Broken Girls by Simone St. James
4.5/5 Stars
An eerie suspenseful novel that presents a splendid thriller with a tinge of paranormal shade.
The story alternates between two timelines. 1954 and 2014.
The 1954 story is set in Idlewild hall, a boarding school for troubled girls (Its either for the girls who didn’t have any family or they are unwanted by their family). It features Katie, Cece, Roberta and Sonia, who are roommates at Idlewild Hall. They are all damaged and hurt in their own way. Over time, they bond over their troubled life stories. They become friends and they depend on each other.
And then there is Mary Hand:
“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!”
Mary Hand is something of a legend among generations of Idlewild girls. She wears a black Veil and haunts the Idlewild grounds. Many have claimed seen her and some have heard her speak. During their stay at Idlewild hall, all four of the girl’s experience Mary Hand one way or the other. When one of them goes missing, is it the work of the Mary Hand?
The 2014 story tells us the story of a journalist named Fiona Sheridan. She is the daughter of the famous journalist of the town Malcom Sheridan. Twenty years ago, her sister Deb Sheridan was murdered and dumped in the field of Idlewild Hall (which is now abandoned). Tim Christopher, Deb’s boyfriend at that time was found guilty and charged for the murder. Even after 20 years, Fiona thinks something is missing regarding her sister’s case. She often visits Old Barren Road (where Idlewild hall is located) at night and tries to find out what’s driving her instinct.
When she finds out that Idlewild hall is about to be restored and converted into a boarding school again, Fiona is intrigued and decides to write an article about it.
As she starts digging, more dirty secrets unravel.
I absolutely loved the novel. Right from the prologue, the story kept me on hook. Usually when the narration moves between alternate timelines, it slows down the pace of the novel. Simone St. James has crafted it so skillfully that you never feel the story slowing down even when the narration shifts. At the end, when both the timelines merge into one, its seamless as it can be.
This is definitely a character driven novel. Its certain that the author has done her work in crafting each and every character in the book. I loved Fiona. She is flawed but very intelligent and stubborn. I don’t know if she will ever show up on another novel. But I will love to see her again. I am looking forward to read more from the author.
Thanks to Berkley Publishing Group and Netgalley for the ARC.
If Paranormal thriller is your thing, Pick this up !!

Ghosts, twists and a riveting plot make for masterful gothic mystery
“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…”

These words appear frequently in Simone St. James’ “The Broken Girls,” the first time being in the prologue. A girl is making her way back to Idlewild Hall in Vermont after spending the weekend with relatives, but she is convinced she is being chased. The prologue ends with these words: “The girl looked into the darkness and screamed.”

I can’t think of a more perfect way to begin a Gothic mystery/ghost story.

Idlewild Hall is home to the broken girls—the illegitimate, the troublemakers, the troubled and damaged. It is isolated and dreary, the perfect place for parents to stash unwanted children. And it is haunted by Mary Hand, a ghost dressed in black, including a black veil, who appears to girls using their greatest fears to terrorize them.

In the thread of the story taking place during the 1950s, four girls became great friends, helping each other to survive and deal with the problems that brought them to the school. Katie, Sonia, Cece and Roberta share everything as they try to understand all the strange happenings. But then one of them disappears, and none of the authorities seem to care.

The other thread takes place in 2014. Freelance journalist Fiona Sheridan is still mourning the murder of her sister, whose body was found on the grounds of Idlewild Hall in the 1990s. The school closed shortly after the murder, and a mysterious purchaser has bought the property and is starting renovations to reopen the school. Although the murderer is in jail, she doesn’t feel all her questions were answered, so she seizes the opportunity to write about the renovations,hoping it will let her dig more deeply and finally make peace with her sister’s death. When another body is discovered during the renovations, the stakes get even higher.If my details seem sparse in this review, I don’t want to spoil the read for anyone.


