The Broken Girls, double stories of mysteries on the grounds of a girl's school built in the early part of the 20th century and bought to be rebuilt in the 21st. The characters draw you in to their lives and their pursuit to solve the mysteries surrounding people close to them. Fiona searches for answers to her sister's murder, while Katherine, Cece and Roberta search for the story behind the disappearance of their friend Sonia. Does the appearance of Mary Hand, a figure in black hold the clues?

This book has it all, thrills, chills, suspense, and of course drama. Highly recommend to anyone looking for a book that will give them chills like a haunted house but while riding a roller coaster. A must read for thriller and horror lovers. The ending makes you happy, but there's many emotions in between.

3.5 A storyline fifty years apart. A deserted school for girls, a school that in the fifties, housed girls that had problems. Four become fast friends, and then one goes missing never forgotten, but never seen again. A murder in more current times, body found on school grounds and a sister who wants answers. Now a wealthy woman is undertaking a renovation of the school, opening and exposing old secrets. Oh yes, and we must forget the ghost!!

The atmosphere, spooky, gothic, tense, the definite star of this novel. Fast paced, quite a page turner, constant revelations. Did like the past story more than the present one, which is often the case with these dual storylines. the atmosphere though kept me immersed, and in fact found this entertaining, until the last quarter where it just became too muddled. Too much happening, too many coincidences thrown in the mix, and then the writing faltered. Hence, my rating which for most of the book would have been higher just for the enjoyment factor.

This was a sisters read, one which we all enjoyed in varying levels. Quite a good discussion ensued.

ARC from Netgalley.

"The Broken Girls" is a story from 2014 that intersects with a mystery from 1950 both set in the same Vermont small town. The story slowly becomes a good old-fashioned ghost story to make it even more exciting. The book is filled with interesting characters. You make quick judgements on the characters that change as the story progresses. The women are all strong-willed survivors. The story keeps you guessing and moves back and forth from 1950 and 2014 as all the questions are answered. Thanks for a great story Ms. St. James.

This is a dark, creepy, atmospheric story!

This story’s synopsis is perfect. It doesn’t offer too much or too little information. So in an effort to not be repetitive I will spare you my own synopsis. I was first drawn to the cover of this book and was looking forward to a creepy mystery. Throw in a bit of historical fiction and I was darn right excited to read this book!

This story follows the famous alternating time period layout. As this story progresses in each time period, 1950 and 2014, the mystery thickens and becomes increasingly more complicated.

I found the friendship of Idlewild Hall roommates CeCe, Katie, Sonia, and Roberta quite fascinating. It is 1950 and these four girls were all send away to boarding school, they have been discarded and labeled as uncontrollable troublemakers. Were these girls actually troublemakers or when things got tough did their families decide to just send them away rather than working through their troubles? Of course my modern day thinking is quite different than the 1950’s. Things were not talked about like they are now, so I find it quite disheartening that these girls were sent away and slapped with a label so easily.

I thought it was particularly clever that the textbooks used at Idlewild Hall were the only textbooks the school has ever had. They made the perfect vessel for past and present students to tell the stories of the school’s past within those pages, really aiding to the mystery and intrigue of this story.

I enjoyed the modern day, 2014 storyline, with girlfriend/boyfriend Fiona and Jamie. I thought her being a journalist and him a cop created the right amount of tension between them. There are always trust issues when it comes to the law and the press and this relationship is no exception, as hard as they tried to not let it affect their relationship.

The vivid descriptions pulled my right into the cover of this book and brought this story to life!

1950 was not an easy time for teenage girls who didn't fit a specific mold. Put a group of these girls in an isolated boarding school that might be haunted, and you have an irresistible setting. In this same Vermont town, 54 years later, we have a different young woman living an entirely different kind of life. The way these characters' lives intersect and entwine is a fascinating, complex, well-told story.

