This wasn't bad but also wasn't really what I was expecting and kind of left me cold. This has all the right elements to make a great story: the dual mystery, the paranormal bent, the investigative journalist with a personal connection to the case. But by the end, these elements feel more like events happening next to one another rather than a well-plotted, cohesive story. I loved the idea of the boarding school for rejected girls which is what made me request this in the first place, but the story didn't spend as much there as I'd hoped and I didn't find the writing all that engaging. Not the worst thing I've ever read, but definitely not a new favorite.

The Broken Girls is an instantly intriguing tale that will inspire readers to crawl under the covers with a flashlight (after ensuring the doors and windows are locked) and keep reading all night. Alternating between events that took place in 1950 and 2014 at a girls' reformatory in Vermont, The Broken Girls is a mash-up of themes and genres that surprisingly works on every level. Part ghost story, part murder mystery, it is an engrossing, deftly constructed examination of other-worldly beings and two lost girls -- one missing and never accounted for and one murdered on the grounds of the abandoned school. Fiona Sheridan is a local freelance journalist who relives the circumstances surrounding her older sister's murder twenty years ago. Her body was dumped in the overgrown fields near the abandoned school, Idlewild Hall, and her boyfriend convicted and imprisoned. Case closed. But Fiona has always suspected there is more to the story. Now that Idlewild Hall is being restored and the new owner plans to reopen the school, Fiona convinces her editor to let her write the story. Her investigation broadens when a disturbing discovery on grounds as renovations commence. Fiona's unrelenting curiosity is the catalyst that lead to revelations about family, friendship, and murder. With its paranormal overtones, The Broken Girls also examines life after life, haunting, and communication with the departed. The fast paced action that accelerates to a terrifying conclusion makes The Broken Girls a compelling, satisfying, and thought-provoking read.
(Thanks to NetGalley for the Advance Reader's Copy of the book!)

This is a review of The Broken Girls by Simone St. James. I was able to read this book as a digital ARC from Netgalley.

This suspense novel takes place in Barrons, Vermont in two different times.

The main plot occurs with Fiona in 2014. Fiona is a 37-year-old freelance journalist who has never gotten over the murder of her sister. After twenty years, she is still trying to find out everything she can about the night her sister died. Along the way, she is consumed by the history of the private boarding school, Idlewild. Fiona's sister's body was found on Idlewild's athletic field, which makes the history of Idlewild all the more interesting. Idlewild's property has recently been purchased, and is rumored to reopen as a new boarding school for girls. However, there is reason why the land has been unsuccessful in selling.

Katie, Sonia, Roberta, and Cece all are students of Idlewild in 1950. Each girl is sent to Idlewild due to the hardships they were dealt with from their home life. Idlewild is the place where "difficult" girls are sent. The boarding school also holds its secrets with a haunting figure that torments the girls. Each girl is able to withstand the hardships due to their loving friendship. Their friendship is also what makes Idlewild feel like home.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I liked the suspense of figuring out what happened to Sonia, as well as, the spookiness of Marry Hand. This story shows that from 1950 to 2014, some towns are set in their old ways. The fact that the girls decide to take their futures into their own hands was empowering.

I loved the way the author chose to go back and forth between the past and present. It made for a more exciting book trying to uncover how the different stories were linked.

Idlewild Hall, a long abandoned school for girls that are a "problem" for someone, is being renovated. Fiona, a reporter covering the renovation, has a particular interest in Idlewild. Twenty years earlier, her sister was murdered on the grounds, and the sister's boyfriend was convicted of the crime. As Fiona begins her interviews for the story, she happens to be on the property when long-dead human remains are uncovered. As she digs into the past, the point of view shifts to the 1950's, and a group of girls who lived at Idlewild. Woven throughout both narratives is the legend of Mary Hand, a creepy ghost that haunts the property.

Several different mysteries going on at once made this a compelling pageturner. Ultimately, I found the resolution a bit anticlimactic after such a well-written and dramatic build up, and the romance between Fiona and a local cop seemed extraneous. But the characters are well drawn, and the supernatural element was different from lots of books in this genre in its simplicity.

This was just okay for me. I typically don’t read ghost stories, but once I started I decided to finish it, since the storyline sounded so good.
I just didn’t love it.

