The Blessed by Tonya Hurley

Release Date: September 25

Series: The Blessed (bk. 1)

Genera: Paranormal Romance

Subjects: Saints, sainthood, religion, supernatural, humor, New York

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: (about) 408 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary/ product description: “From the author of the New York Times bestselling ghostgirl series, the start to a captivating and haunting teen trilogy about three girls who become entangled with an enigmatic boy—a boy who believes he is a saint.What if martyrs and saints lived among us? And what if you were told you were one of them?
Meet Agnes, Cecilia, and Lucy. Three lost girls, each searching for something. But what they find is Beyond Belief.”

My Rating: êêê1/2

My Review: This book was discouragingly confusing at first. I really wasn’t sure if I want to read it after the first 20 pages. I put it down for a few months and only picked it because I wanted to review it before it was released. And who knew, maybe it would get better as it went along. I did. Kind of. It’s was still confusing. There were no Angels, but Sebastian sounded hot. Lucy’s a media whore, Cecelia’s a rocker chic and Agnus almost killed herself over a boy. They all seemed like unlikely candidates for sainthood that I wasn’t sure how the story was going to turn out. But they changed. I did like the part about the hurricane/tornado in New York. The funny thing is that on September 9^th when I was reading this book, a tornado did touch down in Manhattan, and one in New York City. Two tornados. Coincidence? Very strange. So for a while I though the story was going an apocalyptic/dystopian route. Cicadas plague instead of locusts? Well, it didn’t completely go that way, but there was some survival while they were trapped in the church. Something to look forward to if you struggle with the first few chapters. There’s very little true paranormal stuff till the end, but I hope the next book will be better. Happy reading!

Cover Art Review: I know it’s supposed to be Lucy, but that girl looks very creepy. She looks like a possessed Dakota Fanning/Amanda Seyfreid. Those eyebrows…ick…and the pink eye shadow…eww. So what if she’s the patron saint of the blind. The title looks cool. I’m sure this will be printed on sparkly pearlized stock.

 

~Haley G