This is the first time I’ve read a St. James book, but I confess I’m a fan already. Edge of your seat doesn’t come close to describing how hooked I was, eagerly awaiting the spectacular finale as the two stories merge seamlessly, but not without a lot of twists, turns and roadblocks. Fiona stirs the waters of the entire town as she tries to solve two murders.

The plot is seamless, the mystery riveting, and the appearances of Mary Hand kept the chills running up and down my spine. “The Broken Girls” is a masterful Gothic mystery.

Sandy Mahaffey is former Books editor for The Free Lance-Star.

My Highly Caffeinated Thought: A haunting tale linking the past to the present in one positively addictive and gripping thriller.

THE BROKEN GIRLS is an unsettling and chilling read which will keep you up at night reading. From the beginning to the end, I was completely spellbound by this story.

The author’s ability to weave together a tale that blends the past with the present so seamlessly is nothing short of exquisite. Sometimes an author can get lost in the space between a story that spans so many years, but St. James brought it to life. The craftsmanship behind the writing, the broad spectrum of characters, and the richness in the quality story made me want to slow down as I was reading so that I could make it last just a bit longer.

I know it sounds like I am gushing, and it is because I am. I have not been this captivated by mystery with a hint of the supernatural since I finished HOW TO HANG A WITCH by Adriana Mather. If you want to read a gritty, intense, and all encompassing mystery with heart, look no further than THE BROKEN GIRLS. I cannot believe how much I loved this book and cannot recommend it more.

This story was such a good mystery. THE BROKEN GIRLS combines some creepy elements into a past/present mystery. Add in a haunted location with a creepy ghost to a few murder mysteries, past and present, and we have THE BROKEN GIRLS. A story about the girls of misfortune.

Somewhere in Vermont in 1950, there was a girls home called Idlewild Hall that sat on haunted grounds. The girls there were all bad, and this reform school was their last option. Some of them had families full of hope that they would recover, and some girls had no families at all. These girls existed only on the school grounds and grew tight like family living and learning together.

In that same town in 2014, is woman who is haunted by the death of her sister twenty years earlier. Her sister's body was found on the old school grounds and her murder was caught and is not serving time. For some reason Fiona can't let it go. Fiona is a journalist and when she gets wind that the old school grounds, the site of her sister's murder, are being renovated she takes on the story hoping to uncover some secrets about the location.

This book has a real creepy set up. I loved the ghost stories pasted from girl to girl in the textbooks of the old school. The girl's school girls tell a good story as one of them is murdered in the prologue. Then we follow Fiona along as shs tries to retrace the night of her sister's murder. I was wrapped in both the past and present characters in this book.

The historical elements to this story made this an easy read. Fiona does a smooth job of uncovering the mystery of the people behind the renovations and the girls who lived at the school. I was entranced with the people she met and what she was able to see with her journalists eye. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I highly recommend it to readers who love a creepy mystery with a bittersweet ending.

I read it very quickly and enjoyed every bit of it. THE BROKEN GIRLS, at it's core, is about grief and the many ways people work through it.

The Broken Girls is a bone chilling, spine tingling psychological thriller that will leave your head spinning at the end with all of it's revelations.

We follow Fiona Sheridan, journalist, daughter to another well-known journalist, and sister to deceased Deb, found murdered on the property of the old Idlewild Hall. She had never gotten over her sisters death even though the killer had been caught. When she finds out Idlewild Hall is being restored, she sees a story that needs telling. However, in the process of researching this story she finds herself deeper and deeper in a web of secrets, lies, and danger.

The beginning of the story was slow. I found myself wishing it would pick up. The story was jumping between years and I was trying to wrap my head around what was going on and why these two stories that appeared to be separate were going to tie together. That feeling of reading two different stories continued throughout the book but, as it got into the story more, you could slowly tie pieces together and see that somehow, someway it was going to tie up in a bow in the end. I was not a big fan of the ghost story vibe in the beginning, but I later figured out that it wasn't the center of the story and it was just that added creepiness that gave more body to the story. More interesting backstories. It really helped round out the edges of the story, even though it was not the primary focus. This is not just a ghost story. It is so much more than that.