This was just the thing I needed. I’ve been struggling with starting books that just don’t seem to hold my interest, but The Broken Girls was a different story! It sucked me in and kept pulling me back.The story went back and forth from 1950 to 2014 with strong female characters of both eras. Oftentimes when a story goes back and forth in this manner, it feels like one place in time and it’s characters are just there as supporting roles for the ‘real story’ in the other time. That was not the case in this instance. Both lines of the story held their own and peaked my interest up until the point where they were beautifully intertwined, and revealed their unpredictable surprises. Highly recommended, The Broken Girls is hitting my Top Picks for 2018!

My review can be seen at RT Book Reviews - 4.5 stars / TOP PICK

Simone St. James has written another wonderful read. One that gets you so involved, that you must keep reading to find out what has happened in this very creepy Girls School. Who is the ghost that roams the school and what does she want. Missing girls, murders ghosts and very creepy atmosphere, enough to keep you on the edge of you seat! Excellent read!

Idelwild Hall being renovated but not being made public? Did the mysterious woman and her son that were doing the renovation know something no one else knew?

One good thing about the renovation was that it meant Fiona would be able to get inside the school grounds where her sister was found dead on the football field twenty years ago.

Fiona still had questions about her sister's death, and this would be the perfect time to investigate.

THE BROKEN GIRLS moves from 1950 when we meet the four main characters and then back again to present day with Fiona using her journalist's skills to write a story and find more clues to what happened at the school. It looked like more than what the public knew.

During her investigation, Fiona finds something else that happened that was kept from the public.

Fiona’s investigation heats up when she finds a teacher who was at Idelwild Hall during its hey day. The teacher let Fiona know that no one liked being there - students and teachers alike.

There was something at the school that was sinister and something that everyone wanted to keep quiet or perhaps something they didn’t know about but kept the students and teachers on edge.

You won’t want to put THE BROKEN GIRLS down.

THE BROKEN GIRLS has lots of secrets, along with ghosts, mean girls, and a school that was for unwanted girls for a reason.

This was my first book by Ms. St. James. Her writing is mesmerizing, detailed, and draws you in so well that you feel as if you are right there with the characters and the drama.

Murders, an old boarding school, corruption, and an awesome story line await the reader. And...how about that cover? A great indication of what is inside.

ENJOY when you read THE BROKEN GIRLS during daylight hours. LOVED the book. 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher and NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Hauntingly creepy, this ghost story will chill your bones. A dual timeline that takes place in a haunted, abandoned all girls school - the perfect setting for a ghost story!

I've been a fan of Simone St. James since reading The Haunting of Maddy Clare. She has a great instinct for adding just the right amount of supernatural elements to her stories to make them interesting and believable. In The Broken Girls, the the story takes place in Vermont across two timelines: the present day and the 1950s, when a group of girls resided at Idlewild Hall, a boarding school for young outcast women. In the present day, the main character, Fiona Sheridan (a journalist), who is still grieving the murder of her older sister many years ago, discovers that someone has purchased the dilapidated Idlewild Hall, and this creates an obsession to research the history the school. She isn't convinced the whole story of her sister's murder was really brought to light, and of course, she's right. In the narrative covering the past era, the reader is introduced to a group of girls who have all "seen" or "heard" something that they think is the ghostly presence of a young woman killed at the school in the 1800s. There are mysteries to solve in the past and in the present and the author does a great job of tying all these mysteries together. I found this to be a very enjoyable read, and an excellent example of this genre.

In 1994, Fiona Sheridan’s sister was found murdered in a field outside of Idlewild, a long-abandoned girls’ boarding school. Twenty years later and now a journalist, Fiona begins looking into the school’s past, uncovering a forgotten mystery involving four girls attending Idlewild in 1950 and an even older story of the ghost of Mary Hand. An intriguing dual narrative where the past converges with the present, featuring hauntings, murders, history, and just a tiny bit of romance.

True to St. James’s style, yet breaking the mold of her post-WWI-era novels. A highly enjoyable read!

An intriguing murder mystery with a supernatural element thrown in. The story takes place in different time periods, from 1950 to present, all revolving around the setting of a creepy girls school. This would definitely appeal to those who like a more gothic type tale; something not too graphic or gory but still quite atmospheric. 3.5 stars because I like my mysteries to be grittier!

A really fascinating, hair-raising tale! Couldn't put it down!

