chllybrd's review
4.0
I was pretty bummed when I saw that FRAGILE SPIRITS was not going to continue to follow Lenzi and Alden but from pretty early on you see that they are still a big part of the book and that the new main characters are pretty interesting all on their own.
Only a month has passed since the ending of SHATTERED SOULS. FRAGILE SPIRITS follows the story of rule follower Protector Paul and fly by the seat of her pants, no one tells her what to do Speaker Vivianne. One of my favorite parts of getting to know Vivienne was her attitude and how different yet similar she is to the other characters. Both her and Paul have a hidden past and are so much more than they appear on the surface. Getting to know them was not hard to endure. I enjoyed their interaction, connection and the development of their relationship.
This series has some great secondary characters. We of course get a nice dose of Lenzi and Alden but we also see a lot of Race. Race is such a hoot. I think he needs his own book next *cough, cough*. FRAGILE SPIRITS was very much character driven. The storyline was of course interesting but the characters were its driving force.
I thought book 1 was a standalone so getting a book 2 was a great surprise. The author did end the story arc but also started some things I feel need to be in a new book so I will sit and wait patiently to see if we will get a book 3. If you enjoyed SHATTERED SOULS you will not want to miss FRAGILE SPIRITS.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Only a month has passed since the ending of SHATTERED SOULS. FRAGILE SPIRITS follows the story of rule follower Protector Paul and fly by the seat of her pants, no one tells her what to do Speaker Vivianne. One of my favorite parts of getting to know Vivienne was her attitude and how different yet similar she is to the other characters. Both her and Paul have a hidden past and are so much more than they appear on the surface. Getting to know them was not hard to endure. I enjoyed their interaction, connection and the development of their relationship.
This series has some great secondary characters. We of course get a nice dose of Lenzi and Alden but we also see a lot of Race. Race is such a hoot. I think he needs his own book next *cough, cough*. FRAGILE SPIRITS was very much character driven. The storyline was of course interesting but the characters were its driving force.
I thought book 1 was a standalone so getting a book 2 was a great surprise. The author did end the story arc but also started some things I feel need to be in a new book so I will sit and wait patiently to see if we will get a book 3. If you enjoyed SHATTERED SOULS you will not want to miss FRAGILE SPIRITS.
* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
deannaksmith's review against another edition
4.0
It really did like it, it's been a while since I read a book in 2 days. But I don't think I liked it as much as the first one. (It has been quite a while since I read the first one though soooo I could be wrong)
thebookheap12's review against another edition
4.0
In my last review, for Shattered Souls, I came down quite harshly (well, harsh for me and for a book I’d previously really liked) about the writing and content of the story, in regards to it frequently normalising disturbing behaviour. Well, none of that happened in Fragile Spirits, so this is going to be a much more positive review- Well Done, Lindsey!
As you can tell from the synopsis, this companion novel takes place from Paul’s point of view- a Protector (yaaay Male protagonist in a YA book!), which is different since in the original book, it took place from Lenzi, the Speaker’s POV. So it’s interesting to see the shift in that dynamic to begin with. There is so much about this book which is better executed than the original book in the series. Lindsey has grown as a writer, with better ability to display character depth, background, emotion…even the world building worked a little better. And thankfully, none of the old sociopathic disturbing tendencies showed up this time. Paul was a lovely character, I felt and Vivienne was hilarious, snarky and it was great to watch her grow as a character. I much preferred Paul and Vivienne to Alden and Lenzi, if only for how bloody whiny Lenzi was during the first book.
My only two negatives were that Cinda was yet another pointless love triangle who shouldn’t even have bothered existing, in my opinion. She added nothing to the story and just got irritating very quickly. Especially when she showed up at the last second and nearly got everybody killed.
My other negative is that towards the end in the final “battle” with Smith, the characters kept mentioning how Smith was dragging out the inevitable, and to be honest, it just brought to my attention how the final scenes where dragging. So much so, that I was tempted to just skip to the end of the chapter, it felt more like the author was dragging out the story with no real need to- not the characters.
However, this book does get 4 stars, and it is definitely an improvement to the first book and I recommend this one to anyone who enjoys paranormal romance. This is a companion novel, not a sequel, so you don’t have to read Shattered Souls to know what is going on in Fragile Spirits- to be honest, I’m tempted to advise you to skip the first book and just start from this one straight away.
