The Blessed

Author: Tonya Hurley
Goodreads Rating: 3.24
My Rating: 3.75
Pages: 416
Reviewed by: Nicole

I got this book while I was at BEA12 mostly because the gentleman at Simon Schuster told me that I should read it. 

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.


Admittedly, this book was a little strange. I really liked the story idea, that they were three Saints was a really original and interesting idea, but a little strange. I think one of the most jarring things about this book is that you don't really know what to believe until the end because thats when it starts to make sense.

I think this was a book that did a great job from the third person because with the three girls it would have been too hard to follow otherwise. It also helped because each chapter could be broken up about each girl without having to make a separate chapter from Lucy's POV to Cecilia's POV to Agnes' POV. 

I felt that to book was well written and although you jump back and forth from what you should believe. One thing that did bother me was that the beginning was so heavy handed with the religious undertones. There was constantly "sermons" or "prayers" I felt that it was a bit much, but still good. There were a few twists within this book which had my literally shouting about them. A lot of the characters you don't really know, I mean you know them, but can you trust them? 

Can you trust the mysterious Sebastian who shows up in the hospital where the girls are. Can you trust the girls? Can you trust the lies that everyone in the book seem to be spreading? That was the most jarring of the book, but once you figure out what is going on, it went a lot smoother.

Even though you don't get to the core of what is happening until the end of the book, it seems to be enough to set the stage for the next book in the trilogy. While we don't have any information slated yet for it, I am really excited for this book. It was a really good read, and definitely something new.

Fun Fact: My confirmation name was almost Agnes, but I went with Joan of Arc instead.