In the 1950s, Idlewild Hall in rural Vermont was a place where families sent daughters they’d rather forget. The residents of the boarding school are illegitimate, traumatized, criminal. But the school may be haunted by more than bad memories; a spirit called Mary Hand is said to stalk the halls, and four roommates, bonded over shared misery, will face the spirits of Idlewild when one of them disappears.

Meanwhile, in 2014, a local journalist is shocked to hear that long-abandoned Idlewild Hall is being restored. Her own obsession with the overgrown and forgotten school started when her sister’s body was discovered on the grounds twenty years earlier. As she begins to dig into the history of the school, she finds old mysteries entwined with new, and a growing sense that something haunts the grounds of the old school.

This was a wonderful mystery story with a supernatural twist. St. James weaves her narrative between 1950 and 2014, slowly parsing out information and clues to the reader. The book is atmospheric; the boarding school exudes a palpable sense of menace and despair. Fiona Sheridan, the journalist, and the four roommates from 1950 are well-written, with the young students quickly becoming characters to care about and fear for.

The supernatural elements of the story are well done, and fit organically into the plot. Who, or what, Mary Hand may be is dangled in front of the reader, but largely kept teasingly out of reach until the very end.

In all, this is a wonderfully satisfying mystery that avoids the pitfalls of the mystery thriller genre. Anyone who wants a ghost story mixed in with their mystery will enjoy this book.

An advance copy of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Well, this was fun!

The Broken Girls is half mystery novel, half ghost story, with a dual timeline, each with its own mystery. I thought the balance between both the two storylines and the ghost/mystery aspects was particularly effective (in a way it often isn’t with dual timelines). In the present day, Fiona is a journalist trying to come to terms with her sister’s murder. Even though the killer was tried and convicted, she can’t move on; the details aren’t sitting right. She decides to investigate the former school where her sister’s body was found after she learns the buildings are about to be renovated. The other half of the novel describes the experiences of four roommates who attended the school fifty years earlier, before it was abandoned. The four girls have all been labeled as ‘problems’ by society, but manage to build a friendship in an unlikely, and somewhat terrifying place.

I’ve read all of Simone St. James’ novels, and while I’ve enjoyed them all, I think this book is definitely one of the stronger ones. I read the book in one day, partly because it was so engaging, partly because I was worried I’d have trouble sleeping if I didn’t finish it before going to bed. What more do you want from a ghost story? And this ghost story is particularly creepy. Maybe it’s because of the modern setting – I think a historical setting can provide a sense of distance from the reader, a sense of that whatever’s happening wouldn’t/couldn’t happen now.

After I finished the novel, my brain kept circling around some of the common themes. The two storylines are connected by a school that has apparently been a place of tragedy for generations of women. It really brings home what can happen to women, particularly those society chooses to ignore, suppress, or judge, and how they have to fight to find a voice, or others have to fight to act as their voice for them.

Both storylines were well-developed; the character work is particularly strong. I do think that while Fiona’s character was easier to connect with initially, the development of the friendship between the four roommates was the more interesting in the end. Fiona occasionally comes across as a bit too tunnel-visiony (particularly in the middle of the novel), which worked in her capacity as a journalist solving a mystery, but made her romantic subplot (with police officer Jamie) difficult to fully invest in. She and Jamie had chemistry, but it was sometimes difficult to see the reason for the attraction. The resolution of the storyline from the past also felt better done than that in the present, both in terms of the character resolution, and the mystery elements. I did think the resolution of the modern mystery felt a little bit too neat. It might have been better with a little more nuance (particularly in connection with Jamie’s character arc).

Overall, this was an entertaining story, perfect for curling up on a couch on a snowy afternoon. I’d read it again, and recommend it to anyone who likes a good ghost story. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced copy.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this title. Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book which means I will not be able to review it. I truly appreciate the opportunity and apologize for the inconvenience the lack of review may cause you.

Another winner from Simone St. James! The tale weaves back and forth from the perspectives of 4 teens from 1950 to a journalist from 2014. The teens go to a boarding school called Idlewild that is reported to be haunted. The girls do get scared of something one by one. In 2014, the school is closed but gets bought by a wealthy investor that wants to reopen the school. It's during the construction that a body is uncovered. Fiona, the journalist, takes on an obsession with uncovering the mystery. Perhaps she begins "seeing" things as well. This story will consume you late into the night as things begin unraveling. Simone never fails to write an outstanding paranormal mystery!

I did not enjoy this book. It read as very drab despite the subject matter.