For more of my reviews, please visit TheBookHeap
http://thebookheap.wordpress.com
As you can tell from the synopsis, this companion novel takes place from Paul’s point of view- a Protector (yaaay Male protagonist in a YA book!), which is different since in the original book, it took place from Lenzi, the Speaker’s POV. So it’s interesting to see the shift in that dynamic to begin with. There is so much about this book which is better executed than the original book in the series. Lindsey has grown as a writer, with better ability to display character depth, background, emotion…even the world building worked a little better. And thankfully, none of the old sociopathic disturbing tendencies showed up this time. Paul was a lovely character, I felt and Vivienne was hilarious, snarky and it was great to watch her grow as a character. I much preferred Paul and Vivienne to Alden and Lenzi, if only for how bloody whiny Lenzi was during the first book.
My only two negatives were that Cinda was yet another pointless love triangle who shouldn’t even have bothered existing, in my opinion. She added nothing to the story and just got irritating very quickly. Especially when she showed up at the last second and nearly got everybody killed.
My other negative is that towards the end in the final “battle” with Smith, the characters kept mentioning how Smith was dragging out the inevitable, and to be honest, it just brought to my attention how the final scenes where dragging. So much so, that I was tempted to just skip to the end of the chapter, it felt more like the author was dragging out the story with no real need to- not the characters.
However, this book does get 4 stars, and it is definitely an improvement to the first book and I recommend this one to anyone who enjoys paranormal romance. This is a companion novel, not a sequel, so you don’t have to read Shattered Souls to know what is going on in Fragile Spirits- to be honest, I’m tempted to advise you to skip the first book and just start from this one straight away.
For more of my reviews, please visit TheBookHeap
http://thebookheap.wordpress.com
samantha_randolph's review against another edition
4.0
3.5/5 stars
"Paul cannot wait to get his assigned Speaker. More than ready to protect him or her, he prepares himself to put as much into the relationship as possible. When he gets assigned sarcastic, intense Vivienne, he is not happy. As more and more things around them start going wrong, they both have to learn to put aside their problems and face their enemies or expect to die." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=42168
"Paul cannot wait to get his assigned Speaker. More than ready to protect him or her, he prepares himself to put as much into the relationship as possible. When he gets assigned sarcastic, intense Vivienne, he is not happy. As more and more things around them start going wrong, they both have to learn to put aside their problems and face their enemies or expect to die." Full review at Fresh Fiction: http://freshfiction.com/review.php?id=42168
ravenkiller88's review against another edition
5.0
I love this book as much as I love the first one.
This book is from Paul's POV. I've read a lot of books with guy's POV but this is the first time I love a WHOLE book that's told from a guy's perspective. What made me love it more is that, in this book I also get to read it and feel it from a Protector's POV instead of the Speaker's.
I was VERY VERY happy to see Alden and Lenzi making appearances here in this book. They are definitely one my favorite couples. I wonder I'll see more of them in the future....(*crossing fingers hoping for a next book*).
This book is from Paul's POV. I've read a lot of books with guy's POV but this is the first time I love a WHOLE book that's told from a guy's perspective. What made me love it more is that, in this book I also get to read it and feel it from a Protector's POV instead of the Speaker's.
I was VERY VERY happy to see Alden and Lenzi making appearances here in this book. They are definitely one my favorite couples. I wonder I'll see more of them in the future....(*crossing fingers hoping for a next book*).
ramreads's review against another edition
3.0
If you are looking for a book with a cast a characters with personality along with a plot that intrigues you this isn't the book for you. If you are looking for a quick read with a solid story from beginning to end that can at least hold your interest then this is for you. It's a book you can read without feeling like you're wasting your time, but once you're done you don't really think about it ever again.
The first book of this series was riddled with more grammatical and editorial mistakes than I have ever seen in a published book. I was worried this one would be the same, but luckily this book did not have that problem except for a weird part in the beginning when a word was split apart. In fact if you haven't read the first book you don't need to in order to understand this one unless you want to know more about the villain.
When I saw that this book wasn't going to follow the characters from the first book I was a bit disappointed. It didn't really bother me when I started to read it though. The hero and heroine of this story were engaging to an extent. The side characters were your average side characters. You had your token funny guy, token girly girl, and token serious boss man. Then you had the two main characters from the last book who were your token couple. If you're looking for diversity this isn't the book for you. As far as I could tell all the characters were straight and white.
The romance wasn't my thing. It wasn't terrible. If I wasn't so done with instalove then I probably would've thought it was really sweet. I didn't have to suffer through a love triangle so that is a plus. I feel like the romance didn't overpower the plot too much.
The plot of this book was simple. A girl who has the ability to help ghosts moves on is paired up with a boy with the power to protect her body from being possessed from ghosts. They don't get along right away. The villain is a ghost who has turned into a demon bent on vengeance. Pretty standard stuff right there. It wasn't overly corny though, so it still has the ability to keep the reader engaged.
The ending somewhat irked me. I'll explain why under the spoiler tag.
The one aspect of this book I was interested in was the lore. The whole idea of Speakers (people who can speak to ghosts) and Protectors (people who protect the Speaker from getting possessed) was unique. I would have loved to have known more about the IC (the group in charge of Speakers and Protectors) and their involvement with the world. I would have been more dedicated to this story if the author would have concentrated on this aspect of it more than the romance. You don't really learn much more about it then you did in the first book, which I think is a huge lost.
This book if written in a different way could have captivated me, but with the emphasis on the romance and the scant details on the lore it failed to do so.
The first book of this series was riddled with more grammatical and editorial mistakes than I have ever seen in a published book. I was worried this one would be the same, but luckily this book did not have that problem except for a weird part in the beginning when a word was split apart. In fact if you haven't read the first book you don't need to in order to understand this one unless you want to know more about the villain.
When I saw that this book wasn't going to follow the characters from the first book I was a bit disappointed. It didn't really bother me when I started to read it though. The hero and heroine of this story were engaging to an extent. The side characters were your average side characters. You had your token funny guy, token girly girl, and token serious boss man. Then you had the two main characters from the last book who were your token couple. If you're looking for diversity this isn't the book for you. As far as I could tell all the characters were straight and white.
The romance wasn't my thing. It wasn't terrible. If I wasn't so done with instalove then I probably would've thought it was really sweet. I didn't have to suffer through a love triangle so that is a plus. I feel like the romance didn't overpower the plot too much.
The plot of this book was simple. A girl who has the ability to help ghosts moves on is paired up with a boy with the power to protect her body from being possessed from ghosts. They don't get along right away. The villain is a ghost who has turned into a demon bent on vengeance. Pretty standard stuff right there. It wasn't overly corny though, so it still has the ability to keep the reader engaged.
The ending somewhat irked me. I'll explain why under the spoiler tag.
Spoiler
Lenzi not being dead irked me. I saw it coming a mile away, so it made the whole situation with the villain seem less serious. Then the explanation for why Alden couldn't feel her didn't even make any sense. She was put under, so why is it that he couldn't feel her? If he can feel her when she is sleeping then he should be able to feel her when she is under anesthesia. It also bothered me that by some miracle Lenzi wasn't even crippled. How is that realistic after what she was put through?The one aspect of this book I was interested in was the lore. The whole idea of Speakers (people who can speak to ghosts) and Protectors (people who protect the Speaker from getting possessed) was unique. I would have loved to have known more about the IC (the group in charge of Speakers and Protectors) and their involvement with the world. I would have been more dedicated to this story if the author would have concentrated on this aspect of it more than the romance. You don't really learn much more about it then you did in the first book, which I think is a huge lost.
This book if written in a different way could have captivated me, but with the emphasis on the romance and the scant details on the lore it failed to do so.
shutupnread's review against another edition
4.0
First of all, I would like to apologize for the lack of reviews for the past few days – I usually try to post 4 a week but life happened and I was quite busy and didn’t have much time to read books. However, I should be back on track (hopefully!) this coming week and should have more reviews coming up soon.
Now, regarding the review, I really enjoyed this series. It was a quick read and thoroughly entertaining. I liked the relationship between Lenzi and Alden in the first book and the dynamic between Paul and Vivienne in the second book. Despite the fact that they are soul-branded to another, the attraction between both of the couples is obvious. However, the cynical part of me believes the attraction is because of the soul-branding. If your souls are branded to be together and you’re linked to feel and respond to each other’s souls, an obvious next step would be a romantic one, correct? Nevertheless, the romantic, young part of me believes their love for each other is real.
The characters in both books seem realistic and had complex characteristics. Lenzi didn’t know what was going on in the beginning because she had no memory of her past lives and was afraid of ending up like her dad. She went through a lot and had a lot to deal with and her struggles throughout the first book were legit. Alden, being the Protector over many lifetimes, was accustomed to dealing with Lenzi (or Rose) and was the perfect gentleman – patient, understanding, able to transmit calmness and being hot and sexy definitely helped. Paul was briefly mentioned at the end of the first book and you really got to know him in the second book. At first, he came off as the typical follow-the-rules type of guy with no flexibility but as you got to know him, you started to understand where he came from and why he was the way he was. He really developed in the second book and changed a lot after meeting his Speaker, Vivienne. Now, Vivienne was a character. Strong yet fragile, punk-ish yet not. I really enjoyed reading about her but she was a little cliché at some points – the whole I’m putting a brave face façade didn’t work it for me, it was too obvious that she had some major baggage right from the get-go. Despite that, I still enjoyed how her character changed and by the end of the second book, I really liked her.
As for the story plotline for the first book, I really enjoyed how Mary created this new twist on the typical ghost story with the Protector and Speaker roles along with the different terminologies: open vessel, closed vessel, etc.; and still integrating key common components such as possessions and the idea of heading off into an afterlife once the reason why ghosts have lingered were fulfilled. The one thing that slightly weirded me out was the fact that Protectors kept jumping around into other bodies especially in the second book at the climax. It was confusing trying to remember who was in who. Moving on – the world building for this series was evident in the first book – the second book didn’t have as much but understandable since it is the second book in a sequel. I believe that the second book shouldn’t be a standalone read despite what numerous people have said due to the fact that Lenzi and Alden are heavily mentioned throughout the second book, the ongoing exorcism of Smith (the main antagonist in both books), and the background story. Therefore, my recommendation is read the first book and then the second to get the whole grasp of the entire story.
Overall, great series – a solid 4 stars. Now I just hope that there is a third book about Race and Maddi – they definitely deserve a book all to themselves.
Now, regarding the review, I really enjoyed this series. It was a quick read and thoroughly entertaining. I liked the relationship between Lenzi and Alden in the first book and the dynamic between Paul and Vivienne in the second book. Despite the fact that they are soul-branded to another, the attraction between both of the couples is obvious. However, the cynical part of me believes the attraction is because of the soul-branding. If your souls are branded to be together and you’re linked to feel and respond to each other’s souls, an obvious next step would be a romantic one, correct? Nevertheless, the romantic, young part of me believes their love for each other is real.
The characters in both books seem realistic and had complex characteristics. Lenzi didn’t know what was going on in the beginning because she had no memory of her past lives and was afraid of ending up like her dad. She went through a lot and had a lot to deal with and her struggles throughout the first book were legit. Alden, being the Protector over many lifetimes, was accustomed to dealing with Lenzi (or Rose) and was the perfect gentleman – patient, understanding, able to transmit calmness and being hot and sexy definitely helped. Paul was briefly mentioned at the end of the first book and you really got to know him in the second book. At first, he came off as the typical follow-the-rules type of guy with no flexibility but as you got to know him, you started to understand where he came from and why he was the way he was. He really developed in the second book and changed a lot after meeting his Speaker, Vivienne. Now, Vivienne was a character. Strong yet fragile, punk-ish yet not. I really enjoyed reading about her but she was a little cliché at some points – the whole I’m putting a brave face façade didn’t work it for me, it was too obvious that she had some major baggage right from the get-go. Despite that, I still enjoyed how her character changed and by the end of the second book, I really liked her.
As for the story plotline for the first book, I really enjoyed how Mary created this new twist on the typical ghost story with the Protector and Speaker roles along with the different terminologies: open vessel, closed vessel, etc.; and still integrating key common components such as possessions and the idea of heading off into an afterlife once the reason why ghosts have lingered were fulfilled. The one thing that slightly weirded me out was the fact that Protectors kept jumping around into other bodies especially in the second book at the climax. It was confusing trying to remember who was in who. Moving on – the world building for this series was evident in the first book – the second book didn’t have as much but understandable since it is the second book in a sequel. I believe that the second book shouldn’t be a standalone read despite what numerous people have said due to the fact that Lenzi and Alden are heavily mentioned throughout the second book, the ongoing exorcism of Smith (the main antagonist in both books), and the background story. Therefore, my recommendation is read the first book and then the second to get the whole grasp of the entire story.
Overall, great series – a solid 4 stars. Now I just hope that there is a third book about Race and Maddi – they definitely deserve a book all to themselves.
deereadsthings's review against another edition
4.0
It really did like it, it's been a while since I read a book in 2 days. But I don't think I liked it as much as the first one. (It has been quite a while since I read the first one though soooo I could be wrong)
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