While I loved the last half of this book, I had some problems in the early stages. We have the two timelines, plus the murder of Fiona's sister, which occurred between these two timelines. Four of the schoolgirls from the 1950 timeline have narrating parts, and then there is Fiona's narrating part in the current timeline. Consequently, there is a whole lot of shifting in perspectives, as well as what initially feels like too many plots and subplots.

Despite the multitude of directions this story takes, the pace moves quite slowly through the first third of so of the book. We're given excessive detail on unimportant things, such as one of the girls playing soccer. So I found myself resisting the urge to skim, and it took me a bit to get a foothold in the story. By the midway point, when the pace picks up and the past starts to reach into the present, I was completely hooked.

If you like stories heavy on atmosphere, with memorable characters and just enough supernatural edge to scare you with possibilities, definitely give this book a try.

Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the chance to read and review this novel.

The Broken Girls is everywhere on social media right now as one of this month's Book of the Month choices, and definitely seems a worthy pick. This book has been beckoning me since November when I was approved to read it on Netgalley, but I haven't had a chance to fit it in until now. Based on the blurb alone, I knew this would be an interesting story, but it ended up being so much more than I expected.

Torn between four and five stars, I decided to round up because of Simone St. James' clever and deep plotting. There are numerous layers to the story, slowly fed to eager readers through the course of the book. The story effortlessly weaves through the past and modern day, interconnecting the two in the most interesting and unexpected ways.

Idlewild Hall shows its smiling, jagged teeth to every girl dropped at its doors. With a past as haunted as that of each of its inhabitants, it's only fitting this boarding school is a place for the misfits and discarded girls of 1950. Four girls bond over their murky pasts and current fears, when suddenly one of them goes missing.

In 2014, the spooky Idlewild Hall is purchased to undergo renovations. When Fiona Sheridan, a local journalist, hears of the upcoming project, she decides it is the perfect chance to dig into the history of the eerie place where her own sister's body was found 20 years prior. The circumstances surrounding Fiona's sister's murder never sat right with her, and she is determined to uncover the truth.

There is a shift happening in our culture, a huge wave of "out with the old, in with the new" in terms of mental illness awareness and the acceptance of women as equals in our world. Of course, there are still leaps and bounds to be made, but with modern books like this one and numerous others boasting these topics, it sure feels like our world is quickly changing. As we delve into the past perspectives of the girls at Idlewild Hall in 1950's Vermont, it was easy to see how different life was in regards to both of the topics I've mentioned. Simon St. James does an exquisite job of capturing the past's "buck up and get on with life" attitude through the stories of the forgotten girls at Idlewild Hall. I especially loved the bond between the girls at the boarding school, allowing them to become the family they didn't have. Society's rejects found love and acceptance in each other.

I can't get enough of books with spooky homes or buildings holding long-buried histories, allowing the reader to uncover the pieces while getting a few chills up the spine in the process. I wasn't expecting to be quite as spooked as was, however! This was definitely one I preferred to read in the daytime, but with a story so gripping I wasn't able to put it down at night, staying up well past midnight to figure out the conclusion.

One of my favorite parts of The Broken Girls was learning about real-life Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. I have a huge passion for being able to learn through the stories I read, and it's all the better when real history meets fiction. I was especially interested to learn about the female Nazi guards at Ravensbrück, as this was something I was completely unaware of. This was a well-researched and interesting read all-around.

I hope you will pick up The Broken Girls when it releases on March 20th or start reading it now if this was your BOTM pick!

Mix a little paranormal woo-woo with a murder-mystery and you'll hook me. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James did just that but the icing on the cake was Idlewild Hall, a gothic, menacing looking boarding school that once was home to troubled girls in the 1900's. Hells yes. St. James pulled me in as she shared pov from present-day 2014 and those of students in 1950.  Turn on the light and grab a cup of cocoa before settling into this story.

Thanks to NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for ARC.

I honestly love a good mystery and paranormal book every now and again. So, when I read the description for The Broken Girls through BOTM I was intrigued. Happily I found it was available as ARC through NetGalley. So, I requested and was granted a copy.

