The Broken Girls

Title: The Broken Girls
Author: Simone St. James
Genre: Thriller
Source: Ebook - Netgalley
Rating: 3 out of 5 paws




The body of a young woman was found dead at a placed called Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for troubled young women.  Rumors are that the school is haunted.  Twenty years later Fiona cannot stop thinking about the events that surround her sister's death at Idlewild Hall.  Her sister's boyfriend was convicted of murdering her, but Fiona has the feeling that something isn't right about the situation and something else had happened.  During renovations to the old school, secrets arise that may shed some light on the rumors that surround the school.  Secrets that someone meant to keep hidden.  What lies behind the walls of Idlewild Hall.

When I picked up this book, I was excited to read it.  I have never read Simone St. James' work before and this one sounded so interesting, so I dove right it.  I admit I struggled to get into the story at first, it seemed to take a while to lead up to the climactic portion of the story. I wanted to give up on the book, but am glad I didn't.

The ghost story aspect of it felt weak and didn't live up to what I was expecting from it.  I wanted more than what we were provided, and there was potential for more, but I don't think it was explored enough.  The beginning is slow going but it does pick up the pace and gets a little more interesting.  There are parts of the book where the story gets rather dark, but St. James handles this in a professional manner and makes it interesting rather than cringe-worthy.   It jumped back in time and back to the present a bit and sometimes I had a hard time following along, even though it does tell you the time frame prior to beginning that sequence.  Breaking up of these sections gave the book a sort of broken feeling.  It might have been better accomplished with Fiona finding journals or letters from each of the girls rather than flashing back to them.

There seems to be a lot of different storylines with the four girls who lived at Idlewild Hall, but there were times when I wished it would have focused on Fiona or her sister's story more and told the rest of the girls' stories through them.  Sometimes too many characters tend to take away from the story and I almost feel like that happened here with this novel as well.

I love the supernatural and ghost stories and I felt like the idea was there, the pull/lure to bring readers into it, but I wasn't all that impressed with the writing style.  I would recommend it for those who enjoy a ghost story, thriller, even mystery.  Others have enjoyed the story immensely, it just wasn't the book for me.



Seven Stones

Title: Seven Stones

Author: James Rozoff

Genre: Fantasy

Source: Kindle Ebook

Rating: 3 out of 5

Doug is a young magician who is determined to become greater than the great Houdini.  When an older magician named Ashavan offers to share his secrets in exchange for Doug's help, he jumps at the opportunity.  Little does Doug know that each item he must hind has deep dark secrets to them.  Now things have grown bigger than either Doug or Ashavan can handle, but it is too late to turn back.  Doug must finish what he started and race against time to find all seven stones.  Will Doug succeed in finding all the stones? Or will he give up and abandon his search?

There are a lot of things happening in this novel it's a book about treasure hunting adventure, a metaphysical journey, magic, historical fiction, mystery, but oddly enough it works well for the story.  One aspect of the tale does not overshadow the other. It starts off very compelling with an older magician dangling new and exciting tricks in front of a younger magician.  In order to get what he craves, the younger enters a world of séances, real magic, even death and zombies.  What zombies? Really?  It's not what you think, the way Rozoff presents these creatures of lore is very interesting and unique rather than the traditional zombie we see in other stories.

There are small hints of inconsistency throughout the novel, such as the main character Doug sometimes being referred to as Dave.  It took a moment or two to realize these were not two separate people.  The story is interesting enough of being a treasure hunt for seven mystical stones, but it tries to be so much more and includes a lot of different politics and things which ends up making the story slow moving.  Once Doug leaves Mississippi (or is it Louisiana), the story slows down dramatically, and it's hard to get back into the story after this.  I liked the idea of the seven stones being related to Pangaea, but it was hard to follow the idea that Rozoff was going with it and the stones because the explanation is broken up throughout the story.


Overall it was a decently written story, that had it's interesting moments.  It wasn't the thrill ride I was hoping it would be when I started reading it, but it was interesting enough to finish.  It was difficult to continue to feel connected to the story.  The multiple things happening throughout the novel made for a large feel of disconnection for the reader.  It takes too long to get to the good parts, we are pulled in with Doug finding three of the stones and dealing with their effects quickly, but then there are chapter after chapter of nothingness, which honestly felt like a let down. 


Will I read this book again?  Probably not.  Will I recommend it? eh I'm on the fence because I always feel like there is an audience for a book even if it wasn't my cup of tea.  I will recommend it for those who like books with mystical or philosophical aspects too them, or with a hint of history interspersed.  It just happens that I felt like the characters wondered around like lost puppies after a while.

Forbidden

I cannot begin to describe how much I dislike this book.  I  was barely able to finish it, and for those of you who know me know that is saying a lot.   There was only 1 time I never finished a book.  I don't know where to begin...throughout the book Rose continues to proclaim she and her family are not vampires, they just have vampire like qualities so what are they, all we get is immortal.  Unless you chop their heads off or if they apparently lose a significant amount of blood.

A LARGE portion of the book is Gabriel trying to get Rose to be his girlfriend and Rose fighting it...basically it goes "Rose I love you," "We  can't be together Gabriel, it's not safe." "Why not?," "I can't tell you."  Have this happen several times in various formats and you have about 75% of the book, along with Gabriel getting superhuman abilities and a foreign exchange student.  Very cliche throughout the whole book.

The characters were blah, Rose was just whiney and weak the whole time.  Gabriel is so cliche: football jock who wants more in life but step-daddy won't let him.  Sadie could have been more interesting but wasn't developed enough.  William again cliche: best friend's brother who crushes on Rose and hates Gabriel...just no....be a little more original I felt like I read these characters before.

Don't get me started kn grammer and misspellings.  I thought editors would have gone through this and pointed those thingsout, maybe not.  I was more than disappointed in this book.  The summary made it sound so interesting, but sadly it wasn't.

I  would be willing to read something else from this author but not in this genre.  Sadly for the second time, I do not recommend this book and give it a 1.5 out of 5 rating.

Black Bird

Black Bird is a manga series that follows the life of schoolgirl Misao, who can see supernatural beings such as demons and such. After she turns sixteen, she is frightened to learn that now these beings are hunting her and seek to kill her.  A childhood friend Kyo, comes to rescue time and time again.  Surprisingly, Kyo is also a demon and Misao learns she is known and the Bride of Prophecy, a rare and coveted being.  Kyo is the one who needs to protect her from the blood-thirsty demons who wish to feast on her blood and become more powerful. 

This is a relatively shorter series, about 12 volumes I believe, but it reads rather quickly as I have found with most manga series.  The artwork in this is beautiful and I found myself wanting to cos-play as Misao.  The story follows the artwork in the beauty and fine crafted story-telling skills.  It held my attention throughout all the volumes and makes me want to watch the anime series/drama if there is one, I haven't looked.  I found the story and plot to be very interesting and wanted more when the series came to an end.  It was unique in that it wasn't vampires needed her blood or needing her blood to sustain themselves, but rather to gain power over one another.  Also in that it was only her blood that could do this rather than any person that they would come across.

If you enjoy manga series, or are looking for something a little different than novels, I would suggest checking out not only this series but other manga series.  This one particularly is great for those who enjoy the supernatural and demon type of stories.  I give this series as a whole a rating of 3 stars.