St. James did a great job of developing these characters at a slower pace with the use of flashbacks, moments of clarity, and a show of emotions. We got to learn about the characters from both 2014 and 1950 that was like a a slow build to a peak of their high point or most important decision. I loved Fiona and her independence. She was someone you could relate to on certain levels, but also someone you hoped to be like. That strength she carried even when the world had beat her down over the years was inspiring.

Simone St. James wrote a fantastic mystery novel that will literally keep you guessing until the very end. This is the book for mystery, suspense lovers everywhere. Everyone make sure to check it out.

Though Simone St. James had been on my radar for ages (creepy, potentially paranormal tales full of dark, Gothicy goodness!), it wasn’t until 2016 that I actually read one of her books. Although my GoodReads Recommends post based on Black Rabbit Hall (STILL one of my favorite books!) suggested Lost Among the Living, it was The Other Side of Midnight that ultimately became my introduction to her work. And I was utterly hooked. So it was a no-brainer for me when a publicist reached out about participating in the book tour for Simone’s latest, The Broken Girls!

Bouncing between 2014 and 1950, The Broken Girls weaves a tale of a boarding school for wayward girls and a modern-day journalist who hasn’t moved on from her sister’s murder two decades earlier. An urban legend (of a young woman rumored to haunt the school) that just might be more fact than fiction and the discovery of a girl’s body made this one a book I absolutely could not put down.

I’m a ‘the more, the merrier’ kind of girl when it comes to narrators in the books I’m reading and was delighted to see so many here! There’s the present day, following Fiona as she obsesses over her sister’s death (her body was discovered just outside the grounds of Idewild Hall) and her horror upon hearing the news that the now-decrepit building had been bought and will be undergoing renovations to be brought back to its former glory. Using the remodeling as her ‘in,’ Fiona convinces her boss to allow her to write the story, to meet with the new owners…and possibly discover a thing or two about the night her sister was murdered.

There are also the voices of four roommates who were students at Idewild. Each one felt genuine (as painful as that may be for some of them) and I loved each one of them. From Ce-Ce, the illegitimate daughter of a powerful man, to Sonia, still haunted by memories of a childhood spent in a concentration camp, each girl was her own person and the friendship these four had made me cheer. They loved each other, they championed each other, they were their own support group and their own fiercest defenders.

It’s probably evident by the title, but there are some seriously heavy themes here, especially in Sonia’s case. The Broken Girls is definitely not a light-hearted read, though it does have its joyful moments. For me, it’s heaviness, its bleakness and the mystery surrounding what’s discovered during the remodeling made it a perfect winter read. Simone St. James is an author I think of as being more of a Halloween/fall author (mainly because of the creepiness factor and, well, ghosts), but The Broken Girls had my full attention on a long, cold, snowy winter day. Mood readers looking for a broody, richly atmospheric novel, look no further: Mary Hand still walks the halls of a crumbling boarding school in Vermont, the home of many decades’ worth of bad memories for countless girls. Sadness and despair rule here and I couldn’t tear myself away.

To give you an idea of just how much I was captivated by this one: I love Jennifer McMahon. Her novels, particularly The Winter People (also set in Vermont!), creeped me out so much I could ONLY read it in broad daylight – and with all the lights on! The Broken Girls? I couldn’t stop reading. I read WELL into the night on a weekend when Matt was away on a trip. Yeah. You could say I liked this one. While The Broken Girls might be hard to top, luckily for me, Simone St. James has four other novels I have yet to read! To say this one was great is an understatement – I wholeheartedly recommend it and will be eagerly awaiting her next book!

I love a good ghost story!

1950: at Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for delinquent girls, 4 roommates develop a bond over their shared circumstances. Lurking in the background is the simmering fear of Mary Hand, the ghost that roams the grounds. Mary Hand summons your deepest fears and calls to you to let her in from the cold. If you don’t resist her, you die.