The book, itself, travels back and forth for storyline purposes between 2014 and 1950.

In 2014, Fiona is still reeling over 20 years later since the murder of her older sister, Deb in Vermont on Idlewild Hall Boarding School. See Fiona can’t seem to shake what happened to Deb all those years ago. Even though her sister’s supposed killer was arrested and convicted, Fiona questions not only what actually happened, but if the man jailed is the killer.

Fiona, also, happens to be a journalist just like her famous journalist father. So the journalist deep in her blood decides to write a story about the long shut down boarding school grounds, Idlewild Hall, where her sister’s body was found all those years ago. See, the boarding school grounds have been bought by a mysterious benefactor and is to be renovated to be reopened. So, Fiona decides to write a story about this in hopes to get the bottom of sister’s tragedy once and for all.

But in doing so, we are thus given a glimpse into the lives and world of the young teenage girls who lived and attended Idlewild Hall in 1950 in Vermont. It is their stories that somehow bridge the past and present. Because in trying to finally put Fiona’s sister to rest once and for all, Fiona stumbles upon the mystery of one of the 1950s girl’s disappearance all those years ago.

Plus throughout this book, the readers are given front row access to the fact that Idlewild Hall is apparently haunted. This haunting is due in part to the possibility of another young girl (Mary Hand) dying many years even before the 1950s on the grounds, too. The folklore was that Mary was not at rest and was indeed haunting the Idlewild Hall grounds showing others their worst fears imaginable when she shows herself to them.

All-in-all, this novel did a wonderful job bridging the the past and the present stories. And the mystery was definitely one that was worthy of reading to find out just how all of this would play out and come together in the end.

There's an old girl's school on the outskirts of the city. When Fiona finds out they are going to rebuild it, she's horrified. Her sister was killed and her body was left near Idlewild. It haunts her to think of it operating again. She's almost obsessed with the death of her sister. Her killer is in jail but it doesn't make Fiona feel better. She convinces her boss to let her write an article about it and begins to do some research on it...

Berkley and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will published March 20th.

Fiona is dating a cop. He tries to get her to let go of the pain of her sister's death but she can't. She talks to the son of the woman who is going to refurbish the school and he offers her a tour. As she tours, the contractors interrupt them. They've found a body in the well. Now Fiona really has something to investigate. The girl is unknown, the body has been there since the early 1950's, it's a cold cold case and the police don't have the resources to do much investigation. There's nothing to identify the body. But Fiona is relentless. She's going to research and find out who it is. She does but it doesn't help her figure out she died.

The girls that attended this school were sent because they were illegitimate, were hard to control, or had mental problems. If you didn't fit in the box, they sent you here to a new box where you wouldn't be embarrassing. The dead girl was an orphan. She'd had a hard sad life and Fiona can't let her die alone.

Another thing the school and even the police had in common was secrets. As those are revealed, the story gets more complicated and intricate.

This is a tense story with lots of drama and unexpected outcomes. I found it intriguing and interesting. It's well worth a read.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35305625-the-broken-girls" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="The Broken Girls" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1497406195m/35305625.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35305625-the-broken-girls">The Broken Girls</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4981568.Simone_St_James">Simone St. James</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2165600440">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Netgalley # 10<br /><br />Many thanks go to Simone St. James, Berkley, and Netgalley for the free copy of this book in exchange for my unbiased review.<br /><br />One more WWII historical fiction book. They seem to be quite popular lately. How could it be an original twist? Well, St. James pulled it off! She succeeded in intertwining the past with the present. Not every author pulls that off. It often feels forced like a topic from history was picked first, but he had no idea how to tie it to now. It's obvious the thought process was very clear here. <br />In Vermont there is an all-girls boarding school named Idlewild. In the twentieth century the young ladies felt persecuted by the teachers, hated the food, had little interaction with the town or their own families, oh, and were haunted by Mary Hand. In the twenty-first century a freelance journalist dating a police officer is writing an article about the building's restoration while still being haunted by her older sister's murder, whose body was found on Idlewild's grounds. See? Perfect, seamless tie-in! <br />I admit I became so absorbed in the story I forgot to bookmark notes after 26%. I just wanted to read. I had no idea how either of these storylines would resolve. Corruption runs rampant in this small town , and Fiona, our nosy journalist, gets caught in a trap. Our students experience loss and learn to make the most out of lives that have been forgotten by the ones who should care about them the most. <br />I loved the ending. Retribution lands in hands that have been empty too long. I thought it was very appropriate. <br />This is my second St. James novel and I've loved both of them.
<br/><br/>
<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6595648-bam-the-bibliomaniac">View all my reviews</a>

