As you pass by the new book section at your local library or book store stop immediatley if you see Simone St. James' newest book, The Broken Girls. Pick it up, check it out or purchase it you will not be disappointed. From the moment the girls of 1950 Idelwood Boarding School are introduced you stand with them wondering how any teen's life in their dark and dreary confines can grow and become happy citizens of the future. Then meet FIona the 2014 journalist trying to deal with the murder of her sister 20 years before on the grounds of Idlewood. Can an author tie the two stories together? Oh yes she can! Enjoy a story of murder, history, relationshiops, family, and much more, you won't be disappointed.

Brilliant, as always! Once again Simone St. James has written a great, old school ghost story. So many moving parts, so many details to piece together. Love her writing style and everything about her work! She keeps you reading, guessing and holding your breath until the very end. I love to hand sell her books, she makes it so easy every, single title!

It took me awhile to decide how I felt about this book. I liked the mystery, the switching of time periods. I thought it has a nice flow to it, and I was driven to the edge of my seat, needing to know how the plot would unfold. The part that I struggled with was the supernatural element of the story. This isn't that it didn't fit with the story, it is more of a personal preference. I think the supernatural element fit well with the plot and characters, I just don't tend to lean towards novels with supernatural elements. Overall, I enjoyed the novel and would recommend it.

I’m not usually one for paranormal/ghost stories, but when I read the description for “The Broken Girls” I was really intrigued. I’m thrilled to say that this was even better than I expected.

Barrons, Vermont – November 1950.

A young girl has just gotten off a bus. She has two choices. She can take the normal route or she can cut through the woods to get there faster. But cutting through the woods means leaving the safety of the main road. Suddenly she turns and sees a figure coming towards her. But how is this possible?

She was the only one who got off the bus….

Katie, Ce-Ce, Roberta, and Sonia are roommates at Ildewild Hall, a boarding school for “troubled” girls. Over time they have become close friends. They bond over their painful life stories. They trust and depend on each other.

We are given insight into why each “broken” girl is at Idlewild though chapters from their perspective. We learn about their lives and what they’ve been through and about the mystery surrounding them all.

2014

Fiona was seventeen at the time of her sister’s murder. Twenty years later, unanswered questions continue to plague her. Although a man was convicted of her murder and is serving his sentence in a maximum-security prison, he has always maintained his innocence.

And now Idlewild Hall is being restored. Why would someone bother re-building a place like Idlewild? Fiona decides to write about the restoration of the local paper. She has strange feelings whenever she is near the property and the old school. Is it possible that the rumors about Idlewild being haunted are true?

Then a shocking discovery changes everything. Could there be a link between what happened all those years ago and Fiona’s sister’s murder?

There are so many secrets surrounding Idlewild and Fiona is determined to find out what those secrets are. But could all of her investigating end up putting her in danger?

The story alternates between 1950 and 2014. The chapters in 2014 are told from Fiona’s point of view. The chapters in 1950 are from the point of view of the four roommates. Though it alternates and there are quite a few different perspectives, I thought it flowed easily back and forth between past and present.

“The Broken Girls” was a unique and impressive novel. While I did find the beginning of the novel a bit slow, it wasn’t long before I was completely caught up in the story. It was an engrossing read that really struck a chord with me. I ended up reading more than half of the book in just a few hours.

You can tell that the author has done her research; she brings everything together in an excellent way. Though some parts are dark and disturbing, I feel the author handled these difficult subjects with respect and sensitivity.

“The Broken Girls” was a captivating read that I really enjoyed. I’m looking forward to reading more from Simone St. James.

Thank you, Berkley Books and NetGalley for providing an advanced readers copy of this book for me to read in exchange for my honest review.

Excellent novel. I enjoyed how the story alternated between the present and past and tied the two story lines together.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

I was surprised that I liked this book. It was really good. The writing, the two timelines and the characters were all very good. I don't read ghost stories at all but this one somehow didn't feel cheesy.


I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the story of Sonia and the girls really got to me. I would definitely recommend it.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Switching back and forth between the two time periods worked wonderfully with the story; for me it generated more interest in how the two stories connected. I will be recommending this book to as many people as I can.

Brilliant and suspenseful, The Broken Girls is a true nail-biter and a 5 star read!

Review:

Ooh my goosebumps have goosebumps!

