2 Stars.

Echo Stone is a ghost, though at first she doesn’t know it. She wakes up in an orphanage, called Middle House, after being murdered, surrounded by others just like her. She is confused, having no idea how she got there. All she wants is to find her parents and when she does, they cannot see her and she realizes the truth. While residing in Middle House, Echo connects with Cole, another “orphan” who resides there, while also trying to reconnect with her old boyfriend who is still very much alive, creating a very odd love triangle. After realizing that she is dead and did not die of natural causes, Echo is determined to find out what happened to her. She therefore begins investigating her own death, so that she can move on, one way or another.

Unfortunately, this book just did not work for me. Though the novel was coined as mystery, the author, Temple Matthews, inserted a teenage love triangle with two ghosts and a boy who was very much alive, which just did not work, in my opinion. When all was said and done, the truth behind what happened to Echo wasn’t all that shocking. Further, characters didn’t mesh well, and the story didn’t flow, thus all in all, this book was somewhat lackluster.

Thank you to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press and Temple Matthews for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Published on NetGalley and Goodreads on 3/16/17.

*Will be published on Amazon on 8/8/17.

There is something about being in between worlds, something that ought to make sense, create peace and resolve a dilemma, but this is not going to be a smooth run for Echo.

Echo, a sixteen year old girl, wakes up in a dark room. She tries to call out for her parents and boyfriend but no one comes to her aid. She demands to go home, but realizes there's no way she would ever do that, because she is in Middle House, an Orphanage of sorts for kids who are murdered and she is a ghost.

I had a love-hate relationship with this book
I barely made it through the first two chapters due to the frustration I felt. I was so eager to know where Echo was and what was happening that I almost gave up on the book.

The story then took a turn, and Echo started to settle in at first, keen to investigate her murder and the reason that led to her death.
The interplay between the world of the living and the dead was not as convincing, save for her visit back to school, now that was epic! Her friends and classmates were typical teens; jealous hypocrites and I particularly enjoyed their being haunted. I wonder what that says about me.

For a proof copy, I'm grateful to Netgalley for giving me an arc, in exchange for an honest review. It was awfully cool of the author to use aspects of life and awakening as chapter titles. I loved Confessions and Awakening.

The characters are your typical teens and they go through the motions of life struggling to make right decisions, maintain friendships and you have a little bit of romance to remind you of what first love is like. I was drawn to one character in particular, Darby, and I wish there was more to her.

I'll be on the lookout for more books by Temple Matthews, it'd be great to read more works by him.

Ugh, this book was such a miss for me. I read the blurb and got so excited but I think that just made the let down even worse.

Echo is supposedly a bad girl. We get that from the title. I didn't realise that she would be a total self-absorbed selfish jerk. The one time she shows an inch of caring about other people is in the last pages (which, incidentally, felt like a cop out of an ending.)

This book really reinforces the stereotype of needing love. When Echo finds herself dead, she is sad because she misses her boyfriend, her one and only true love that she cannot live without. Well, Echo, you're dead. And no one cares. But then she meets this handsome stranger, and for a moment, it seems like she's moved on because she's falling in love with him. But no. She goes back to the other boy and tries to screw up his life by moaning at him. Ohmygoodness. I want to slap her and get her priorities into check.

The ultimate way Echo died was just eh. I like thrillers. I like mysteries. I like well developed plots that drop hints every few pages about what might have happened so that I come up with theories that get proved wrong and right. This? None of that. None of the above. The way Echo died was ultimately weird and creepy. It would have been less weird and creepy if it had been set up properly and introduce sensitively, but it felt like maybe the author realised the book needed something interesting in it. Ugh. Really insensitive handling of a topic that I really didn't buy happening.

Characters were developed strangely. The director of the home had a sad back story that kind of took over for a chapter, but it was really creepy and again gave no thoughtful discussion to a valuable topic. Don't get me started on Cole and instalove because I'll rant for years. Other characters simply seemed to be cute ideas the author had but didn't feel like expanding into real characters.

I'm really disappointed by this book--I was so excited and I generally love most books from this publisher. I definitely would have stopped reading around 35% if I hadn't been reading to review; even then, I had to skim a lot of it to get through all the moaning and complaining.

Teenage girls should not read this; all it will do is reinforce the idea that they need love to be happy. I do not recommend.