This story goes back and forth in time, telling of events from the perspective of an adult woman and four 15 year olds. All of the young girls agree that there is also a ghost around, each having heard or seen things on the grounds of their school.



So the novel forms questions around two specific things - is there a ghost that haunts and possibly harms, and is there a murderer loose in the world?



The opening chapter, set in the 1950s, pulls you in with a ghost mystery and you quickly realize there is back story that needs to be told to explain the scene.


Then the book switches to the present day and you realize there's also a murder mystery in the present, revolving around the same location as a girl that went missing in the 1950s.


It's an interesting idea, to combine a mystery with a ghost story. How do they relate to each other.... read the book and find out!

Review will post on my site on release date.

When I read the synopsis of this one, I knew I wanted to read it. It takes place at a boarding school (these stories always attract me), in Vermont (where I grew up), and involves a mystery surrounding a young student's death. Sign me up! The only thing I did not pick up on was that there would be a ghost involved (one of my immediate turn offs). Kudos to the author, because despite my intense dislike of books containing ghosts, I wanted to keep reading this one regardless. Yes, the other parts of the book are that good! I loved the way the characters were drawn, the good ones and the bad. The setting was just creepy enough so you could read it without being terrorized, and I loved the references to places that actually existed from my past. The mystery was well written, and its outcome, with a few details that were a bit too convenient, was satisfactory. I particularly appreciated that the writing took you where you needed to go without a lot of unnecessary fluff thrown in. Was the ghost necessary? I'm sure many would say it was an integral part of the plot, and added that much more to the story. The jury is out for me, so I'm going to let you read it and decide :)

While I personally could have done without the ghost parts (for which I did remove a star), this is a great book that will keep you turning pages, not only to discover the who-dunnit, but to find out how all the characters lives turn out.

So I personally did not really enjoy this book. Yes the plot was intriguing and I liked the way it ended. However, had I know this book would be so much about ghosts and the supernatural I probably would not have read it. But if you were into this sort of book you would have loved it!

Once again, Simone St. James has written a story that captivates the reader from start to finish. She has a way of drawing the reader in with beautiful descriptions and realistic mysteries that would make anyone eager to read until the very end. Once you pick this book up, you will certainly have a hard time putting it down until you find out the ending. It's a haunting ghost story that centers around tragedy, betrayal, and what true justice really means.

60 years ago, four teenage girls are sent to a boarding school following tragedies in their lives. Bound together by their shared circumstances, they go through their days fighting to stay true to themselves in a world that would change them forever if it could. Until one day when one of them doesn't come home. In 2014, journalist Fiona Sheridan is still trying to process the murder of her sister 20 years earlier, found beaten and tossed aside like trash in the field of an abandoned boarding school. The school is set to be restored, and Fiona uses it as an excuse to learn more about her past. But she's not the only one interested in the school or what happened there, and she finds out that secrets have a way of being exposed from beyond the grave.