2014: Journalist Fiona Sheridan is investigating the refurbishment of Idlewild Hall. Why would an eccentric wealthy stranger want to restore this dilapidated building to its former glory? Buried secrets come to light during the renovations that reveal the mysteries of what happened to those four friends back in 1950, and also the real story of what happened to Fiona’s sister, Deb, who was murdered twenty years ago and left on the grounds at Idlewild.

The story moves back and forth in time from 1950 to 2014, the constant presence of the ghost Mary Hand tormenting those who visit Idlewild. The supernatural elements of this story were spooky enough to keep me turning the pages, and the earthly, present-day evils only enhanced the tension. The denouement was a bit far-fetched, but I still enjoyed way everything came together.

There is a lot going on in this book. There is the simmering suspense of Mary Hand, and the author weaves in other plot elements of unsolved murders and disappearances to create a complicated story. I was enthralled from start to finish, and relished the creepy atmosphere of Idlewild Hall.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for the advance copy.

This is a hard book for me to review. It did grab my attention from the beginning and the story line hooked me from the start. It did flip from past to present which normally I do not like but I had to find out what happened. Surprising ending which I love and it tied up all lose ends. It is a good writer who can hold your attention with a story that I normally would not llike

Idlewild Hall is a place where the girls no one wants are sent. But there is more than learning going on in this boarding school. Then one of the students disappears.

There are two timelines in this book: one in the 1950s while Idlewild Hall was an active boarding school and the other in 2014.

In 2014, the remains of the body of a young girl from a decades-old murder are discovered at Idlewild Hall, a school for girls now closed, that has always been rumored to be haunted. Fiona, a journalist, happens to be there when this body is discovered. Fiona is there because of another body—her sister’s—that was found on the school grounds years later.

Fiona had set out to learn the truth about her sister’s death and whether or not the one put in prison for her murder was actually guilty, but she discovers so much more than she planned. Although these discoveries help her to rekindle a relationship with her father, they could also destroy part of her life by causing her to lose her boyfriend as well as what is most precious to her: her own life.

Even in the 1950s, Idlewild Hall in Vermont is rumored to be haunted by Mary Hand, but no one knows who this girl really was or why she is haunting this boarding school, but everyone is terrified of her. Notes can be found written in old school books about her and have been there since the opening of the school. Could this ghostly presence be the reason for the disappearance and murder of each girl?

Katie, Sonia, Roberta, and CeCe are friends and roommates at the school. Each of them has been broken in a different way. Each one has a different story of sadness and/or pain— witnessing an almost-suicide, confinement at a Nazi prison, illegitimate, not wanted, troublemaker—but what it all boils down to is that they are no longer wanted at home. This school out in the middle of nowhere is where they were sent. Over time, they bond and become close friends.

Things are so strict at this school that when one of the girls receives a radio as a gift, she must keep its presence a secret from the teachers. Another girl keeps a secret journal in which she reveals the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps and prisons.

Sonia is excited when her elderly relatives decide they want her home for a weekend visit, but Sonia never comes back and her suitcase is found in the woods.

The two murders are committed years apart, but each has a story of betrayal, and each has its secrets. The twists and turns in this exciting story will keep you from wanting to put the book down. The ending is very satisfactory and all loose ends are tied up.

NetGalley sent me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

A HAUNTED BOARDING SCHOOL?? YES, PLEASE!

Expect...

- Award-winning writing
- Enthralling storytelling
- Small run-down town Gothic creepy atmosphere
- Death, grief, crimes and old secrets that are gradually revealed
- Haunted boarding schoolhouse in one of the scary places on earth [New England]
- Forgotten broken adolescents
- School drama wrapped in a crunchy ghostly taco shell
- Friendship and bonding
- Historical fiction with interwoven dual time periods
be silenced

What happens when you are an unwanted troubled teenager with an unloving family? FIVE things happen…

Number 1: You get cast away to a boarding school. A HAUNTED ONE.

