this was a interesting read, the characters were great and I enjoyed the mystery and trying to figure out what was going on.

I was given this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.


Overall, this book was hard for me to get absorbed in and I never truly did. It was a slow burner and I think I was expecting more of a fast pace. I was extremely excited because I saw that it was labeled horror but honestly, it felt more like a psychological thriller to me. I won't tell anything about the plot, but when I got to the end, it floored me. The subtly is what resounded me in the overall story of mental health. It is emotional and well worth the read.

Give this book time, and it's worth it.

Another fantastic book from M Jonathan Lee.
Broken Branches centres on Ian Perkins, film reviewer, father and husband who has inherited his family home after his brother’s suicide.
That something is very wrong with his marriage is quickly evident - but what that issue is, takes longer to surface.

Much is made of the huge, creepy old sycamore tree in the garden and Ian places it firmly at the centre of the ‘family curse’, which he is obsessively researching to ‘prove’ to his wife that such a curse exists.

Broken Branches follows two parallel stories - Ian’s childhood in the house and now his return to the house as an adult.

The book is slow paced - and I don’t mean that in a negative way. It gives an intensity to Ian’s obsession with researching the curse. It gives an oppressive and stifling feel to the house, the tree, the landscape and Ian’s marriage. The super natural touches just intensifies that crushing, almost claustrophobic feeling even more.

Something that M Jonathan Lee does very well is to pass on the dark and depressive mood of his books through his straight-forward writing style. This really adds to the psychological tension and whilst this isn’t a fast-paced read, it does keep you hooked till the very end.

No spoilers but I really didn’t see the ending coming! My heart was in my mouth as it all made sense and I know this is one of those books that I’ll think about long after finishing it.

I was not able to read this book, I downloaded both formats and both are broken. Was really looking forward to reading this book.

Sorry but I was unable to read this book. It was not in epub or mobi format as listed. It was more like a PDF and the writing was way too small. So the one star is not for the story itself, but the fact that I could not read it. Please fix this and I will edit the review.

I am sorry but I was not able to read this book. The format it is in must not be compatible with my kindle. The type is very small and I could not enlarge it. The layout was also different and there was no way to change or fix it.

I've seen Broken Branches mentioned in the past and I've always been curious about it... So when the opportunity arose, I couldn't resist adding a copy to my shelves on Netgalley. Between the ominous cover and the promise of a curse, I was looking forward to what seemed like a dark and creepy read... But somehow I ended up having mixed thoughts about this story instead. I'll try and explain why I felt this way briefly below.

While I did like the writing itself, I sadly enough found the actual story to be rather lacking, as there was no real plot to speak of and the characters were impossible to like or connect to. The idea of the curse as well as the premise of Broken Branches itself is intriguing, and I really wish both characters and the plot would have been more fleshed out in the story. As it is, I was unable to connect to any of the main characters, which was a real shame. The fact that the story switches POVs between chapters and goes back and forth between past and present without proper warning doesn't really help either, as things can become confusing and you don't always know which character and which moment in time you are reading about straight away. I did like the idea of the flashbacks in the story, as they helped shine a light on Ian's family, past, secrets and the curse of course, but I kind of wish the flashback chapters and POV changes would have been marked more clearly. This would have avoided those moments of possible confusion...

As I mentioned before, I did enjoy the writing on its own, but sadly the beautiful writing did not make up for the fact that the story itself lacked development in both plot and characters. On top of that, I wasn't really satisfied with the ending either, and I guessed part of the final reveals quite early on. All in all it wasn't a bad read and both the premise and the writing were a bonus, but the actual story didn't quite hit the mark for me.