Its not often a book warrants a blog post all of its own. I fully intended on moving all book reviews over to Casa Costello’s sister site, 2 Adults 3 Children.
The Silent Hours
I was sent the book through BritMums book club and to be honest, it took me a while to finally get into it. This book is the reason why my 100 page rule works though. I never give up on a book before the 100 pages are up – I didn’t think I would have to give up on this story at any point though, I was just taking ages before getting thoroughly hooked.
Something happened around page 95 though that made me keep thinking about the book – From then on, there was no stopping. I apologise to anyone that wanted to chat over the weekend – It was just me and the book at poolside.
Set in France during WW2, we are introduced to a variety of characters. I think there was a lot of scene setting at the start which looking back was completely necessary. We meet Adeline, who is living in a convent – Adeline has lost the ability of speech due to an event that we only later learn about. We meet Isabelle, the local teacher and the daughter of a shop keeper as she starts on the most delicious of relationships with Sebastien. This is no ordinary romance – The couple cannot be together – The reason why completely opens up your eyes to a whole different part to the war that I just hadn’t considered before.
The writing is wonderful – I really felt for all the people in the convent in their desperate attempts to help Adeline speak again. The desperation of Sebastien trying to locate his parents is awful – That sense of doom when you just know that something is going to happen.
This is a book that will stay with me for a long time – I have felt the need to talk about it since I finished. The sign of a good book is a reluctance to start another – I just want to savour this one for a little bit longer.
A definite 5 out of 5 stars.
Note: This review contains an associate link