Number 2: Ghosts.

Number 4: The other girls in the boarding school are there for a reason: They are troubled too! AND MEAN.

Number 5: Something sinister and terrible!

READ THIS BOOK and find out! SO GOOD!

"It wasn’t easy to survive in a boarding school full of throwaway girls..."

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I started reading this story but it wasn't the discovery of one of the better ghost stories I've ever read.

This story is told in two time periods - the early 1950s centering around four teenage girls and 2014 centering around journalist Fiona Sheridan. At the very center of the story is Idlewild Hall in Barrons, Vermont - a school for wayward girls. In 2014 the school has been closed for years but someone has bought the property and is starting to renovate it.

Twenty years ago Fiona's sister was murdered and her body was found on the Idlewood Hall property. As Fiona starts digging into the story of her sister's murder, evil people and ghostly apparitions start to rise to the surface.

I liked the way the story was told so that the reader gets background on when the school was still operating. It reminded me of the movie THE MAGDALENE SISTERS about a Catholic home for wayward girls, although it was scary because it was based on true events, not because of a ghost.

I loved the characters, the storyline, the setting - all came together perfectly for me.

I received this book from Berkley Publishing through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

From my blog:

THE BROKEN GIRLS is a haunting thriller set in rural Vermont. The novel is split between two time periods — 1950 and 2014 — and surrounds the mysterious boarding school, Idlewild Hall. In the 50s, we meet a group of teens labeled as troublemakers, disturbed and the illegitimate. The girls may be dealing with some of these issues but they’re also strong, intelligent, curious and protective of their friendship. Katie, CeCe, Roberta, and Sonia bond through their shared struggles at Idlewild and their personal home life experiences. Readers see the world through each of the girls' eyes via their own chapters. We also learn that one of the girls goes missing. Is it at the hands of the legendary ghost, Mary Hand, who haunts the school? Is the girl a runaway?

In 2014, we meet Fiona Sheridan, a freelance culture writer obsessed with the events surrounding her sister’s death on the grounds of Idlewild. She, too, is a strong character, fiercely protective of her sister’s memory. As a writer, Fiona feels she’s always trying to live up to her famous father, a retired journalist. She’s also dating, Jamie, one of the town’s police officers. Journalists and police, usually, don’t mix. Not to mention, Fiona and Jamie are, currently, dealing with a rocky relationship. When Fiona discovers that Idlewild has been sold to an unknown buyer, her investigative instincts kick in. Who would want to purchase a long-abandoned school? Is it someone who attended Idlewild?

THE BROKEN GIRLS is my kind of mystery. I love eerie settings, boarding schools, and the 1950s. This is the first time I’ve read a novel by St. James. She does a terrific job of creating an atmosphere of fear and unease. Not only because of the ghost of Mary Hand but the missing student and Fiona’s investigation into the buyer of the school. And someone definitely doesn’t want Fiona digging into the past.

It’s easy to see why THE BROKEN GIRLS was chosen as “March 2018 Library Reads Selection”. If you feel this might be a good read for Halloween, don’t wait! Dive into the novel now. THE BROKEN GIRLS kept me up late at night turning the pages to find out what happened next. The tight-knit relationship between Katie, CeCe, Roberta, and Sonia is the heart of the novel. I absolutely LOVE their backstories and adventures at school. The novel is full of great twists and turns. I also enjoyed Fiona’s relationship with her father. Although, I wished I’d known a little bit more about why he was so revered and spoken of in awe by members of the community.

St. James also does a fantastic job of weaving together the different stories of THE BROKEN GIRLS. I realize this is a stand-alone, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Fiona solve another case…along with the help of some trusty friends. Who are they? You’ll have to read THE BROKEN GIRLS to find out!

Looking forward to the next book from St. James, but in the meantime, I’m happy to check out her backlist.

