Thursday 9 August 2012

Book Review- Shattered Dreams by Ellie James


Title: Shattered Dreams
 Author: Ellie James
Series:  Midnight Dragonfly
Published: 5 July by Quercus  
Length: 300 pages
Source: Publishers
Other info: This is Ellie’s debut. The next will be called Broken Illusions then Fragile Darkness.
Summary : Trinity has never known who she really is. Strange dreams haunt her nights, and she has always been able to sense things that others can't. When Jessica, the most popular girl at school, disappears, Trinity realises she will have to draw on her secret abilities to help find her. Soon, Trinity is subject to visions that terrify her and make the police sceptical. As her dreams grow darker and the visions more frightening, Trinity realises she must risk her reputation and her sanity to save a girl who hates her.

Review: It was just a game in a haunted house. Teenagers daring each other to do things in the abandoned house soon takes a darker turn when Jessica goes missing and the investigation soon becomes a murder one. Trinity gets dreams. She doesn’t know why, but she can see things happening. Which then actually happen. while being pulled into the police investigation, Trinity also gets pulled into another-the one looking behind her family.
I didn’t know about this before I got hold of it, so I can’t say I had high(or any) hopes for it. The whole psychic-mystery thing isn’t that new, but I always like reading these kinds of things.
The first half is good.  it’s a quick start, and there’s a lot of intrigue. My favourite bits were the parts in the haunted house. The writing is exceptional in those bits and I felt both a little bit creeped out and really wanting to know more. The visions are also done well.
The missing-girl line is carried on. obviously, Trinity is the only one who can solve it, but she doesn’t know what her visions really properly mean. I really enjoyed the mystery, the guessing, and all that.
The other part is Trinity’s personal life. Romance with Chase, the hot guy developed nicely, but it wasn’t the main thing, so that was good. more emphasis was given to Trinity’s past, about her mother and her psychic powers. These were nice, but weren’t amazing. And then there was something else that I don’t really get...somehting about Pitre and Dylan and so on..I really wasn’t following any of that.
The characters were good. Trinity is very inquisitive, and takes everything in good stride. Chase is a little boring, but I didn’t really care about him when he might have been in danger. Some characters seem to appear randomly, just to clear something up, make something else more complicated and leave, for example that fortune teller girl. I hope she comes back.
The pacing isn’t great and the scenes are a bit random, in a bad way. Something happens and then something completely different happens and it’s hard to understand. The big final scene seems a bit rushed. The guy who took Jessica especially seems to have come out of nowhere and I didn’t really care.
The paranormal bit takes the back seat, which you may or may not like, depending on your preferences. The murder mystery is the main thing. I’d like a bit more of Trinity’s psychic-ness in the next book too.

Overall:  Strength 3 tea to a thriller that really pulls you in, but also messes with your head. I’ll read the sequel in the hope that it gets better.

4 comments:

  1. I don't think this book is for me, but the cover is gorgeous!
    Thanks for the great review! :)

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  2. Nice review! This sounds like a pretty decent mystery. nothing extraordinary, but enjoyable nonetheless.

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  3. Hmm, I would have liked more of the paranormal aspect, but the mystery sounds quite good. Not sure whether I'll read this one, but thanks for the review!

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  4. Theres something putting me off this book and I dont know what it is. it sounds good and from what you say I'll probably really enjoy it as I prefer Muder Mystery over paranormal, but enjoy that too so it should be a good blend for me… I might wait til the second is out and see what people think of that then decide :)

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Thanks for taking time to read this!
Comments are much loved.
Nina xxx

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