Book Review: The Blessed by Tonya Hurley

**I received this book from Around the World ARC Tours for review**

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.

My Thoughts:  I probably won't be popular here and I'm sure I'll be in the minority on this one but that's okay with me.  I'm asked to give my honest opinion on books and this is my honest opinion.  I did not like this book at all!  It was just bizarre and didn't flow well for me.

The story begins with three teen girls all in the same Catholic hospital E.R.  Agnes has just tried to committ suicide, Cecilia was found face down in a mud puddle, drowning and Lucy was highly intoxicated.  They are all kept overnight for observation.  While there, Cecilia meets Sebastian, a young man that snuck into her cubicle in the middle of the night.  He gives her a beautiful but strange bracelet and then leaves.  When Lucy wakes up in the morning, she finds a very similar bracelet on her nightstand.  Agnes, while waiting for the psychiatrist, meets a young boy who gives her yet another similar bracelet.

Lucy goes home after her stint in the E.R.  She is a self-made socialite and only cares about herself and how she can promote herself more.   Her mom ran out on her and her father when she was young and her father is nowhere to be seen.  Lucy has dropped out of school and spends her time partying and making sure she gets a lot of free stuff.  She runs through her monthly allowance quickly and then relies on all hte free promotional stuff she gets to get her through the rest of the month.  She blows all her money on her appearance so she comes across as very wealthy. 

Cecilia is a runaway musician.  She ran away from her parent's home in Philidelphia and made it to New York where she sleeps with anyone and everyone and plays in dumps.  She obviously has also dropped out of school and lives on her own.  Her only "friend" is Bill, a homeless junkie, that she lets live on her apartment rooftop.  She brings him breakfast and booze in the morning.

Agnes is the only one who attends school (a Catholic school) and has a parent.  Her mother is very overbearing though and Agnes rebels by dating Sayer, a boy who her mother hates.  When Sayer  cheats on Agnes, Agnes decides to slit her wrists.  Her mother isn't really worried about her daughter though.  She is more worried about what everyone will think of her.

As a storm is brewing, Lucy gets kicked out of a club and takes off (driving drunk) in a taxi cab...and yes, I said she was driving the cab.  Cecilia leaves a show early and gets evicted from her apartment and Agnes decides to leave home.  They all end up in this old Catholic church and guess who is also there?  Yep, Sebastian.  During the worst storm of the year, all four get stuck in the church for 3 days.  And from there, it just gets weird. 

I did not connect to any of the characters and found the whole thing just strange.  First, Lucy and Cecilia both drop out of school and have no parents around but are making it just fine in NYC.  Well, okay, maybe.  But it just didn't work for me.  Then the whole Saint thing was messed up.  I am not *technically* Catholic.  I was baptized Catholic and that is all so I don't really know a lot about the Saints.  I am, however, a religious person and this book just made me completely uncomfortable.  It is my opinion and my opinion only.  But I didn't like the way the book left me feeling at all.

I also didn't like all the extreme violence at the end.  For three girls who are suppose to be Saints, they are EXTREMELY violent in the end.  One of the girls did make the comment that they were Saints, not Angels but still, that did not work at all for me. 

So, this was just one of those books that did not work for me at all.  I didn't get the point in it and will not be looking to read any more in this series (if it is a series).