I absolutely loved this book. From the very beginning, I was pulled in by the story and needed to know what happened. Each hint and clue that was given to unravel the mystery at hand had me trying to piece together what happened. I was like a small child on an Easter egg hunt and it thrilled me to no end. I loved that Simone St. James decided to switch between time periods while telling this story because it added so much to the story. Usually, when this happens in books it can be hard to decipher who is telling the story and where and when you are, but Simone did a superb job at keeping everything clear to the reader. I was never confused about who was telling me each part of the book. If you want a mystery that has the feel of a ghost story I highly recommend you pick up a copy of this book: you won't be let down.

Idlewild Hall is hardly a sanctuary. It’s more aptly described as . . . a prison.

In the 1950’s, the school is where the forgotten girls are sent. The troublemakers. The unwanted ones. The promiscuous and daring. The ones with intelligence that threatens the egos of the more masculine sex. It’s where girls who can think for themselves are banished. With bars concealed as dusty bricks and makeshift guards dressed up properly and called teachers, Idlewild is a penitentiary full of outdated rules and harsh regulations intent upon crushing the spirit. A place where the madness is not cured but nurtured, and where malcontent is not smothered but instead – fanned like a flame.

But there is some solace in friendship. There are four girls who share whispers in the dark and speak of their dreams by the moonlight that filters through their dirty, frosty window. The diverse walks of their previous life notwithstanding, they have found a way to bond and create a tiny sliver of happiness in an otherwise meager existence.

Katie, a wildly beautiful and reckless young lady with a smart mouth and clever ambition. Roberta, the athlete with fierce loyalty and a harbored and shameful secret. CeCe, the unwanted bastard child of a rich man is a girl who looks for every opportunity to be optimistic. And Sonia, the quiet and frail girl with a curious accent that speak of the horrors in her past that outweigh any transgression she could face at Idlewild.

They are all looked after by each other and, in the shadows, by another girl of Idlewild . . . or rather, a ghost. The haunting image of Mary Hand, a young woman whose spirit lingers at the school and shares frightening images as way of communication. She is always trying to get in while the other girls, well – they are always trying to get out.

As the present turns into history and the broken girls are forgotten, Idlewild Hall deteriorates into a pile of crumbled bricks and rubble. The gardens and grounds are nothing but haphazard weeds, their sole intent to cover and mask any sort of memory the school left behind. Wild animals in the shape of modern-day teenagers desecrate the remaining structure with midnight trysts and forbidden drinking parties. The place is as broken as the girls it once housed, but the mysteries of the secrets it holds hangs on for a select few.

One person who can never escape the clutches of Idlewild Hall is freelance journalist Fiona Sheridan, a local in the small Vermont town that sits on the edge of the the old school’s overgrown grounds. She finds herself back there more often than she’d like to admit to herself, her grief-stricken father, or to her conscientious police officer boyfriend. Fiona’s sister is what keeps her coming back; the girl she grew up idolizing was stripped of her youth when she was strangled and dumped on the grounds of Idlewild Hall. Abandoned in the night, discarded like trash in a dump, and left vulnerable to the elements of nature and of the gaping faces of the townsfolk who came to watch the aftermath, the death of the Sheridan girl was a scandal. Fiona has allowed the murder and its subsequent fall-out to remain a constant undercurrent of obsession in her life, no matter that her sister’s boyfriend was arrested and sent to jail for the crime. Something about the case always seemed to not add up, and it has been a thorn in her side ever since.

When a construction crew shows up at Idlewild and begins demolition, Fiona’s journalistic juices begin a slow and steady pump. The place has been abandoned for years, left to its own unsavory devices. Who would want to resurrect the place now? And for what purposes? As Fiona begins to delve further into the strange circumstances surrounding the redevelopment of such a sad and lonely structure, she uncovers more than she bargained for. There are certain secrets hidden in the depths of the school and its records that have been meticulously buried deep – almost as deep as the body found during the excavation of the school. Who is the dead girl, and what is her connection to Idlewild? Fiona will make it her purpose to find the answers, even if it means burning her entire life down around her in the process.

