*Received for free through NetGalley* 
 *Shattered Dreams* is the story of seventeen-year-old Trinity, who, like her deceased mother, gets visions. Both of her parents died when she was a baby and she was raised by her grandmother. After her grandmother's death, she was taken in by her aunt and moved to New Orleans (where her parents were from and where she was born.) 
 I'd give you the synopsis that I was given that made me want to read this book, but honestly, I felt it was pretty misleading. 
 The story starts with a neat premise--a group of teenagers trespassing in an abandoned house in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans, playing a game of Truth or Dare. I enjoyed this for the first little bit, but then it stretched on way too long (three chapters) and things started to get really confusing. Trinity began having "episodes" which were later (much, much later) revealed to be her "visions". At the time I had no clue what was happening, and that led to utter confusion. 
 This is what bothered me most about this book. It was an intriguing idea (though not at all original) a girl with psychic powers helps solve a crime...and the backdrop of post-Katrina N.O. was fantastic, but I think the author tried too hard to make this a mystery. Things happened that didn't make any sense and the author just left it there. Never gave us a reason. A good mystery will leave a trail of clues, and we, the reader, are following a few steps behind, but it always feels like the author knows where it's going. This wasn't like that at all. In this story we'd follow the crumbs only to turn around and head in a different direction as soon as it felt like we might learn something. And then we'd never return to the previous almost-reveal. This was beyond frustrating for me. When the story ended it gave one flimsy answer (which was just random and didn't really follow any of the clues) and left us with a million questions. It's okay to leave some questions, but not almost every single one. I just found the conclusion to the mystery to be absolutely unsatisfactory. 
 The characterization left a lot to be desired. Even though we were seeing this story through Trinity's first person narrative, I can't even start to tell you who she is as a person. All I got to know about her was a.) she has freaky visions, b.) her parents were killed in an accident when she was young and she was raised by her grandmother, c.) her grandma kept secrets from her about her ability and her parents, then died and now she lives with her aunt, d.) she runs away from stuff A LOT e.) she trusts stupidly then doesn't trust the people she should, f.) apparently, she likes a guy named Chase, though she makes out with another guy, then grinds all over yet ANOTHER in a club. 
 I have no idea what she likes or doesn't like. No idea what her personality is like (besides the fact that she seems like a coward due to the running away) I just felt like I knew things *about* her, but I didn't *know* her. For that reason, I couldn't care less about her. 
 Chase (the boy she apparently liked) was just strange. I didn't understand his motivations at all. He was always just...there...all the time. It was kind of creepy. For as much time as they spent together, they rarely talked--except to say each others' names a thousand times. I like swooning over the boy, but there was no swooning over Chase. I had no reason TO swoon. There was no character development at all. So, Chase was the quarterback and he was adopted...O--kay...what else? Nothing, that's what else. 
 None of the other characters made an impression either. I can't even remember most of their names and I just finished this 30 minutes ago. The only character I felt at all intrigued by was Forcade's son, Dylan. He seemed like he had a story--not that we got to see any of it in his two chapters of read time. 
 I'm just...really frustrated with this book. It had so much potential to be a good read. Great setting. Great mystery. It could have been great. It just...wasn't. 
 On the technical side, the writing was okay. There were some strange phrasings and the author's style was a bit different than I'm used to, but I didn't mind it so much. Not to say I didn't notice things that annoyed me, I did. It just didn't bother me like the other stuff did. 
 I hate to just bluntly say it, but I didn't like this book. Not at all. It honestly felt to me like a first draft, not one that had been revised and purchased for publication. I think this could be a great story with several more passes and smoothing and development, but I think, for the most part this is what is being printed. 
 I don't like being harsh or giving 1 star ratings but I need to be honest about what I thought, especially when I've been given the story for the purpose of a review.