ARC Review: Shattered Dreams by Ellie James

Title: Shattered Dreams 
Author: Ellie James
Genre: YA Fantasy - Paranormal - Mystery
Publication Date: December 6th, 2011

"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 isspecial. 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 iskind-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." ~Goodreads

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First off I’d like to send out my thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Griffin for the opportunity to read Shattered Dreams.

Shattered Dreams was unique, the storyline was a bit different than the type I usually go for but I was immediately intrigued by this book once I read the synopsis. It’s not your usual Paranormal; the author really put their own spin on it.

I really liked this book, it grabbed me from the beginning and the mystery kept me on the edge of my seat through the whole thing. The setting of New Orleans, which I absolutely loved, was unique in itself. I’ve always thought New Orleans was a really interesting place; I went once about four years ago to help out in some of the areas where they were rebuilding people’s homes. There were still some areas where the damage was still really bad so I could recall firsthand how it looked while I was reading this book. I think being able to recognize some of the places that were described in the book and how the city looks overall helped me to really immerse myself in the story even more.

For the most part I liked Trinity’s character, but there were a few times when I got a bit annoyed with her and kind of wanted to shake some sense into her because of how she reacted to certain things. One other thing I wasn’t overly fond of was how quickly Trinity and Chase’s relationship happened. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m a complete romantic and all for it when it’s done well. But I think that in this case their relationship happened a little too quickly and it just didn’t seem to develop at a natural pace, if that makes sense. But I was able to pretty much overlook these few minor things because the main story was so enjoyable.

I keep forgetting this is the first book in a series, once I finished reading it I was satisfied with how everything wrapped up and it actually could have been just fine as a stand-alone. But since I really enjoyed Shattered Dreams so much I’m interested to see what the author brings in the rest of the series.

This was a really good read, it was engaging and full of mystery. I definitely recommend it especially if you’re a Paranormal lover and are looking for something a little different.

4 Stars!