WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS
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.
Review: Okay, going to do this review a bit differently than the others. Only because I dont' know how to go at it the other way I do it.
The Good: One thing I loved about this book was how it followed the curses to a T. Mostly the Disney versions, but still, to a T. I loved the fairy tales. And the characters are physically like the character princesses and princes we all know and love, except maybe their personalities aren't the same. They were more modern, which I have to complement her on. They weren't old time princes with heroic thoughts only on their mind. And they weren't just pure, innocent princesses. They were very much like teens these days. And the overall plot is like Disney's Sleeping Beauty, except Aurora never went back to find her parents. Then there's the hidden plot of one fairytale (though I wouldn't call it that) that I've never heard of. I think it was cleaver the way Cross used it, but at the same time kind of confusing. All in all, it lead up to Mira' curse being full filled.
Oh, one of the characters I truly did like was Freddie, Mira's prince charming. In the book, he's an Honor-Bound, or someone meant to break a curse. He was a prince, and he was always focused on making himself look the best so when he has to save his princess, well--Happily Ever After. He was the prince always looking for a damsel in distress, and he did a good job at it. The rest of the characters had an teenly air to them, but when it came to their fairy tale side, they suck. End of story.
The Bad: One of the biggest situations that keep recurring was the fact that everyone said Felix is extremely bad and Mira must avoid him at all cost, but no one is willing to tell her. I'm fine with that, but it's how everyone kept tip-toeing around the subject by taking Mira everywhere they went just so she wasn't with Felix alone got annoying. The was most of the middle of the book. I mean, this situation had it's significance towards the end, but it seemed to drag on. It got boring, especially with Blue's and Mira's relationship. Blue is the typical bad boy that doesn't want anyone to know is dark little secret unless someone finds out for themselves. One minute he's nice, the next he's a jerk. I don't like these guys. Well, I do, but if done in a way that it's not one second and then the next. To, that's multiple personality disorder or bipolar disorder or something. Anyway, it got annoying.
And then the romance of the book. Don't get me started. Well, actually, yes, let's let me go on and on how much I HATED it. So, this is how the crappy love triangle went: After three hours in Beau Rivage, Mira meets Felix, and then there's "an instant attraction" and then about a week or so later, she decides she's in love, and he displays the same back, supposedly. And then during that week, Mira fights her attraction to Blue and blah blah blah. It was like the fairytale version of Twilight. Gah! And let's not forget. At the end of the week, Mira chooses her guy, and they are madly in love! (Someone gag me.) Considering the backstory of the two brothers, it makes a bit of sense on why the romance is like this, but the way it was wrote.....i'm sorry, but I just don't like insta-love. It makes no bit of sense. Two people can't fall in love in such a short time period. Sure, I'm kinda contradicting myself, considering I read a lot of Debbie Macomber books that sometimes deal with people falling in love fairly fast, but i think my problem mostly lies with teens and love. No one, not even a teen, can fall in love that fast.
The Ending: This was confusing. In the book, it says Felix never leaves a job unfinished, which left an opening for a sequel. But then, the way it ended, with a Happily Ever After, it said: This is the end. Done. No more....So, who knows if there will be a sequel or not.
The Future: Like I said, I don't know.
Rating & Ending:
Cover:
I love this cover. That's why I wanted to read it in the first place.
*Bought this book.
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