This thrilling suspense/ ghost story kicks off with a decades old murder and the main character thinking that perhaps the person doing the time, may not be guilty after all. Her obsession leads her to Idlewild Hall. A creepy boarding school right out of a Victorian gothic novel where “troubled girls” are sent not to get a good education, but to be hidden away from the rest of the world. Very soon our protagonist learns that maybe her poor sister wasn’t the only tragedy connected to the reformatory.

This story captivated me right from the start. It’s superbly written, intense, and the characters are fantastic. I quite liked the protagonist ‘Fiona’ but I especially loved the small group of ‘broken girls’ who attended Idlewild Hall in 1950. Their stories will break your heart, but you will applaud their strength and camaraderie under the most trying (and spooky) of circumstances.

Honestly, I really enjoyed everything about this book! Great characters, chilling plot, and an unexpected paranormal twist… what’s not to love?! You absolutely must read this book! I promise you won’t be disappointed. I warn you though, be prepared for a long night of reading because you will not want to stop once you’ve started reading “The Broken Girls”.

Rating… A+
*Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for my digital copy of “The Broken Girls”

In The Broken Girls, Canadian author Simone St James, has written a deliciously, dark and eerie novel that is part mystery, part ghost story and a hint of gothic suspense that will have readers looking over their shoulders in case the ghost of Mary Hand is lurking nearby.

“Mary Hand, Mary Hand, dead and buried under land…
Faster, faster. Don’t let her catch you.
She’ll say she wants to be your friend…
Do not let her in again!”

The story is set in a small Vermont town, in two different eras. In 1950, readers are given back stories to four roommates, who are some of the 'broken' girls at the Idlewood School, a school where girls deemed 'troublemakers' by their families were sent away. It is a harsh and lonely place, but the four fifteen-year-old girls find friendship and strength in each other .... until one of them goes missing.

In 2014, someone has plans to renovate the long abandoned Idlewood school which locals have always thought to be haunted. Fiona, a local journalist, is still troubled by her sister's murder, which occurred on the grounds of Idlewood twenty years before. The impending renovation brings up many feelings and theories about what really happened to her sister. The more Fiona digs into her sister's murder, the deeper she becomes enmeshed in Idlewood's questionable history.

The Broken Girls is a well-written and chilling tale that will keep readers riveted and may have them believing in ghosts by the final pages. With wonderfully placed twists and characters who show the importance and strength of friendship and family bonds, this atmospheric ghostly mystery is filled with secrets in both story lines that finally converge into a spine tingling, yet very satisfying ending.

Disclaimer: This Advanced Reading Copy (ARC) was generously provided by the publisher in exchange for my honest review.

Simone St. James has crafted a rich historical mystery (with ghostly elements) that also satisfies the suspense reader. THE BROKEN GIRLS tells two stories, one in 1950 and one in 2014 - both surrounding Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for troubled girls. St. James has linked these two separate times beautifully; I was impressed by the through lines she was able to construct between the generations of women. AND I was blown away by the reveal after trying (and failing) to solve the mystery myself. The atmosphere of Idlewild Hall is not one that I will soon forget, nor will I forget the fortitude and strength of the young women St. James depicted.
I received this book via NetGalley - from Berkely Publishing Group - in exchange for an honest review. taylorhavenholt.com/thhbooks.html.

I loves this book. I couldn't put it down. Part murder mystery spanning decades and part ghost story this book was wonderful. #netgalley #brokengirls

is a quintessential Gothic novel. We have the gloomy setting complete with decaying school buildings and grounds that may or may not be haunted. There is the fact that Idlewild is purported to be cursed. There are girls needing to be rescued, and there is romance. But this is not a traditional Gothic novel in that the hero is not a knight in shining armor or even a man coming to rescue the damsels in distress. This is, to some extent, a feminist Gothic novel, making it timely as well as entertaining.

I quite loved this. This was quite haunting and spooky and really encapturing. This truly deserved my five star rating without any hesitation.

Loved the fusion of present and past and how it came full circle.

Was invested with characters and felt quite warm to them.

Superbly written with an engrossing storyline and gullible and human characters–The Broken Girls was such a blast to read.

Simone St. James will be on my radar now for great suspense/thrillers.

The novel The Broken Girls switches back and forth between two different time periods in Vermont. Idlewild Hall, the location of a 1950’s boarding school, is where everything mysterious begins. The present-day setting of the book is 2014 in the same location.

Fiona Sheridan, the main character, cannot stop thinking about Idlewild Hall because her sister disappeared and her body was found in a wooded area near the ruins of that abandoned school. Another girl had also disappeared when she was a student at the school in the 1950’s. Her body has never been found. And then there is the ghost story about Mary Hand that has been associated with the school since its inception.

