I received this book for free from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Tear You Apart by Sarah Cross Series: Beau Rivage #2
Published by EgmontUSA on January 27, 2015
Genres: Young Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
Goodreads
If you want to live happily ever after, first you have to stay alive. Viv knows there's no escaping her fairy-tale curse. One day her beautiful stepmother will feed her a poison apple or convince her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Henley, to hunt her down and cut out her heart before she breaks his. In the city of Beau Rivage, some princesses are destined to be prey.
But then Viv receives an invitation to the exclusive club where the Twelve Dancing Princesses twirl away their nights. There she meets Jasper, an underworld prince who seems to have everything—but what he really wants is her. He vows to save her from her dark fate if she'll join him and be his queen.
All Viv has to do is tear herself away from the huntsman boy who still holds her heart. Then she might live to see if happily ever after is a promise the prince can keep. But is life as an underworld queen worth sacrificing the true love that might kill her?
My top thoughts:
I have incredibly mixed feelings about Tear You Apart. I think that you have to really KNOW your fairy tales to fully appreciate this book – and I do not. However, the last 30% was so incredibly gripping and grim (pun intended) that I almost would give the book 4 stars. It is book 2 in the series, but (at least as far as I can tell) reads completely as a stand alone.
What I liked/didn’t like:
So the struggle in the first 70% of the book was two-fold. One, as I already mentioned, the references to really obscure fairy tales confused me. There’s the familiar Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Jack and the Beanstalk… but then there’s also the 12 dancing princesses and the diamonds and toads (I think?). It took me out of the story because I don’t know what they’re based off of. And even the familiar fairy tales – Snow White particularly, since that’s Vivian’s curse – is getting into the less commonly known details. So if you’re a fairy tale buff, you will probably love the hell out of this, but for me it was just confusing.
The second struggle was just that I didn’t like this predestined feeling of being defined by your curse. This struggle though, is sort of the point of the book I think (at least in part). The way it really screws with Vivian’s decisions about who she loves – her huntsman or her prince? – made the first part a struggle and made me frustrated with her, but as she grows to realize she has to take her life into her own hands (the last 30%) makes that first part kind of worth it.
I read past midnight, knowing I had to get up at 6 am because I couldn’t put it down in the last bit. Things are brutal and very much use the Grimm fairy tales for inspiration. The weaving of multiple fairy tales together is fascinating and Sarah Cross definitely has done her research. That being said, I probably won’t be in a hurry to pick up the other books in the series… because I haven’t done mine and I think I’m missing out on some of the potential greatness of the book by not knowing my fairy tales better. I am glad I finally got around to reading this though and recommend it for fairy tale buffs for sure!
Always wanted to try this series, not sure if I could struggle through that first part if it’s confusing. I am not up on all my fairy tales…lol. 🙂 Glad you were still able to enjoy it!
I feel like I do know my fairy tales even less known ones but I still don’t think this is one I would pick up easily since you struggled so much with the first 70%.