The Broken Girls is the newest novel by Simone St. James, the award-winning author of paranormal novels The Haunting of Maddy Clare and Silence for the Dead. With a knack for bringing history to life and twisting it together with creepy nuances and spine-tingling sketches, St. James is known for her impactful drawings of strong female characters and the descriptive ways in which she weaves their quests and plots.

My impression of The Broken Girls was ultimately one of regret. I was drawn to the initial storyline; there is something about boarding schools that always seem to attract me. They are usually saturated with disgusting wealth, intrigue, strong relationships, and mystique. This particular novel had a few of those bullet points locked down along with the appealing threads of modern-day mystery sewn in. However, there was something that felt continually disjointed about the novel and almost . . . unfinished. I wish the author had pushed the stories of the young ladies a bit more or left some characters out to create room for the established ones, and the misshapen way it all came together had me questioning what one subplot had to do with the other. It felt juvenile at times and underdeveloped, which was a shame because I enjoyed the style of writing overall.

Although I’m giving this novel 3.5 out of 4 stars, I still recommend it. I think it’s an easy read and enjoyable in the throwaway sense. I’m sure plenty of readers will enjoy the fast-moving plot and lightly shrouded mystery. It’s a good read for the beach or a road trip, but not ideal for those looking to become attached.

From the very first chapter I was hooked. Sometimes when a book bounces between era’s it gets hard to follow. With the Broken Girls it was so easy to tell who was telling the story, where they were, and what was happening. The past to present alternating chapters were perfect.

Broken Girls has a ghost story aspect with a mystery to solve. Who is Mary Hand? I was thrilled with each hint, each clue, and each step that Fiona took towards solving the mystery of what happen at Idlewood Hall. There were many twists and turns that I didn’t see coming yet thrilled me to learn about. I knew that Fiona would find the truth but I had no clue how she would manage to do it.

This book is amazing. It will definitely make my favorites of 2018 list. If you are a Gothic mystery fan this is the book for you.

Idlewild Hall has been abandoned since 1979. Until then, it was a boarding school of last resort, where parents sent the daughters they'd sooner rather forget. Now someone is looking to restore it, bringing back all of journalist Fiona Sheridan's memories of her teenage sister, Deb. Deb was murdered and her body left in the fields of Idlewild. A rich teen--her sister's boyfriend--named Tim Christopher was charged with Deb's murder. But it never seemed quite right to Fiona. So, she decides to write a story about the restoration, but encounters more than she bargained for as she begins to uncover years of long-buried secrets.

This is a wonderful, captivating book that drew me in immediately. I've never read anything by Simone St. James, so this was a welcome surprise. The novel alternates between two time periods: 1950 and 2014. In 1950, we hear from four girls attending Idlewild Hall--Katie, CeCe, Sonia, and Roberta. One of the girls soon goes missing and her disappearance ties to 2014, where Fiona is both searching for more information about her sister's death and, eventually, more knowledge about the missing Idlewild student. It's incredibly well-done and extremely suspenseful, drawing you quickly into the narrative and the two separate but related worlds.

The book plays on the boarding school mystique and offers up more supernatural elements than I was expecting, but they somehow work here. The novel is creepy and not one I always wanted to be reading alone in the dark! Like some of my favorites, Jennifer McMahon and Carol Goodman, St. James has a flair for the eerie and the ghostly, and it works well in this context. The boarding school stands stark and haunting in the book-terrifying at times-and you feel the fear ooze across the pages from the various characters.

Indeed, St. James does a great job capturing her characters, whom practically come to life before your very eyes. The group from boarding school are excellent--each different in their own way--and Fiona is an excellent, complicated character as well. While the two eras stood alone, I enjoyed how the stories intermingled and slowly tangled together, making the book quite fascinating and a real page-turner. This one wasn't what I expected; at times, it could be quite heartbreaking and touching.

Overall, this is an incredibly well-done thriller. It's quite captivating with lovely characters. A great discovery.

