REVIEW Shattered Souls by Mary Lindsey

 

A thrilling debut story of death, love, destiny and danger

Lenzi hears voices and has visions - gravestones, floods, a boy with steel gray eyes. Her boyfriend, Zak, can't help, and everything keeps getting louder and more intense. Then Lenzi meets Alden, the boy from her dreams, who reveals that she's a reincarnated Speaker - someone who can talk to and help lost souls - and that he has been her Protector for centuries.

Now Lenzi must choose between her life with Zak and the life she is destined to lead with Alden. But time is running out: a malevolent spirit is out to destroy Lenzi, and he will kill her if she doesn't make a decision soon.

2/5 Stars.


There is nothing more depressing than looking forward to a book forever, only to read it and not care for it.

I could see why so many people so far had liked it—the mythology was good, the history of the Speakers and the Protectors. And the romance sweeping back generations of reincarnations was swoon-worthy at times.

But mostly…I just felt lost.

Lenzi, the main character, just felt blank to me. She just didn’t have a lot of personality or backstory for me to get attached to her, so following her along on this story felt strange to me.

Lenzi is the reincarnation of Rose, who has been a Speaker (read: she can speak to the dead, and it’s her job to help them pass on) for probably dozens of lifetimes. The only problem is that Lenzi doesn’t remember any of her past lives…and all the other Speakers and Protectors (basically, the Speaker’s helpers) do, so they expect her to pick right back up where she left off. But she’s completely blown out of the water by all of this, and is relying on Alden, her Protector, for help. She feels an instant attraction to Alden, but he resists her because Rose (past-life Lenzi, who was in charge of him) had always told him that they would never have a relationship, and that they just had to focus on their job.

It was weird for me to read about a character that was essentially jealous of herself, and to listen to all the other characters tell her about “herself”. Also, Alden, who was supposed to be helping her, kept keeping stuff from her (and the whole pain/pleasure thing? That gave me the heebie-jeebies), and kept expecting her to be just like Rose, when it was obvious she wasn’t anything like her…it kind of drove me bonkers.

Like I said, I liked the mythology of the Speakers and the Protectors, but this just wasn’t the book for me.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
 
-geekgirl