This story really sent shivers up my spine from the very first page. Immediately the author draws you in with a young girl being chased in a dark forest, ending with a scream of terror. You don't truly find out what happened until the book is nearly finished, and that means you wait with bated breath as you read through each chapter, flipping between 1950 and 2014. There is a significant ghost element in the story, which reminded me strongly of the movie, The Ring. This just amped up the thrill factor for me, especially because this story is much more imaginative than the movie it reminded me of, in both its backstory and in the way the ghost haunts each person. She doesn't just haunt each person in the same way - she finds the one thing you fear the most and uses it to terrify you. She being the ghost, who ties everything together between the past and the present in one amazing display of ghost story writing by Simone St. James.

I am never disappointed when I read her books, and I can happily say that I would recommend this book to anyone. It truly is an exciting book and one I will remember for a very long time.

**I received a free copy via NetGalley and this is my honest review.**

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is a creepy good ghost story that alternates between events in 1950 and 2014. This story is set at a girls' boarding school in Vermont and revolves around the mysterious disappearance of one of the students at the school. The disappearance is quickly covered up and considered to be a run away case. Fast forward to 2014 and the case becomes relevant again. This story will keep you up late into the night as you race to the ending all while trying not to get too spooked by the ghost that makes a frequent appearance. Read and enjoy!

In all honesty, I was hesitant to read The Broken Girls. I'm a big fan of Simone St. James' novels, but dual timelines is something I avoid when choosing the books that I read. This style of writing, along with time travel, is just one of those things that puts me off as a reader. In the case here, I'm a dedicated St. James fan and figured that I shouldn't let my bias stand in the way. While I still prefer the historical ghost stories that St. James has written previously, the same atmospheric storytelling is evident in The Broken Girls; not that I really had any doubt of that.

There are a number of mysteries in The Broken Girls and initially I wasn't sure that it would work, but its clear that they all slowly tie together. Flipping back and forth between 2014 and 1950, readers are introduced to Fiona Sheridan in 2014, who is a freelance journalist writing about the restoration of Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for girls. For Fiona, this story is personal since her sister's body was discovered on the field at the abandoned school. In 1950, readers are introduced to four students of the school, one of whom goes missing. In 2014 the missing girl's body is discovered and Fiona diligently researches the disappearance and investigation uncovering uncomfortable trues in both the past and present.

Underscoring the mysterious disappearance of one of the students is a the presence of the ghost, Mary Hand. Anyone that's read St. James knows how well she writes a haunting and that is no exception here. There's something so disturbing about Mary Hand and its made all the more so by St. James' subtle descriptions. Mary Hand plays a role in both timelines; frightening both Fiona and the students at Idlewild Hall. What Mary shows those she haunts plays an important role for all those involved.

All the Broken Girls is another assured, atmospheric mystery from Simone St. James. Highly recommended to anyone that enjoys a gothic tale.

I love a good ghost story and Simone St. James weaves an intriguing tale in The Broken Girls! The setting is a boarding school in Vermont called Idlewild Hall, with time alternating between 1950 & 2014. Idlewild is where girls get sent that parents want to forget exist. They are outcasts, but several girls there in the '50s forge a friendship that sticks. They support and look after each other, and when one of their own goes missing, they know something is afoot. Not to mention the ghost they often see, what is she trying to tell them? In 2014, journalist Fiona Sheridan is still trying to get over her sister's murder nearly 20 years ago. She was found dead on the grounds of Idlewild, and Fiona is sure something went on that has never been figured out. She gets a chance to research the school first hand for a story, and for her own interests, when a new investor purchases the property and begins renovating. As she digs deeper and uncovers more and more, things get spookier. The writing is superb, as always, and the characters are so well drawn that you won't want this book to end. Both stories are equally compelling and when they collide, Oh my!

*Many thanks to NetGalley and Berkeley Publishing for an ARC to read and honestly review!*

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It held my interest and was not completely predictable. It was a nice mix of past and present, with out confusion. Many suspense/supernatural novels are accompanied by an unrealistic plot. This novel had a believable story line and mixed in a little historical fiction with the mystery and supernatural elements. I would definitely read stories published by this author in the future. "The Broken Girls" was a little mature for students in my library, I will highly recommend it to the high school and public libraries!