Books: The Cheapest Vacation You Can Buy











{December 3, 2011}   {ARC Review} Shattered Dreams by Ellie James (Midnight Dragonfly #1)

From Goodreads: Sixteen-year-old Trinity Monsour wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. Trinity is different. She is special. She sees visions, and for those she’s seen, it’s already too late.

Trinity arrives on her aunt’s doorstep in New Orleans with virtually no knowledge of her mysterious heritage. She begins settling into life at a new school and even starts making friends. But all too quickly her dreams accelerate; twisted, terrifying visions of a girl locked in a dark room. And when the head cheerleader, Jessica, goes missing, Trinity knows she has no choice but to step forward with what she’s seen.

But people believe that Trinity has information about Jessica’s disappearance not because of a dream, but because she is involved. She is kind-of dating Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Chase, and Jessica did pull a nasty prank on Trinity. Revenge seems like the likeliest scenario.

Nothing prepares Trinity for the dark odyssey that ensues while searching for Jessica, including the surprising romance she finds with Chase, or the shocking truths she learns, not just about the girl who has gone missing, but the past that has been hidden from her.

__________________________________________

Macmillan Press has been extremely gracious in allowing me to read an ARC of this novel, via Netgalley, prior to its release on December 6th, and I must say I am extremely grateful as this is a wonderful read!  This is one of those novels where you can’t help but wonder whether the main character really does have a special ability, or if she’s just crazy.  Regardless of what the synopsis says, I found myself shifting back and forth as the evidence mounted up against Trinity, going from believing she really could see Jessica in her dreams, to thinking she’s the reason Jessica’s missing in the first place.  In my opinion, James did a phenomenal job piecing together this novel; any book that can keep me on edge and constantly switching allegiances is a keeper. 

Now, I do have a small qualm with the story, and that’s mainly to do with the pacing.  I spent a majority of the read trying to figure out how much time had passed, because Trinity did fall very hard, and very quickly, for Chase, but I couldn’t figure out if they’d known each other for months, or just a week, as the text jumped around a bit and didn’t really make that clear.  I believe, if my reading abilities serve me right, Trinity had known Chase, Jessica, and all the other characters for about two months, but the meat of the story happens within one week, but again, I could be completely wrong.  Does it really matter in the end? I don’t think so; I still found the story extremely interesting, but some readers may have trouble with the timeframe of the novel since some of the aspects do seem a bit far-fetched happening in such a short amount of time.  However, I think the story was very well put together, and I found most of it quite believable, so I enjoyed it very much.  Four stars. 

Advertisement


I would probably be confused with the time frame with how you’re describing it, but the rest sounds really exciting. I’m definitely going to keep an eye on this one.

Amber
The Musings of ALMYBNENR



Comments are closed.

et cetera
%d bloggers like this: