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The Blessed By Tonya Hurley
Release Date: September 25, 2012
Publisher: Simon & Shuster Books for Young Readers
Pages: 405
Genre: Young Adult
Buy this book: Amazon

Synopsis (from Goodreads): 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.

I am going to have a hard time trying to write this review. This isn't to say that I didn't like the book, because I enjoyed it to a certain degree. Well let me start off first by saying that Tonya Hurley is a good writer, I don't think there is a lot of doubt about that. I enjoyed the grittiness to her narrative because it made the setting and the characters that much more believable. That said, I have to say that I was trudging through this book rather than really sinking my teeth into it which I was disappointed by.

The concept of girl saints/martyrs told in a modern way, in a modern world was entirely new and very interesting. I was intrigued but spent much of the story going through the motions with the characters. There was a lack of tension and therefore most of the book fell flat. I was very interested in Sebastian's character but his story was a background piece at best and at the end of it all I closed the book not feeling like I knew any of the characters, their desires or their fears and wants.

Although The Blessed was quite original and well written, the characters and plot fell a little flat for me. I didn't really understand where the author was going with the story and at the end of it all I still didn't get the full picture really. It just left me confused rather than excited and for that I'd say it turned out to be a disappointment.