Silent No More

I didn’t go into this with any expectations but somehow I was still pretty disappointed. For me a three star book has to be something that either had good potential, was usually enjoyable, but fell short at the worst times. This book was that entirely.

The story follows three different perspectives, two of which take place in the same timeline (Martha and Henry) and one of which takes place in the past (Opaline), the time that Henry and Martha are trying to piece together. Narratively, I think this was a great structure for a story. It adds a lot of dramatic irony for the reader as we learn things from Opalines time that Martha and Henry have yet to discover. It made for a tension filled story when things went awry and we were thrust back or forward in time before things were resolved. However, my main issue with the book was the relationships.

*minor spoilers from this point on*

Relationships were a central part of this book, but the obvious developing relationship between Henry and Martha at the start was where most of my gripes stemmed from. It seemed that their romance would be a side plot as most non-romance books do, but their relationship took the attention away from the main plot about the manuscript and library, a plot that I found very compelling and interesting. Even worse, their relationship involved infidelity which is just not interesting or engaging to me. If anything it made me disengaged with Henry’s character specifically. Especially with everything that Martha was going through, I felt like their relationship wasn’t fleshed out enough. I enjoyed their moments of friendship, and though it is always wishful thinking, I would’ve enjoyed it so much more if they had remained friends until the epilogue.

Opaline, on the other hand, had a very interesting plot line, but again I felt disconnected from her story because of the nature of her relationships (except the very last one which I felt was a perfect conclusion for her and was very sweet). Her saying she was in love with Armand was so strange and it didn’t help that I hated his character from the beginning. He had moments of sweetness but it was clear he was not a good person and Opaline had barely even begun to know him. Her ‘thing’ with Matthew was so out of the blue and one off and was also infidelity! It made no sense, added nothing to the story, and was just uncomfortable. Again, their relationship would’ve been so much better and added so much to the story if they had only been friends. I felt like her falling in love with basically every man she met took so much away from her character, a character that was built on seeking freedom and independence. It was just so hollow.

Despite how it may sound I really did enjoy Opalines storyline apart from the romances, however I really would’ve loved more from her. Her time in London was passed over very quickly in the book even though it is clear she developed meaningful relationships with the people she worked and lived with. It was brought up time and time again yet I felt left out. I couldn’t care about those moments of loneliness as much because their was rarely a time when we saw Opaline interact with anything other than the love interests in her life.

I did enjoy this book, but I wanted so much more story out of it, and I felt it was very overshadowed but shallow and underdeveloped romances. The ending was very satisfying, and I think it was well crafted for what it was, but I do hope Evie Woods’s other books are more plot central, or at least make the romances more integral to the plot.