*Book Blurb*
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 Princess 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 Thoughts*
Tear You Apart is actually the second installment in the Beau Rivage series by Sarah Cross. I have NOT read Kill Me Softly yet and probably should have before reading this story. Beau Rivage is not your typical town. Cross has created a place where characters straight out of Grimm Brother's fairy tales like Snow White, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast reside and struggle with their curses every day.
It is the place where we find 17-year old Vivian "Viv" Deneuve who has hair black as night, and lips the color of blood. She suffers from the Snow White curse. Basically it means that she is supposed to die either at the hands of her stepmother/Evil Queen Regina (poison), or her best friend Huntsman Henley Silva (knife to the heart), or hope to be saved by her Prince Charming (Prince Jasper) before it's too late.
The problem I have with Tear You Apart clearly focus on Viv and her actions. She annoyed me to no end. She frustrated me so much that I wished I had a wish to remove her from the story, and replace her with someone else like Jewel. Viv is just a cold, straight up a rotten person, and a spoiled brat. She pushes everyone away. She treats her best friend like pond scum, and she expects things to just fall into her lap like most rich brats tend to do.
When she finds herself stuck in the Underworld, she changes her tone a bit and becomes a better character who struggles to escape the Kings manipulations. I think I can forgive her for a moment after I think about what her father did for her (nothing) and how her stepmother went from being lovable, to being the Bride of Chuckie. I know there are going to be those who say that Viv is just acting out just like other teenagers of her age. Perhaps. Perhaps not.
My favorite character in this entire book is Henley. He is absolutely fantastic, and doesn't deserve half the crap he puts up with. He's truly loyal to Viv, but stands back and watches her act like Rosanne Barr. Even though Viv's actions break his spirit, he saves her life from her stepmother, and refuses to let her get away from him. He finds a way into the Underworld at the expense of his own life, and in the end, he does something entirely unselfish that it nearly my heart nearly broke for him.
I think one of the more fascinating aspects of Tear You Apart, is the time Viv spends in the Underground. Here you will find Grimm's Fairy Tales The Twelve Dancing Princesses who are stuck until someone brave enough can come along and end their curse. Here you have a place where the curse hope to find a loophole in their own curses, and find the person who is supposed to save them, and a King who has fallen to the Rumpelstiltskin curse.
I will say this about Tear You Apart, Cross definitely has a vivid imagination. The story is set in a real world setting, rather than a fantasy land. However, I also kept thinking that this book combines elements of Once Upon A Time (Evil Queen Regina) and Snow White and the Huntsman. I will say that you would probably be better off served by reading Kill Me Softly so you understand the characters, and the world they live in.
Author - Sarah Cross
Title - Tear You Apart
Series - Beau Rivage
Published by EgmontUSA
Release Date: January 27, 2015
Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retellings
Format: E-Book, 386 pages
12 dancing princesses... I must check that story out. It sounds interesting and a story I'm not familiar with.
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