Dazzled by Books

"Tear you Apart" by Sarah Cross features Vivian who was a minor character in Cross' "Kill Me Softly" novel. "Tear you Apart" is set in Beau Rivage, where people have old fairy tale blood running through their veins because of their descendants from fairy tale characters. Some of the people were cursed by fairies themselves. The characters end up living out lives that are like the actual fairy tales.

Cross is very good at building fun worlds and creating a universe for the reader. The residents in Beau Rivage are cursed to play out their roles in the classic fairy tales and Cross does a fantastic job at creating and capturing the magic of it all. She also includes the underlying darkness of the original Grimm stories that most drop away.

The characters in "Tear you Apart" were so hard to love. I had a hard time getting to know them. Everyone in this story is so selfish so it is very hard to connect with them and then on top of that they weren't very interesting characters to begin with. I have to say that I have read better retellings. I like Cross' take on it but I feel that it wasn't executed very well.