Tear You Apart by Sarah Cross

* * * *

Available January 27, 2015

An edgy fairy tale retelling of "Snow White" set in the world of Kill Me Softly for fans of Once Upon a Time and Grimm.

Faced with a possible loophole to her "Snow White" curse, Viv goes underground, literally, to find the prince who's fated to rescue her. But is life safe in the Underworld worth the price of sacrificing the love that might kill her?

Tear You Apart is follow up to Kill Me Softly and is the second in the Beau Rivage series. Ever have it happen where you’re done with a book, thought it was good and don’t think about again until months later?  That’s my experience with Kill Me Softly. I thought it was such a creative but frightening spin on those age-old stories, wrote my review and that was it. Months later it popped into my head and I found myself wanting more from this crazy town of Beau Rivage where people live out their fairy tale curses. Some manage to break them. Some find loopholes. Others succumb to them.

It took me a few pages to get back into the rhythm of this bizarre town. It seems like any average modern town except here, everyone is looking over their shoulder for the inevitable to happen.  Viv has the unenviable Snow White curse and has known this forever. It wasn’t so bad at first especially since her boyfriend Henley, who's also been her best friend since childhood, had sworn to protect her from the huntsman who would eventually come for her. So guess who turned out to be that Huntsman? Yep. Talk about ill-fated. Each page seems like another punch to the gut as you see what Viv has to endure – fear of being killed and by whom, her wicked stepmother Regina, who’s had it in for her, her own father who’s about as affectionate as a rock.

It’s easy to get annoyed with Viv at times because she’s not the sweet, innocent Snow White we know from folklore. No, in this rendering she is paranoid, obstinate and confused. And I had to remind myself that I couldn’t blame her for being that way. Worst yet are her unresolved feelings for Henley. They’re so in love but neither can deny that the curse hangs over them. She’s in constant fear that any day now she’ll die at the hands of the huntsman and fate being as cruel as it has so been far, it’d be at the hands of Henley. It’s a tug of war between these two lovers throughout the story as they fight their feelings and one does what they think is right to protect the other.

Viv jumps at a possible solution head first without really thinking it through and you know how that goes. I won’t spoil the rest but she does her best to work out her curse to see if she can find any gaps in it that she can use to her advantage. What I did like to see was her change in attitude – from being victim to having a say in her own fate. 

When you analyze fairy tales closely, they’re freaking disturbing. We don’t see that as kids but as we get older, that realization becomes more apparent. Obviously we need to remember the context they were originally written in. Which is why I have to hand it to Sarah Cross for undertaking this task of reimagining folklore and giving it new life, especially when it comes to giving young girls voice and strength in a medium that has historically been undermining of the female gender. She achieved this in Kill Me Softly, and Tear You Apart is perfect for anyone who wants to experience an even more twisted side of these fairy tales and see how these characters rescue themselves. It's very dark and grim with plenty of dysfunctional relationships happening. But getting lost in this world of Beau Rivage and its people is absolutely magical!

~ Bel

Waiting on Wednesday (132)

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly meme, hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, that highlights future releases that we are excitedly anticipating.



By Sarah Cross
Publication Date: January 27, 2015

An edgy fairy tale retelling of "Snow White" set in the world of Kill Me Softly for fans of Once Upon a Time and Grimm.

Faced with a possible loophole to her "Snow White" curse, Viv goes underground, literally, to find the prince who's fated to rescue her. But is life safe in the Underworld worth the price of sacrficing the love that might kill her?

By Holly Smale
Publication Date:  January 27, 2015

Harriet Manners knows a lot of things. 

She knows that a cat has 32 muscles in each ear, a "jiffy" lasts 1/100th of a second, and the average person laughs 15 times per day. What she isn't quite so sure about is why nobody at school seems to like her very much. So when she's spotted by a top model agent, Harriet grabs the chance to reinvent herself. Even if it means stealing her Best Friend's dream, incurring the wrath of her arch enemy Alexa, and repeatedly humiliating herself in front of the impossibly handsome supermodel Nick. Even if it means lying to the people she loves. 

As Harriet veers from one couture disaster to the next with the help of her overly enthusiastic father and her uber-geeky stalker, Toby, she begins to realise that the world of fashion doesn't seem to like her any more than the real world did. 

And as her old life starts to fall apart, the question is: will Harriet be able to transform herself before she ruins everything?

Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross

* * * 1/2

 

Mira has never known her parents or much about her secretly shrouded past. When she runs away to Beau Rivage, the town of her birth, on the cusp of her sixteenth birthday, she’s hoping to find her parents’ graves and not much more. But she's stumbled into – or been drawn to the place where the Märchen, the Marked, play out to try to resist their roles. Here, Grimm fairytales come to life, curses and gifts are awakened, and Mira is destined to meet her fate, whatever it is.

Kill Me Softly is simply delightful! From the moment I started reading, I was glued to every page especially because the first few chapters provided some “what the heck?” moments. That's what makes this book so enchanting because you’re just following the breadcrumbs to get to the bottom of the story.

As describe above, Mira finds herself in Beau Rivage a few days before she turns 16. Since her past is a complete mystery to her, she decides that she will discover the truth on her own. Once in Beau Rivage, she encounters some pretty interesting personalities like Blue, an abrasive rocker and his best friend, Freddie. Blue insists that she yleave and never come back, convinced it's for her own safety. But when she meets Felix, Blue’s nicer, older brother, she plans on sticking around. Felix not only offers to help her find her parents’ graves, he also offers to put her up at the hotel casino that he runs – much to Blue's chagrin.

Over the next few days she comes to realize that many people in this town are fairytale characters, living out their fairytale in various forms. It's like the TV show Once Upon A Time except in Beau Rivage, these people know that they’re fairytale characters and are waiting for the transformation to take place when they are fated to live out their roles in whatever tale they’re in.

I was surprised that for someone so sheltered Mira didn’t seem too unfazed by all the people she was meeting and disturbing things she was learning. Her interaction with both Blue and Freddie are tense, fun and downright ridiculous. Her instant attraction to Felix will have some readers swooning. The focus of the story does change from looking for her parents’ graves to unraveling secrets and discovering the truth about these fairytales. And there are times when her stubbornness gets in the way of her seeing the big picture which honestly can be quite maddening. I mean, when someone tells you so many times that something isn’t good for you, don’t you think you should at least take them seriously, even if for a little bit?

Kill Me Softly is a darker take on some of the more famous fairytales. It may be a little twisted but it’s imaginative, and I had fun putting together the pieces to guess which fairytale was being played out that Mira had unwittingly immersed herself in ... oh and I guessed right!

~ Bel