.  The city of Beau Rivage contains cursed people who are destined to live out their fairy tale curses. I loved the use of the darker, non-"Disney" side of the fairy tales.  The step sisters cut off parts of their feet to try to fit into the slipper.  The prince who finds Snow White prefers to keep her drugged instead of dealing with her.  It's a bit gruesome, but it works in this book.  


I also liked some of the characters.  Freddy and his brothers are each honor bound to rescue a princess and they pass their days searching for "the One".  Freddy was just too sweet as the hero who has been waiting for his Sleeping Beauty to come.  I also loved Blue.  He is cursed, but he chooses to try to ignore it and hold himself remote from most people.  I think he is the most honorable of them all.  I was hoping he would get his fairy tale happy ending!


That is about all that I can say I liked about the book.  I really disliked the main character.  Mira is only 15 and her naivete and inexperience really shows.  She often has TSTL moments.  That started to annoy me after a while. She is looking for her parents grave, yet instead of calling each office to see if they are buried in a particular cemetery, she treks around each place looking at each stone.What a waste of time. Once she finds out what Felix's curse is, she still claims to love him and refuses to believe he will hurt her. If you found out someone could kill you by their kiss, why would you go back to him? Also, how can she love someone she barely spends time with? By the end of the book, she does grow up a lot, but I still didn't like her.


There was one huge issue that I had with the book.  Mira is 15 and Felix is 21!!  In pretty much every state that is illegal, so why is it OK in the YA world? I could not get this fact out of my head.  One character, toward the end of the book, is the only one to mention that there is an issue here.  Rafe calls her Felix's underage girlfriend.  Nailed it on the head.  UNDERAGE!   Every time they were together, I found myself cringing.  This issue did make me knock down my rating a bit on Goodreads. I don't think it is good for a YA book to promote relationships with older men, especially when the girl is still in high school.  It's not healthy.  For this, I would probably only recommend this to older YA readers.