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Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

Release Date: December 8, 2011
Author Info: Website | Twitter | Facebook
Publisher: Philomel
Age Group: Young Adult
Shelfability: Acquire/Borrow
Pages: 336
Format: Advance Reader Copy
Source: Requested from Publisher
Interest: Debut
Challenge: 2011 Debut Author Challenge
Buy the Book: Amazon

Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries. Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

Talking spirits, cute boys, amnesia and a dog named Spook.

No, Lenzie isn’t going crazy like her father! She isn’t anything like her father, she’s your run of the mill Speaker. You know, person that talks to dead people. Helps them resolve their issues and then sends them packing for the pearly gates. (Or a one way ticket to hell!)

There were things I really enjoyed about this story and others not so much. But overall it was a positive reading experience.

Lenzie. I liked her, but really didn’t have any preferences for her character one way or another. Something about her character just didn’t add up for me. One minute she is a timid, self-conscious teen girl and the next minute she is telling off some elder with the finesse of someone much older and wiser. I get that she’s this thousand year old soul that’s been reincarnated into this teen girl, but if she has amnesia, then she has amnesia. She can’t just NOT have it when it’s convenient for her to not to.

Alden, I liked. I didn’t love... I think I could grow to love him, but for now I just really like him. He’s honorable and somewhat honest, which I find that I respect in characters in general. One of the things I enjoyed most about this novel what his relationship with Lenzie. Of course I wanted nothing more than these two to be together!

I think that Lindsey tried to have a bit of a love triangle there with Zak & Alden, but it didn’t really work, since Zak was a complete asshole. And maybe I’m a little biased because he reminds me of a crazy ex-boyfriend, but Zak did had a few redeeming qualities they were just a little too late to the party to matter. Love triangle fail.

My favorite characters were Race and Maddie, let’s see some more of them!!

The soul aspect of the story was really what sucked me in. The souls and the malevolent spirits. The whole process of helping them move on, now that was cool. Would love to read more about that aspect of the story, and the history of the Speakers and Protectors. How did it happen and what is exactly is the council and what does it do? I must know more!

Overall, Shattered Souls was an impressive story! I’m hoping for more.