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.



The Rogue Mountain

A creature hidden in the mountains, lurking, watching, waiting.  Down below a town living to survive with hellish beings living in their backyard, learning to protect themselves from the creatures of the mountains.  Three teenagers long for a life away from wood devils and hell cats.  A woman doing everything she can do to survive while another lives in a perpetual nightmare.  A monster hunter comes on a mission to cleanse the area of the beasts, only to bring unwanted attention from the witch on the mountain.  Secrets rise to the surface and a town finds out the truth behind their fears.  Welcome to the Rogue Mountains where nothing is ever what it seems.


I will start the disclaimer that this book is not available yet, it is set to release in October, October 3rd I believe.  But I had the honor of sort of beta reading this book for an author dear to me.  This is the debut novel for Joshua Tarquinio.  The book is a mix of supernatural/post-apocalyptic thriller, horror, fantasy, self-realization, with a touch of questioning theology.  The story centers around a small town outside of Pittsburgh after an apocalyptic event that opens the doors to the supernatural.   Now this town learns to survive with various beings attacking them, and the knowledge that there is a witch hidden in the mountains that no one has ever been able to go near. Three teens are the only entertainment in town, but long for something more.  Everyone basically lives their lives one day at a time hoping to survive, hoping to one day be free of the beings that prowl their woods and mountains.  Then a monster hunter, Del Ballatine rolls into town with the intent of ridding them of these creatures.  He and naïve Nigel venture out to the woods and happen upon a hell hound, which they take down.  But this gains the attention of the witch in the mountain and all hell breaks lose, literally.  Secrets are revealed and the state of the village changes forever.


The novel does start out a little slow with a great deal of background on the characters, and takes a little bit of time to build up to the climax.  But those details are necessary in understanding the characters and why they act and react the way the do in situations that arise further into the book, also this gives you an understanding of the town functions together, how they arise to the mob mentality so to speak.  Through this part you form a connection with the characters and town in general.  It helps with the wow factor and the twists that's happen throughout the novel.  Tarquinio does a fantastic job dragging his readers into his world, and holds them under a spell, much like the cave worm in his story.  One of my favorite elements in the story was a being known as a nightmare, one that attaches itself to a person and causes them to live in a state of a living nightmare.  It preys on the happy memories and changes them into nightmares.  It is literally the stuff of nightmares and almost makes your skin crawl.  The creatures he creates in this book are not only characters, but become apart of the atmosphere as they lurk in the shadows.


There are times in the novel when some of the characters question the existence of God in that the book takes place 20 years after the Biblical apocalypse takes place and well the world didn't end.  So characters wonder where is God, did he ever exist, is there such as thing as intrinsically evil or can a supposed evil being redeem itself.  A couple points in the story I found myself audibly whispering "no" when something happen.

I am excited to see what else Tarquinio has in store for readers with sequels, prequels or other stories unrelated to this one.  He has a knack for bringing the thrill of the unknown to the surface and his readers.  I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy supernatural thrillers, horror, fantasy, adventure.  Because I am a little bias for the fact the Josh is a dear friend of mine and my opinion of the book reflects my friendship, I will not rate the book the way I normally do.  But will simply say definitely keep your eyes out in October for when the book is release.

13th Demon

Title: The 13th Demon by Bruce Hennigan
Media: Paperback
Rating 3.5 out of 5

Recommendation:  This book is perfect for those who enjoy chilling thrillers.  It is good for those who enjoy delving into stories of the supernatural and unknown.

The 13th Demon by Bruce Henningan is the first book in the Chronicles of Jonathan Steel series.  It follows the story of Jonathan Steel as he strives to aid those in need while he hunts for the truth to his past.

Something is happening at Thomas Parker's church.  Wave of blood pours through the sanctuary, the baptism pool becomes a swirling energy field, there is an spiral eye on the ceiling.  When Jonathan Steel comes into help spiders begin to attack the pastor and Steel.  Steel in turn takes pictures of strange writing on the wall as well as the energy field and the eye on the ceiling.  He calls in some help, a linguist and a physicist,  to get to the truth of the matter.  Meanwhile, he learns there is a businessman who is trying to buy the church for some reason.  What is the connection between the businessman and what is happening within the church?  When the physicist's son becomes a part of the mystery everyone treads lightly and strives to find the truth before it becomes too late.

I was slightly disappointed in this novel, for some reason I had high expectations on the alter of the spiral eye, and the 13th demon.  There wasn't much backstory to the 13th demon other than a small snippet on it not being among the 12 "chosen" demons much like the 12 apostles.  The story could have gone into more detail about what makes this particular demon scarier than others.  I did however enjoy the archeological and linguistic aspects to the story.  It added  depth to the setting and images on the walls that Steel had seen.

I understand the reason for no backstory on Jonathan Steele because, well he doesn't even know who he is, so the scenes were he remembers or is given reminders of his past are well done and provide that needed backstory.  His amnesia adds a complexity to his character as he simply doesn't remember anything before a specific time.  So as a reader we don't know who or even what Jonathan Steel is because he doesn't know.  That makes the reader want to try and figure this character out.  The other characters are well rounded and play their roles perfectly in the story, personally I wanted more from Liz, the linguist but that is probably because that is where my own interest and passion lies.  I enjoyed the idea of death being like a butterfly in a cocoon.  It was an interesting metaphor.

13th Demon is a well written novel that leave readers wanting more, and from I've seen there is more (I bought 12th Demon just waiting to get a chance to read it).  I look forward to what Bruce has for us in the future.  With some of the other books I have read, I would like to see this one made into a movie, it definitely has the suspense factor.