Fiona now a journalist learns that the school is being restored by an unknown benefactor. Due to her ongoing curiosity about the school and the grounds, she resolves to write a story about the past history and present plans to restore the school. Needless to say, she discovers things she had never imagined she would find.

This book offers the reader a good mystery spiced with a little bit of the supernatural along with a few surprise twists thrown into the mix. The attention needed to connect all of the details keeps the reader involved and entertained.

Taking the story from 1950 when the school was being actively used to 2014 when it was abandoned is an effective way to communicate the paranormal atmosphere of the tale. The ghostly scenes are written so that the reader might feel chills when they “appear”. Even though the book is written in two different time periods, the transitions are easy to follow and well planned. The early time period becomes the source of the mystery that the 2014 characters are determined to resolve. And the characters from both eras must deal with paranormal encounters.

Friendship is a significant theme portrayed in the book. Family ties or lack of them is also an essential element that contributes to the plot. And what would a book be without a little bit of a romantic interlude?

This book offers a mystery with just the right amount of intrigue. It will hold your interest and might even cause your skin to prickle now and then.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this novel.

... wow.

Okay, first of all, this is not the twisty genre of suspense. In fact, there are not a ton of shocking plot reveals, which we all know are my favorite thriller things. But nonetheless, this keeps you engaged because of the supremely good ghost stories. The thing with ghost stories is they have to get the atmosphere down, and I think this book did. The Vermont boarding school has the perfect creepy and beautiful vibe to bring out the fear, and the writing is so engaging that it makes it impossible to put down.

But it’s not just the atmosphere; this has some of the best theme work I’ve seen in a thriller. I mean, it’s essentially a book about four girls at a boarding school where they’ve been forgotten all coming together and becoming close friends. The other theme here is a spoiler, but I loved it: [murdering Nazis. (hide spoiler)]

The Broken Girls is told via dual story lines, past and present, with one following friends Katie, Roberta, Cece, and Sonia in 1950 and one following journalist Fiona in 2014. The past timeline… is way more interesting. I’m sorry, but we know it’s true. Perhaps it’s because the past chapters, despite less ghost activity, are the scariest.

Seriously, did I mention: the past chapters are deeply terrifying on both a simple and existential level. The author plays up the feeling of being trapped that our leads are going through, the feeling of being unbelieved as their friends are threatened. It’s incredibly difficult to put the book down, but it’s also so difficult to keep reading.

overall this book was a fantastic read, eerie and interesting and with excellent characters. exactly what I wanted out of thriller.

The Broken Girls is a haunting yet captivating story. There are 4 schoolmates back in the 1950's at Boarding School , that is a scary place in itself. Who is the mystery ghost like figure that has scared people for years. Which one of the four disappears?

The story is told from the perspective of the four girls in 1950 and from Fiona, a journalist , whose own sister was found murdered on the same school grounds years ago. Her story is told from 2014

I loved this book and I am wondering how I have never read this author before. You just want to keep turning the pages to see what happens. Make sure you do your chores first before starting The Broken Girls.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book.

Trying my best to get caught up on review books this month starting things off with The Broken Girls.

I throughly enjoyed this book! Set in Vermont, spanning 50 years in a boarding school for girls, we follow four girls lives. When one girl goes missing, things start to come out of the woodwork. Part thriller, part drama, and part supernatural. This book kept me engaged the entire time.

Almost any story that spans several years and flips from past to present I’m going to like. This particular story was very haunting but in a smart way. The “ghost” elements were handled in a way that didn’t reflect horror but heartache. I felt for these girls and how misunderstood psychiatric care was in the 50s. All girls who were sent to Idlewild Hall were considered broken (orphaned, behavioral issues, or traumatized by a tragic event) and their teachers didn’t know how to handle them because the subject of psychology was pretty much unknown territory. Very interesting to read about though and what it must have been like.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advanced copy! I will for sure be recommending this to others!

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is a dual time-line novel (2014/1950). In Barrons, Vermont at 3 a.m. Fiona Sheridan is back on Old Barrons Road near Idlewild Hall where her sister’s body was found twenty years ago. Everyone tells her it is time to move on, but Fiona has unanswered questions. Tim Christopher, her sister’s boyfriend, was convicted of the murder and is in prison serving his sentence. When Fiona finds out that Idlewild Hall has been purchased and is being renovated to turn it back into a girl’s boarding school, she decides to write (freelance journalist) an article about it. While touring the school with Anthony Eden, son of the new owner, a body of a teenage girl is discovered in the old well. Who is she and how did she end up there? Fiona dives into the past to discover what happened to this poor girl. If she happens to turn up information in her sister’s case, all the better.

