"Shattered Dreams" by Ellie James

 Trinity has lived her life secluded in the mountians with her grandmother. Only the faint memories and whispers of her parents are all that she has left of them. When her hrandmother dies she goes to live with her Aunt in New Orleans, a city rich in the unexplained.
  Trinity is trying to fit into the culture of public High school for the first time in her life and Jessica, the girlfrient of the Chase, the boy Trinity likes, has set her sights on Trinity in a game of "Who's the best female" all claws and teeth.
  The story picks up in a creepy abandon house in what seems like an innocent game of Truth or Dare, but are teenage games ever really that innocent? Trinity's gift shows up uninvited and scary as heck to warn her that something bad is going to happen. At the evening's end the true nature of the game Jessica is really playing with Trinity is revealed in all it's villianous glory. Trinity is left to face ridicule and himuliation at school by the very people she tried so hard to fit in with, the very source of said humiliation. Her "gift" again shows up to warn her something bad is going to happen.
   In an ugly twist of fate it seems Trinity is the only one who can help.
  I found myself completely enveloped in the story. I hung on every word tensly, waiting to see what happened next. The pacing was fast, things constantly happening left little room for down time. All the events and things  that happened was expected, always surprising. All of the details of the story were so beautifully told.
  I really liked Trinity's character. I was drawn in by her. I felt like I was on the journey with her, learning things about her past, about her family. I found myself able to sympothyze with her and be frustrated, like her at being so close but unable to help, and balancing between trying to help and retain her innocence. Her "gift" showed her things that she should only know if she was involved with the crime. Thanks goodness for her Aunt who always believed in her and never doubted her innocence. She was a solid support for Trinity through everything and I loved that about her.
  Chase wasn't a favorite character for me. He seemed an open book. There was no mystery about him, nothing that drew me to him. I found myself annoyed when I was supposed to be sympethetic toward him.
  Chase had a story to tell but it always seemed random and out of the blue, forced almost. It didn't blend well into the rest of the story. I think that maybe his story anout the things that he lost or the feelings he had towrd his parents were meant to relate to Trinity some how, but in the end it really had nothing to do with the plot. It ust seemed to be a storyline that didn't fit anywhere.
  I did find that I liked him more by the end of the book but his character development came nowhere near the development of Trinity. I thought her development was realistic for what she had gone through.
  There were a few confusing parts that caught me off gaurd. Sometimes things would come out of nowhere that were rather random. I'm ust assuming here but this seems like the first book in a series and that maybe things will be better explained in the books to come. There are still a few unanswered questions and I hope that there are future books to answer them.
  In all I really liked this book. It kept me tense and guessing and hungry for more.

B