Trilogy Review / The Forbidden Game by LJ Smith

When Jenny buys a game for her boyfriend, Tom, she finds herself inexplicably drawn to the guy behind the counter. There is something mysteriously alluring about Julian's pale eyes and bleached-blond hair. And when he places the Game into her hands, she knows their connection is something deeper.

But as Jenny and her six friends begin to play the Game at Tom's birthday celebration, a night of friends and fun quickly turns into a night of terror and obsessive love. Because the Game isn't just a game - it's the seven friends' new reality, where Julian reigns as the Prince of the Shadows.

One by one the friends must confront their phobias to win the Game. To lose the Game is to lose their lives. And that is only the beginning...


Published:     8th June 2010
Publisher:  Simon Pulse
Goodreads :  Click here
Series or Stand-Alone:  Forbidden Game, Books 1, 2 & 3
Source:  Owned Copy

This is another one of those that has been on my shelf for absolutely ages and as I am going through a bit of a bookshelf reorganisation (which I will share once it is finally done) I am going through and reading the books that I already have.  After reading and loving her other Night World series, I was really excited to pick this up.  The plot in this book is definitely greatly different to what I have read before.  It is basically like a supernatural board game gone wrong style story.  Despite the fact that this book was written in the 1990s (this edition being one of the later editions), I had no problems with any of the plot line at all, it didn't feel outdated and certainly did not have any references to things that were going on at the time that I wouldn't know about.  I always struggle with stories that were written a while ago when they make comments about things like that, if you don't know anything about it and its not part of the story why put it in?  

If I had to pick a favourite character in this story, I have to say that it was the Prince of Shadows himself, Julian.  I know he was the bad guy in this book but he was the kind of bad guy that you actually liked at certain points in the story.  He wasn't a flat out bad egg.  He had elements where he revealed his personality and made me like him if only for a little bit!  

Although I did enjoy this series, I felt that the story was too long.  If this had been a duology with a lot less filler in it I would have enjoyed this a lot more.  I felt that with parts of this story it dragged which means that I could have easily put this down and not picked this up again.  I am glad that I did because the ending was really good and it did really pick up in the last book but if it was a shorter series, either a duology or a really long stand alone book, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.  

Overall this was a really great trilogy, not as good as her other Night World series but well worth picking up and giving it a try.