{Review} Silent No More by N. E. Henderson

Title: Silent No More
Author: N. E. Henderson
Release Date: December 2, 2013
Genre: New Adult, Contemporary Romance

Shannon Taylor thinks she has the picture perfect life.

Engaged to marry her college boyfriend and a best friend who’s more like a sister, life is almost perfect. That is until her world is tilted by two of most important people in her life.

A chance encounter leads Shannon down a path that will force her to confront a past she has meticulously ignored for ten years.

Nicholas Lockhart, renowned bachelor, has a reputation for his cold eyes and icy heart. Meeting a woman who can turn is world upside is not in the cards; that is until Shannon.

When Shannon's world crashes, she wonders if it's possible to crack Nick's icy heart. A web of lies and twisted truths soon leaves both bare and vulnerable.

Silence no longer offers her protection or safety.

Will remaining silent cost Shannon the real love she's finally found? Or will she stay silent no more?

Review

My rating is completely biased to my feelings. And maybe because my questions were left unanswered.... This will be more of a rant than a review. (Warning: contains spoilers)

First and foremost, I want to address that my number one pet peeve in books is infidelity. For some people, they don't like love triangles, but for me it's cheating. It makes my skin crawl to no end, but the cheating in this one happens at the beginning, so I didn't have a chance to grow any feelings for the characters or their relationship yet, so I overlooked the heroine and her fiancé drama without wanting to DNF.

However, the whole Theresa office screwing thing did make me cringe and sick to my stomach because if it was who Shannon thought the guy was, then of course I'd be hurt over that one. But I continued on because we are getting to the meat of all the secrets and stuff at this point and I wanted to know who the guy was.

The writing, in parts, was both good and kind of bad. Hey, it does come with the territory. Nothing is perfect, just like life isn't. There were some really mundane scenes that were way too detailed like documenting every step Shannon takes from the bedroom to the bathroom to the shower back to the bedroom, ect. It was just unnecessary and made the narration sound monotonous. And there were parts I wanted more details in, and it was just cut and dry and onto the next scene. And then the unnecessary uses/placement of exclamation points. Sometimes there are exclamation points in the dialog that makes it seem like the characters were shouting when they actually weren't. Or they would just be misplaced. So that threw me off.

I don't really know what to make of the side characters i.e. Shannon's bffs. Allison's out for doing the unforgivable...repeatedly. She's just pathetic and a half-ass. Katelyn and Stacy always have Shannon's back and are there for her, but sometimes the way Shannon thinks when it comes to them, it seems like she was making them sound...not very nice? Friendly? Something like that. Nikki, I liked. Especially after the way Nick talks to her or treats her, she gives as good as she gets. And she's there for Shannon, even though she probably doesn't need to be involved in the whole mess concerning Shannon's past.

What is worth the stars is the shock value and twists that has to do with their connected pasts. I was shocked by how connected their past was, and we only get the beginning of it all. I assume will be revealed in the next book.

This book left me with a few questions unanswered.... The following questions does contain SPOILERS BELOW, SO IF YOU HAVE NOT READ THIS BOOK YET, DONT READ ANY FURTHER.

Where was Luke and Allison during all of this? Allison made an appearance once, but she didn't seem like the type to fight for their friendship, so I didn't count on/nor wanted another appearance from her. And Luke. He did try to fight (miserably, might I add) for Shannon in a way. But then after the ER visit, he was nowhere to be seen or heard from again. He basically fell off the face of the earth. And usually when someone goes radio silence, it's never a good thing. It means they are planning something and waiting things out until it's time to strike.

Was it really Nick and Theresa screwing when Shannon walked in the office? That wasn't addressed, so I'm still left wondering if it was Nick she was screwing or not.... Anyone who knows, mind pm-ing me, because I want to clarify. I have theories that maybe it wasn't Nick she was screwing but a co-worker, or Nick's father (he is sadistic after all, and he did have a mistress), or Jeffrey, or Luke...? (I don't know, he seems man-whorish enough to do that).

And who was calling Shannon non-stop as she was leaving the office after witnessing you-know-what?

So, I'm left with some questions (yeah, they may not be essential to the story but I am curious about every action). But again, kudos and golden stars for the shock value. You got me there a few times.

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