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Jan 17, 2019goddessbeth rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
The bottom line here is that I think the story was good, but missed a lot of potential. As with the previous book in the series, Kill Me Softly, the MC is not a really likeable character. That book, she was naive and made bad decisions. This book, Viv lets fear control her and turn her into a snotty brat most of the time. So in some scenes it was hard to keep rooting for Viv, even understanding that the psychological warfare her stepmother had been waging her whole life, and the constructed narrative of her future thanks to the curse, was coforcing her unto a "heartless" panic reflex to life. What I enjoyed was the continued construct of fairytale curses in modern day-this book mentioned many more than the last book, and included non-Western European fairytales. It also played with the idea that villains can be heroes and heroes can be villains (a spin on the underlying theme of predestination vs free will, at least in this setting). Regina, Viv's wicked stepmother, has an arc that largely happens offstage and was intriguing to me (she's a sympathetic character, which I love in a villain). What I didn't enjoy as much was the disjointed story- it feels like it had one path in mind at the beginning, and then changed its mind halfway through, and mashed some deus ex machina together to blend the two ideas. I also thought Jasper was played a bit heavy handed. Garnet was introduced as a tool and not a character (and that always bothers me, especially as her only purpose in the story was to illustrate what a monster their father is). I didn't get a lot of development with Henley's character, which I was hoping for...but if I had to choose between Henley and Regina, I'll take Regina each time. Overall, this was an enjoyable and quick read, especially as a fan of the world that Cross built in Kill Me Softly.