In 1950 Idlewild Hall is a girl’s boarding school for troubled girls (too independent, rebellious, illegitimate, traumatized, unwanted). CeCe, Sonia, Katie and Roberta room together and, as they get to know each other, become close friends. The lessons are boring, the teachers are rigid, and the luxuries are few. The school is rumored to be haunted by Mary Hand and one room seems to be more sinister than the others. Then one of the girls disappears-never seen again. What is going on at Idlewild Hall? Will Fiona get the answers she seeks?

I had trouble wading through The Broken Girls. I believe the author had too many ideas and, instead of picking, she put them all into this one story (murder, 1800s ghost, modern killer, a girl from a concentration camp and so much more). I found the pace to be very slow which made the book seem twice as long. I found the book disjointed with abrupt transitions. It jumps around faster than a Mexican jumping bean. Fiona Sheridan was not a likeable main character. She came across as obsessed and unsympathetic (I kept hoping the killer would make her the next victim). Much of her sections are devoted to her endless questions and speculation (it was repetitious). I found the story from the 1950s to be more fascinating than the Fiona’s. The author could have done a book just on the four girls story (and kept Fiona out of it). There are a couple of interesting moments in the book, but I mostly found the story to be predictable (mystery readers will have no problem predicting how the book will turn out). I wanted to feel the suspense and the scare factor, but I did not. I do want to warn readers that there is foul language in the book. I realize I am in the minority regarding my feelings on The Broken Girls. That is the beauty of books. Every reader has a different perspective. If you want to see if The Broken Girls is for you, download a sample from your favorite retailer.

3.5 to 4 Stars
The Broken Girls follows the story of Fiona, struggling to grasp the senseless murder of her sister twenty years ago; however, it is hard for her to put the past behind her when she finds out that someone has bought the old boarding school, where her sister was found. With plans to restore the school to functionality again, Fiona wants to write a story about the restoration that will cause her to get closer to the buried secrets of it's past and the past of her small town. As she uncovers more, she gets closer to the four girls that were roommates in 1950, one of which went missing and was never found. Will she be able to uncover what happened to her or will she lose herself trying to figure out the past?

Let's talk about the Plot - As I mentioned, we follow two storylines, one from the present day (2014) and the other from the past (1950). It took some time to build up to the point where I was wanting to set everything else aside to read it. I didn't see a few of the twists coming and I loved the historical elements that were sprinkled throughout the story as well. However, I felt like the pacing was lacking throughout the first half of the novel. Just when one storyline would pick up, we were jumping back in time again. Often that shift would pull me out of the story in the beginning. As the storylines both picked up the intensity is when I found myself more invested in reading for longer periods of time, really wanting to know what happened.

Characters - Most of the characters were well described and thoroughly fleshed out, which I enjoyed. The one downside is that there was a lot of characters. I found it hard to keep all of the girls in the 1950 storyline straight. I was thankful that I had my notes to tell me who was who. I would have liked to have seen more of the present day characters prior to just the current situation, like Jamie's father and more of his role in the investigation of Fiona's sister's murder.

Overall this was a very dense and slow building book. It really reminded me of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with the layered depth of it. With a slight twist of a ghost story, we follow two separate timelines that eventually converge into one. I had a hard time deciding on a rating for this book; however, it was a really good read. I would recommend this to others that like a slower pace with an interwoven story that leaves you pieces things together long into the story.

*NetGalley - I requested access to this book prior to publication. All opinions and reviews are my own and not solicited by the author, publisher, or NetGalley.

In THE BROKEN GIRLS we follow Four (4) young girls, all roommates, in an all girl boarding school located in Vermont. It’s a horrible place to live. A place where broken girls are discarded by their families like they are nobody, like their nothing. Four (4) disgraced girls that need to be hidden away so as to not embarrass their families.... And then one of them disappears.

The chapters flip back-and-forth from 1950 to 2014. A 60-year-old mystery unravels as the two worlds collide with a BRILLANT ending. This book is unputdownable and worthy of FIVE (5) stars. Easily one of my favorite books so far this year. I will definitely be gifting this book one to one of my bookish friends on their birthday.