Reviewed by Carissa
TITLE: The Silence of the Stars
SERIES: Stars #2
AUTHOR: Kate McMurray
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 pages
BLURB:
Sandy Sullivan has gotten so good at covering up his emotions, he’s waiting for someone to hand him an Oscar. On the outside, he’s a cheerful, funny guy, but his good humor is the only thing keeping awful memories from his army tours in Afghanistan at bay. Worse, Sandy is now adrift after breaking up with the only man who ever understood him, but who also wanted to fix him the way Sandy’s been fixing up his new house in Brooklyn.
Everett Blake seems to have everything: good looks, money, and talent to spare. He parlayed a successful career as a violinist into a teaching job at Manhattan’s elite Olcott School and until four months ago, he even had the perfect boyfriend. Now he’s on his own, trying to give his new apartment some personality, even if it is unkempt compared to the perfect home he shared with his ex. When hiring a contractor to renovate his kitchen sends Sandy barreling into his life, Everett is only too happy to accept the chaos… until he realizes he’s in over his head.
REVIEW:
“That is the one thing I kind of miss about the desert. It was so clear you could always see the stars at night.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. And stars, you know, they’re always quiet. There were nights when I’d just go outside to get away from everyone, because once the sun went down, it wasn’t so stiflingly hot. I’d just look at the stars. I found their silence comforting.”
I really liked the first book in this series, The Stars That Tremble, so I was happy to see that a sequel, with Mike’s friend Sandy as the MC, in the works. And was even more pleased when I read it. Because this is a good book, with two great MCs, and some wonderful music to round it off. Well, you don’t actually get to hear any of the music (if they could imbed books with soundtracks that would be freaking awesome), but I went a long way in wearing out my new ipod with a the constant replaying of my “This String Shit is Beautiful” playlist (aka, why don’t we have violins following us around all the time ‘cause they are the best instrument ever, playlist). I should probably admit that I have a weird kink for men with violins (and hardanger fiddles–cause sympathetic strings are cool), but that would probably make me seem much weirder than I already appear to be. So let’s not mention that at all, ok?
Everett is a teacher at the Olcott School that Gio (the MC from The Stars that Tremble) works at, and gets a tip that Mike owns a company that could do a good job fixing up the kitchen in the apartment he just moved into. And since Sandy is in charge of the Brooklyn division of the company, it brings our two heroes together, sparking rainbows and kittens and prancing through meadows (to promptly fuck each other blind…). Or not.
Well, the whole I want to bend you over the new counter and fuck you into next week part, happens, but the rainbows and kittens are decidedly lacking. Partly because Everett just got out of a relationship (and I am trying not to let my opinions about France color my judgment of the dude, but Pierre is a bit of a wanker) and wants to try and live life on his own for a bit. And partly because Sandy has some residual issues from his time in the army that make him wary about starting a relationship with anyone, let alone this fancy violin teacher that is about twenty rungs above him in the social ladder.
Not to mention that whole PTSD thing that he doesn’t have (even if he totally does).
Everett and Sandy are a bit tamer when it comes to their issues, compared to Gio and Mike, but that doesn’t mean that their struggle is any less difficult. Perhaps more so, because they don’t end up having to fight some villain, but have to fight with their own thoughts, their own pasts, and their own hopes for the future. It isn’t an us against them book, it is more an us against us book. And I liked that aspect of it for the most part. It was handled very well, and I didn’t spend a lot of the time wanting to go around smacking people (which is a relief), but it also had to contend with the fact that all the conflict had to come from somewhere, and that somewhere was usually a lack of communication. On some issues, at least.
Romantically they really clicked. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt that both of them are totally hot, but they also seemed to fit each other so well that it was a no brainer that they would fall in love with each other. If they got over their issues, that is. I loved how they worked with each other, talked to each other (even when the answer wasn’t something they really wanted to hear), and generally tried to build something when they were not even all that sure how long either of them was going to be around. I liked that they tried even though they doubted. That they didn’t go running from each other. And when sex became something more, they adjusted to it, even when it freaked them out a bit.
My biggest, and probably only, problem with this story is the fact that I had a hard time understanding Everett’s reaction to Sandy’s PTSD. It just seemed so over the top. Everett’s friend may have dated an ex-military man, who suffered from PTSD, and that relationship may have ended badly, but Sandy was not that guy. He didn’t even really act like that guy. Sandy actually went out and got help. And yes, by getting that help he might have stirred some shit to the surface, but whoever thinks therapy is going to be some magic pill that automatically fixes everything, is an idiot. And while I like that Everett could admit that Sandy was different, his constant reticence, based on little evidence that Sandy was going to go downhill, annoyed me. He has every right to be a tad reluctant to enter a relationship with someone that is suffering from PTSD, but the way he treated it, it was almost like Sandy was one bad day away from wiping out half of Brooklyn.
If you haven’t read the first book in the series, you probably will be fine reading this as a standalone. While Gio, Mike, and Emma do show up in this story, a lot of the plot from book one really doesn’t have much bearing on what is going on in book two. It was nice to see them again, but don’t worry if you haven’t read it. Though, you know, it wasn’t a half-bad book, so you might want to check it out anyways. I really liked the writing here, and the character were great. And I have to say I enjoyed that the angst levels were moderately low. There is some back and forth with the characters, but mostly they do a good job of sorting their shit out before it gets spun way out of proportion. Also really liked the music. Even if I couldn’t hear any of it, it just gave the book such a nice, unique flavor.
RATING: 
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