REVIEW ~ Shattered by Jeri Smith-Ready

STRENGTH MEANS STANDING ALONE

Or so seventeen-year-old Zachary Moore believes. He’s free now after two months in solitary captivity, where his only refuge was madness. Finally home in Scotland, he’s determined to “get sane” in time to reunite with the girl he loves.

STRENGTH MEANS STAYING SILENT

To keep Aura safe, Zachary must build a wall of secrets around his past and present. No one can know how shattered he’s become.

But the harder he tries to fix himself, the more his mind unravels, until memory, fantasy, and reality blur more than ever. With the help of an old friend--as well as an old enemy--Zachary must find the strength to speak.

The strength to not stand alone.

A hopeful yet heartbreakingly realistic companion novella, “Shattered” lets readers into the fractured mind of the Shade trilogy's most mysterious and beloved character.

*****

Shattered, by Jeri Smith-Ready is a companion novel to her Shade series. This read was a personal, emotional, deep and psychological short story of a supporting main character Team Kilt loves to love, Zachary Moore. Readers will discover his fears and endure his pain from his experience at 3A. You will experience Zachary's hardships and his sufferings, and then you will see the progression of his healing.

Shattered wasn't full of laughs or dancing unicorns. It was a very serious novel and emotionally written and stated. You were inside of Zachary's head.

Zachary is a character I've a strong bond with over the few years I've read him as a supporting character. Shattered was written in his point of view of a terrible experience he went through and how it shattered him. It was a struggle for me to read what Zachary endured. His state of mind in this short story is not what the reader is accustomed to. What he continues to go through-- his da, flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks. It was something I hadn't expected and it shocked me, it upset me for him. It hurts when someone you are close to or love, whether real, surreal, or not real, is suffering. Therefore, this was a short story that I couldn't read in one setting. It was too dramatic for me to handle. So I had to read in doses. But this story needed to be told, as the author had stated, for the readers to understand, although painful what Zachary had went through. And for us to understand how much he truly loved Aura to have went through this, even though it 'shattered' his inner self. How much he wanted to protect her. And we realize exactly how strong Zachary is as he broke through the barriers of his PTSD.

You really get to see the true meaning of friendship in this companion novel. Zach's best mate Martin was the ultimate, supportive best friend. When someone is able to offer a person who is suffering the support he/she needs- to me, that person has a soul of gold. More Martin, please?

The emotional words behind this story and in any of her work should tell you something about the author's writing. How realistic, personal and compassionate it is. Readers will always be inflicted with the character's triumphs and/or pain in all of her novels.

Jeri Smith-Ready has graciously posted Shattered on her website as a free download. You can click here to be directed to Jeri's site. Please consider sending a monetary donation to the reputable organizations Jeri listed as it would be for a good cause. Mental illness can effect any one of us or someone we love in any shape or form when we least expect it.

Find Shattered, by Jeri Smith-Ready on Goodreads.

Join in the fun of #TeamKilt and visit the Kilt and Keeley website. A website dedicated to the Shade novels.

KIMBERLY