Bookshelved

Title: The Forever Girl: Sophia’s Journey
Author: Rebecca Hamilton
Genre: Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Romance
Source: Won from author.
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A Cult. A Murder. A Curse.

Sophia’s family has skeletons, but they aren’t in their graves…

At 22, practicing Wiccan Sophia Parsons is scratching out a living waiting tables in her Rocky Mountain hometown, living under the shadow of her bi-polar mother, religious prejudice, and a cold murder. Sophia can imagine lots of ways her life could be better, but she’d settle for just getting rid of the buzzing noise in her head. The spell she casts goes wrong. The static turns into voices. Her personal demons get company, and the newcomers are dangerous.

One of them is a man named Charles, a centuries-old shape-shifter that Sophia falls for despite her better judgment. He has connections that can help her unveil the mystery surrounding her ancestor’s hanging, but she gets more than she bargains for when she finally decides to trust him. Survival in his world, she learns, means not asking questions and staying out of the immortal council’s way. It’s a line she crossed long ago.

If Sophia wants to survive the council and save the people she loves, she must accept who she is, perform dark magic, and fight to the death for her freedom.

Plot

I found the plot very interesting. It was fast paced and there were several stories happening throughout. I expected it to be confusing wiith so much going on, but I was pleasantly surprised that I managed to keep up with everything.

Initially I wasn’t sure whether I would enjoy the “vampire” element to the book, having read half of the Twilight Saga and not really enjoying it, but the backstory involved with the creatures and characters in The Forever Girl really made it an enjoyable read.

There were several twists in the plot that were certainly unexpected, I sometimes found myself shouting at the characters in disbelief.

Characters

I really loved the characters that Hamilton created. She took your expectations of paranormal characters, turned them on their heads and added a ton of depth. I really liked Sophia, but I initially struggled to like Charles. The character of Ivory was really interesting, as Sophia’s friend I thought that she would have a relatively small part in the story, but there was so much more to her character.

Overall

If I had not known before reading that this was Rebecca Hamilton’s debut novel, then I never would have guessed. Her writing is incredible and I found the book so difficult to put down, I would get to the end of the chapter and I’d just want to carry on reading.

I’ve loved reading about witches for years so I really enjoyed that element of the book, but reading The Forever Girl has also awakened a love for all things paranormal and I can’t wait to sink my teeth into another paranormal novel and ultimately Rebecca Hamilton’s next novel.