The Forever Girl: Sophia's Journey by Rebecca Hamilton

At twenty-two, practicing Wiccan Sophia Parsons is scratching out a living waiting tables in her Rocky Mountain hometown, living under religious prejudice, the shadow of her bi-polar mother, and an unsolved murder.

Sophia can imagine lots of ways to improve her life, but she'd settle for just getting rid of the buzzing noise in her head. When 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 who 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.

Book Description

There is a multitude of Paranormal Romance/Urban Fantasy books out there and they can become very samey. So when an author manages to bring a new element to the genre then my interest is awaked. This is what Rebecca Hamilton has done with The Forever Girl: Sophia’s Journey.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it is well written and I liked the characters of Sophia and Charles. The pace of the story sometimes lagged with too much detail in areas that don’t matter greatly to the plot, but overall the book managed to carry me from one page to the next. Where this book excelled was the world creation. Rebecca managed to breathe new life into the over used vampire mythology. I found her spin on the world of vampires, were-creature and spirits to be refreshing and intriguing. Just this aspect of the book alone makes it worth reading. I am always drawn to books that re-imagine the old familiar concepts and well worn plot hooks. The origins of supernatural beings and how they came to be in the world of man was totally new to me and one I have not come across in other stories.

Sophia, the main protagonist, is a likable character who falls into a world of the supernatural only to find that she herself isn’t as normal as she first thought. The use of Wicca is well portrayed here, Sophia cast spells and uses magic but none of it instantly moulds the world around her to her will. There is no waving of the hand and chanting that suddenly alters the laws of physics. The use of magic is more supple than that which made it more believable. It was nice to come across a female character that doesn’t arm herself to the teeth and walk around slaying every vampire or monster that gets in her way.

On the other hand there are a few down sides to this book that subtracted from the overall feel good factor. The relationship between Sophia and Charles, the obligatory love interest, seems to jump from mutual distrust to mad passionate love too quick with little to explain the sudden jump, apart from the pure physical animal attraction. The story of their growing romance, although important to the overall plot, did sometimes overwhelm the narrative. It seemed to bog the storyline down too much. But then again I believe that this would be less of an issue for readers more heavily into romantic novels. Maybe an aspect more aimed at a female readership.

There were also a few plot hooks that just dead ended. One example of this was finding out that one of the characters was possessed by spirits and this was the reason for their aggressive actions. Why were they possessed? Who were the spirits? What were their motivations? None of this was adequately explained. In fact the characters seemed to just brush this revelation off as inconsequential.

Even with these criticisms, which may have more to do with personal taste than quality of the story, I still enjoyed reading this book. It was well written with interesting plotlines and characters. The few issues I had would be easily remedied by a good editor and then you’d see a good book move to the realm of an excellent book.

I can see Rebecca Hamilton’s books getting better with more experience. She is defiantly an author to watch and The Forever Girl is a good starting point.

3.5 Stars

Reviewed by Darkiss