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Broken Illusions: A Midnight Dragonfly Novel    by Ellie James Amazon.com order for
Broken Illusions
by Ellie James
Order:  USA  Can
Griffin, 2012 (2012)
Softcover, e-Book

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* * *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Broken Illusions follows Shattered Dreams as the second in Ellie James' edgy Midnight Dragonfly series, set in New Orleans. The series stars sixteen-year old Trinity Monsour who returned to New Orleans (where she was born) to live with her aunt Sara after her grandmother's death. Her grandmother left the city and made a home for Trinity in Colorado after her parents died.

In the first episode, a classmate of Trinity's disappeared, and Trinity had visions of Jessica lying on a bloody mattress. Telling the police only made them suspect Trinity. She learned from her aunt that her mother and grandmother also had true visions. So, despite distrust all around her, Trinity sought clues to Jessica's location, and eventually saved her life. In so doing she met Jim Fourcade, a cop friend of her mother's, and his silver-eyed son Dylan, who seems to turn up whenever Trinity's in trouble. Her attraction to Dylan caused - and continues to cause - conflict with her boyfriend Chase.

Now it's almost Mardi Gras. Trinity's best friend Victoria pushes her to try a Ouija board. After she receives a warning about Chase, they find him in a car accident just in time. Trinity is also having visions again, this time from the point of view of the killer. She's chasing a woman named Grace, whom Trinity met in Shattered Dreams and who knew her mother. Now Grace has gone missing and Detective LaSalle pushes Trinity to try to find her.

Trinity feels impelled to try to save Grace and recklessly rushes into danger time and time again. Someone is trying to kill her, just as someone killed her mother. And she's saved, again and again, by part-Navajo Dylan, whom she hadn't seen for months. His interventions don't sit well with Chase, but there's something between Trinity and Dylan that she can't control. The suspense grows as people close to Trinity are endangered, and she does whatever she can, whatever the risk, to help them.

Broken Illusions is much better than Shattered Dreams. There's tons of action, a romantic triangle, plenty of surprises, betrayal, and tragedy. Don't miss this great series!

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