Is it only a little over a year ago since I discovered Simone St. James through the fantastic book Lost Among the Living? Apparently so since then have I read a couple of her older books, and I quite enjoy her haunting tales. The Broken Girls captivated me from the first page and I enjoyed this hauntingly tragic story. As a big fan of books with dual storylines was I intrigued by both stories.

Journalist Fiona Sheridan sister was murdered twenty years previously and her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. Although it seems that the case is closed with the boyfriend being tried and convicted for the murder can't Fiona shake the feeling that something about the case is wrong. While Fiona investigates Idlewild Hall that has now been sold do we learn what happened in the 50s, through flashback chapters, at the school when one of the girls went missing...

The Broken Girls is an engaging story with an underlying feeling of paranormal. It's the paranormal vibes that make this book a bit extra thrilling to read I think. I found that I hardly could put the book down when I started to read it and I enjoyed both storylines. This is a fabulous book, very atmospheric, and I can't wait to read more from Simone St. James.

Fiona Sheridan is a freelance journalist living in small-town Vermont. Despite being the daughter of a famous journalist, Fiona's career and life have very much on hold since the murder of her older sister 20 years before. Her sister's body was found on the grounds of a defunct girl's boarding school, Idlewild. A man is in prison for the murder, but Fiona still has questions and can't let it go. Even her relationship with Jamie Creel, the police chief, and son of the chief who investigated her sister's murder is hampered by her questions and emotional distance.

Idlewild itself was a second, maybe third-rate school where families placed girls who were considered to be unmanageable. The girls were disciplinary problems; broken in some way by trauma, a little too smart for their own good, or just illegitimate. The Broken Girls switches between the story of four friends in 1950 and Fiona in 2014. One of the four friends went missing, and it was assumed she ran away with "some boy." Never mind that the girls had absolutely no unsupervised contact with the outside world. The records from Idlewild have gone missing, no one associated with the school wants to talk about it, and the school itself is rumored to be haunted. When a body is discovered in a well during a renovation of the property, the missing girl case opens up again. Fiona is determined to get answers this time.

Those of us who have waited a long time for The Broken Girls will not be disappointed. It is intricate, suspenseful, and above all, emotionally involving. I was utterly caught up in the stories of the four friends; Katie, Roberta, CeCe, and Sonia. I wanted to know what had happened to all of them, and if Fiona's quest would be successful. This blend of Gothic, mystery, suspense and ghost story is not to be missed! Thanks to Berkley and NetGalley for an advance digital copy. The opinions are my own.

RATING- 5 Stars

Thank you to Berkley and Netgalley for a copy of the eARC in exchange for a fair review.


Fiona Sheridan has been wondering lately if Tim really did kill her sister 20 years ago, and she is determined to find out the truth. She learns that a mysterious woman named Margret Eden has bought the Idlewild School and intends to restore, she decides that she has to write that story as well.


In the 1950s we see story unfolding in the eyes of the girls who were at Idlewild at the time. Roberta, Sonia, Katie and CeCe. We also learn the myth of Mary Hand, and why she scares the girls so much. We also learn that these girls aren't as bad as people think and many have been sent there to cover their own families secrets not their own.


In the present Fiona gets Anthony Eden to give her a tour and talk about the restoration of Idlewild, but she knows that something more is going on at this school that scares everyone. When a body is found in the well, little does Fiona know that in trying to solve that she will finally uncover the mystery surrounding her sister.


I want to say more, but too many details would reveal spoilers and in this story I think it is important to discover link by link on your own. I couldn't stop reading this, I thought it was going to be more centered on the ghost, but little did I know that the ghost would someone tie the two murders together and expose a lot of secrets.


I have to say this though I love the girls from the 1950s and I love Fiona, I was more than a little sad to learn about who was killed in 50s and found in the present day, especially as her story was revealed piece by piece in the past and the future. But this is a beautifully written story that masterfully weaves past and the present together for unforgettable story.