Currently Reading│Book Beginning : Tear You Apart (Beau Rivage) by Sarah Cross

Currently Reading #42

Name: Tear You Apart (Beau Rivage)
Author: Sarah Cross
Number of Pages: 384 in Hardcover
Published: January 27th 2015 by EgmontUSA
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult, Retellings, Romance

An edgy fairy tale retelling of “Snow White” set in the world of Kill Me Softly for fans of Once Upon a Time and Grimm.
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? Faced with a possible loophole to her “Snow White” curse, Viv goes underground, literally, to find the prince who’s fated to rescue her. But is life safe in the Underworld worth the price of sacrficing the love that might kill her?

Thanks to Egmont for giving me an ARC through NetGalley! I’m really excited to read the book since this is a promising retelling. I even featured this on a Waiting on Wednesday post so I’m so happy when they approved my request. I’ve heard a lot of good stuff. Anyway, here’s a five star, three star and one star review respectively. Got them from book lovers on Goodreads. 😉

This is my first Sarah Cross book. I had no idea what to expect, but I’ve seen some great reviews of her work in the past, so I was super excited to read TEAR YOU APART. From what I’ve read on other reviews, this is sort of a “companion” novel to KILL ME SOFTLY. I hadn’t read KILL ME SOFTLY, so I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to connect to the characters in this one–but that didn’t happen at all! I loved this book, I loved (and hated) the characters, and I am SO excited for this one to hit shelves.
— Lindsay of LindsayCummingsBooks

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.
— Shelley of Gizmo’s Reviews

The darkness given to the story was really cool. BUT why does that have to come with abusive, clichéd relationships (can you say love triangle?)?? The characters are shallow and unlikeable on top of that. Strange that Tear You Apart has great world building and horrible characters. I ended up taking a break from this book 50% of the way through to read something else in the hopes I’d want to finish it after. When I finished that book, I had no desire to pick Tear You Apart back up. And that right there is the reason I had to DNF this one at 50%. We all know that hardly ever happens for me, so I’m really sad about this. It’s also my first DNF review on the blog. I wanted to love this one so much, but I couldn’t do it.
— Steph of Caught Read Handed

I was surprised that Steph of Caught Read Handed didn’t actually like it though. I even saw Emalie of The Book Gatherer mentioned that this is on her DNF list. That bothered me ’cause there were a lot of books we actually loved and talked about. We’re pretty much on the same genre and we love the same authors too. Hmm.. Let’s see. Happy reading to me for now! Book review to follow. 😀

Book Beginnings on Fridays is hosted by Rose City Reader, where we share the first sentence (or so) of the books we are reading, along with initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Here’s the book’s beginning:

“Viv stood in front of the mirror, painstakingly sabotaging her appearance. She needed to look presentable, but not attractive. Plain enough not to upstage her stepmother, neat enough not to embarrass her dad at the party. ”

I bet that look is really a pain to perfect. Especially if you’re beautiful even when you’re wearing something plain right? Well, we are all very much aware of what will happen when she eventually upstage her stepmother so I guess she really needs to try harder. Lol! 😀

What do you think of the book’s beginning? You could share book beginnings on your current read too. Comment the link of your own Book Beginnings on Fridays so I can check it out and have an idea of amazing books that I would want to read. Come on! Join us! 😀