Shattered: A Daughter's Regret by Melody Carlson

Everybody does it—sneaks out of the house now and then. It's harmless enough, right? Not this time. Cleo Neilson faces the chilling consequences of her actions. Now she has a secret and can’t tell anyone, and it’s breaking her heart. As Cleo fights through her grief and guilt, she learns about faith in God and forgiveness through him. As teenage girls read Cleo's journey, they too will learn the value of having faith and receiving forgiveness as well as just how dangerous it really is to keep a secret.










The Review
My Ranking: 4 out of 10
Ages 14 & up


Shattered: A Daughter's Regret was my first book by Melody Carlson. A friend of mine has read her book, Christmas at the Harringtons, and enjoyed it. I was looking forward to a lesson-teaching book, with perhaps a bit of suspense and adventure, too.
Though I hate to say it, I was quite disappointed with this book and didn't like it much at all. It may be because I have a very low tolerance for snobby, rude, and disrespectful teenagers, but I am very sad to say I really did not find this book worth the time.

I never got to the point where I liked Cleo. She spoiled her whole reputation so much in the first few chapters with her sour, mean, rude, and unthankful attitude that I even had problems feeling bad for her later. Her mom was being smart and protecting her daughter and Cleo in return was blatantly hurtful and rude. Maybe it's just because I hang with a different crowd than this...all of whom for their families, this is a huge No No...but I couldn't stand her attitude.

A lot of elements of this book were extremely unrealistic, such as how Cleo becomes addicted to a pain medication in like 4 days and can't live without it. People expected her to act perfectly normal only a few days after her mother passed away...apparently not realizing there was a time of grief.

As for the content, this book was pretty clean. As I mentioned above, Cleo became hooked on pain meds and actually met up with a guy who sold her more after she ran out. The drug guy also informs her that there are "other ways" to pay for the drugs when she runs out of money, obviously being very suggestive. Other than that, nothing stood out to me. 

By the end, Cleo's attitude has improved but there was no moment of realization where she took note of her horrible attitude and I'm not really sure if she fully realized it was wrong of her to act in such a manner. But to be honest, it wasn't horrible. It is probably only because of my beliefs of how teens should treat their parents - with respect and obedience without argument - and it just drives me crazy when teenagers are rude and disrespectful. But a lot of people did in fact like this story, so if none of the things I mentioned would bother you, you may like this book! :)

I received this free book in return for an honest review from Navpress Publishing. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.