This book was a little different than what I have read in the past. I liked the mystery of trying to figure out the murder as well as going along with Echo to figure out who she really was when she was alive. Imagine waking up in an orphanage and not knowing what happened, not being able to access the only memories that will tell you what happened. I did find the insta-love between her and Cole bareable because she had gone through something extremely traumatic and when that happens it’s only natural to seek solice and comfort in someone else. It was a little slow but all in all it was a decent read.


I give this book a 3 out of 5 stars.

Will update with links to where I posted my review online closer to the release date. (Final review might change slightly but will have the same basic message).

This book was not what I expected. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this. That being said, I absolutely LOVED this story! I was gripped from the first page and couldn't wait to keep reading it until I finished. The ragtag group of ghosts attached themselves to me and wouldn't let go. I can't wait to read more books from Mathews!

Definitely a solid 5 for me!

I absolutely loved the idea of this book, but in execution it wasn't great. The storyline was there but it wasn't that exciting and didn't really pull me in. With other similar books on the market, I don't really think this measures up. Saying that, this is my personal opinion and I don't think it should discourage you from checking it out if that's what you're in to!

The idea of this book, while nothing new could have been great: a girl wakes up oin a house for kids and wants to get home. She meets a guy called Cole who goes with her and she discovers that her parents don't see her because she is... dead! Omy! she is a ghost! Turns out she hasn't been able to move on because she hasn't died of natural causes but rather been killed. And so have been all the other kids who are on the house with her. And then, all of them proceed to sort of take off their "masks" and show their true selves, that is, their visage when they were killed. And some of them set off to right the wrongs they were inflicted when tey were killed: one of the kids was killed by his own father, for instance.
The book was looking great. And then the investigation on why she died began. And then it began to drag as nothing happened. And then she began kissing Cole one chapter and her alive boyfriend on the following chapter. And more draging. And more nonsense. And more thinking alongside the lines of: "But is there a plot somewhere?". So I called it quits.

I received an advance reader copy (from Netgalley) in exchange for a fair review. Thanks to St. Martins and the author for a chance to review this.

I really, really, wanted to like this. It seemed like something I'd enjoy but I found myself 'noping' out about half way through and couldn't finish because the plot seemed to be more about the love triangle instead of the mystery.

Teenagers might think that nobody listens to them, but when no one can literally hear, or even see you, you have a whole new set of problems, such as being dead, as in Bad Girl Gone by Temple Mathews.

16 year old Echo Stone can't figure out why she's woken up someplace she doesn't recognize, Middle House, surrounded by rude kids she doesn't know. Or why she keeps being called an orphan when she knows that her parents are alive. When she sees her parents driving away from her home, which worryingly appears to be a bloody crime scene, she stands in the middle of the road but their car goes right through her, forcing her to realize that she's dead. A ghost. Lingering until she can solve and seek vengeance for her murder, Echo works with other murdered kids at Middle House to figure out what happened to her, which also provides an opportunity for Echo to realize certain truths about herself during the process.

The story and concept had me intrigued from the start; however, while the narrative had potential I ultimately found that this could have been developed into something greater, and more enjoyable, than it is. There were some continuity errors, notably with the eye colors of Cole and Andy. When Cole was introduced as Hazel Eyes and then later said to have blue eyes and Andy is introduced with blue eyes and then his brown eyes are mentioned...not great - it pulled me out of the narrative to question it, which breaks any suspension of disbelief I had going. Echo was also a rather annoying character - she seems to have one image of herself, oblivious to attributes of her personality that others find detestable about her - maybe I could buy that being killed messed with your memory, but she had no problem recalling things about others; plus she seemed to define herself based upon her relationships with guys, which is never something that I like to see in a character, especially when the romantic angle overtakes the mystery angle of the story.

Overall, I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I found Bad Girl Gone to be a refreshing and unique story. Easy to read and with twists and turns that made it unpredictable I was turning the pages at a rapid rate. I would definitely recommend to others.

I got this book from Netgalley and from the description, sounded worth a read.

I didn't particularly like the main character, so for me, I found it hard to get into the book. I am however, a sucker for a murder mystery (which this was).

Having read 'One of Us Is Lying' recently and enjoying it a lot, I can't help but compare this book to that in terms of plots and mystery and have to say this one doesn't measure up. It was an interesting concept but altogether I found the story too predictable from the plot points to the character developments.

Not a bad read but definitely not an amazing one.

I personally am not so into ghost stories, but my customers probably are. I will carry this book