Book Review- Beautifully Broken by Sherry Soule

Title:  Beautifully Broken

 Author:  Sherry Soule  

Series:  Spellbound #1

Published:  30 August 2011

Length: 344 pages

Source: Author

Other info: Moonlight Mayhem, the sequel, came out recently.

Summary : Sixteen-year-old Shiloh Ravenwolf is a heritage witch from the Broussard family, a family both destined and cursed. After she takes a summer job at Ravenhurst Manor, she discovers a ghost with an agenda. That’s where she meets the new town hottie, Trent Donovan. But Trent may be the next victim on the supernatural hit list, and Shiloh is the only person with the power to save him.
Complicated much?
After receiving cryptic messages from a creepy wraith, and then frightening threats from a demon, Shiloh finally begins to understand the mysterious significance of the strange mark branded on her wrist. Now Shiloh must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to protect the other teenagers in town.
Unfortunately, for Shiloh, not all ghosts want help crossing over. Some want vengeance

Review: For a long time, Shiloh Ravenwolf has been able to see shades. And auras. And other things. This is because of her family background, which she doesn't know about. So she doesn;t know that she's a witch (I think-sorry if I'm wrong) and she doesn't know why there's a ghost stalking her. So when she starts a job at Ravenhurst Manor, she finds a ghost. She also finds Trent Donovan, who she instantly falls in lust with. Obviously. Then teenagers start going missing, and it's all being blamed on some spirit in the house. And Trent's on the list for disappearences. And maybe Shiloh is too.

There's a lot going on in this. Demons. Witches. Ghosts. Haunted house. All really good stuff to go in a YA paranormal novel. And then there's also Trent, the typical love interest. All these things come together after a good amount of anticipation and time to get really invested in the story.

I liked Shiloh (rather surprisingly as I'd recently watched a film with a MC called Shilo who was one of the most irritating characters ever for the majority of it). I especially liked her heritage-even though we don't know fully about her mother and such, the Native American side of her ancestry isn't the kind of thing we see often so it's a really nice change. She takes things well, ie realistically. Seeing her develop her powers and her understanding of the supernatural world she's in is really nice.

Trent. He's cool. i don't really like characters when they're described as being "the hottie" (I respect the character's opinions but I'll decide that for myself) but I liked his relationship with shiloh. Not the instalove aspect, but the way they work together makes them a great team. At times, I got a little confused with the other side characters, what they were for and what their motives were. They're all important in some way though.

There's a lot of build up so if you like suspense built stories, this is definitely one for you. The manor, the murders, the parents, the powers. Four side plots that end up coming together to a conclusion that leaves you wanting more. It would have been nice if it could be a little bit faster paced, and also have a bit more emphasis on the family who seemed a bit left out for the start of this.

I don't normally comment on settings, but I really loved Ravenhurst Manor. Lots of things happen there, a little spooky and very thrilling.

The writing is nice. Somethings like Shiloh's thoughts about Trent were a bit repetitive, but it doesn't detract too much.

The last fifty pages. So good! With everything simmering to start with, as it ends, it's all really exciting and you just don't want to stop reading.

Overall:  Strength 4 tea to a promising start to what should be a really good paranormal series.

Links: | Goodreads | Author website | 

Guest post- My Favourite Scary Books by Raimy Rawr

First Andrew, now, it's Raimy's turn to share her favourite scary stories!

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I’m not easily scared, but I’ve always been a huge fan of the Horror genre. When I was little I obsessed over the goosebumps books while I was in the later years of Primary School. I remember reading them and then going on to the point horror books and trying to convince my Dad that I simply had to have my own office for doing my ghost research and detective work so he had to convert the attic into my office space - needless to say, it didn’t work.

I was convinced that the house I grew up, a large Victorian terrace which sick army soldiers in the war apparently, was haunted and I am still convinced to this day that there was something about that house... though I may have dreamed some of the sightings I claimed to have, especially the one where an old woman was sat on the end of my bed.

I don’t find many things scary and when it comes to the supernatural, I love it all. I will watch any movie, read any book and listen to any stories - like the one where Johnny comes up the stairs and the old woman who found her dog dripping blood over her bath that we used to try and scare each other with when we were kids. The only movies I wont watch and books I wont read are those including clowns or ventriloquist dolls, they are too weird for words! With all this in mind I think the best horror books are the ones that actually do terrify me, as it takes a lot! So I thought I would share with you a few of my favourite scary books!

First of all I have to include The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren Shan. I read and devoured this whole series when I was about 13, I think I had to wait for the last few to come out before finishing the series but the first one I must have only just turned 13 when I read and it terrified me like I hadn’t been before. It was so weird and spooky but I just couldn't put it down and I loved the entire series. Unfortunately I haven’t read it since I was about 16/17 but I really want to read them again and see if they still scare me as much!

Then a book I read this year comes to mind, I know many, many people enjoyed Long Lankin by Lindsay Barraclough and after reading it I know why. It takes a while to get to the really scary bit but there are scenes in the churchyard all the way through that made me shiver. I loved this one and recommend it to anyone who says they like a good ghost story.

Finally I want to shout out about the Christopher Priestley books in the Tales of Terror series. There are three books, four if you include the short world book day book, which hold short stories which will excited and scare the mind of any kid 9 or over... and will quite frankly scar any younger than that! They are quite young but they are still very effective. I loved all of the series and I went out and got hold of Christopher’s other books straight away because of it.

So they are my favourites. A quick mentioned should go to Derek Landy’s Songs the Dead Sing from the Haunted anthology that came out last Halloween because it was a fantastic short story and my favourite from the book. I really need to read his Skullduggery Pleasant books! Thanks to Nina for having me and thanks for listening to my ramblings about scary stuff, Happy Halloween!

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Raimy can be found on twitter and at her blog!