Reviewed by Annika

TITLE: Locked in Silence

SERIES: Pelican Bay #1

AUTHOR: Sloane Kennedy

NARRATOR: Michael Pauley

PUBLISHER: Sloane Kennedy

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2017

LENGTH: 8 hours 55 minutes

BLURB:

I’ve spent years hoping someone would finally hear me. It’s easier not to try anymore….

10 years after leaving his small Minnesota hometown in his rear view mirror for what Nolan Grainger was sure would be the last time, life has decided to throw the talented musician a curveball and send him back to the town he lived in but was never really home.

At 28, Nolan has traveled the world as a successful concert violinist with some of the best symphonies in the country. But success breeds envy, and when Nolan’s benefactor and lover decides Nolan has flown high enough, he cruelly clips Nolan’s wings. The betrayal and ensuing scandal leaves the violinist’s career in shambles and with barely enough money to start fresh somewhere beyond his vindictive ex’s powerful reach. But just as he’s ready to get his life back on track, Nolan gets the call he’s been dreading.

After a stroke leaves his father a partial invalid, duty-bound Nolan returns to Pelican Bay and a life he’s spent years trying to forget. When he’s forced to use the last of his own money to keep from losing the family home, desperation has him turning to the one man he’d hoped never to see again….

Even if I could speak, there wouldn’t be anyone there to listen….

REVIEW:

You can hear so more than you realise if you just truly listen. If you truly look at someone you might just see so much more than you ever thought possible.

I’d been silently screaming my while life and no one had ever heard.

So what does Dallas, the town’s baseball hero and Nolan, the skinny, invisible, bullied guy have in common?

Let me tell you; Not one single person in their lives truly sees them. Knows them. That kind of knowing someone to their core that unconditional love brings. Neither Nolan nor Dallas ever had that one single person that truly knows them. Both have been invisible and ignored. No one ever really listening to what they’d had to say. Judging, condemning – and with pitchforks in hand. That was true in high school, and is still true some ten years later when their paths cross again.

Nolan returns to Pelican Bay after “the incident” in San Francisco, to help his mom with his ailing father. But he is far from welcome. Ostracised and ignored by the town he turns to the one person that might just be lower on the totem pole than him. His former crush Dallas. The two forms a (very) tentative friendship, both slowly realising how much they have in common. And that by standing together they are so much stronger than they ever were alone.

We also get to meet some wonderful animals. Loki will steal your heart for sure, but Gentry might just break it a little bit. And Jerry… well.. when you need someone to lighten the mood, you might want to visit with Jerry, the ornery – but not dangerous – zebra. Just don’t expect him to do what you want him to. 😉

One issues I had with the book was that the resolution to some of the issues that were going on. It was all too quick and too neat for my tastes. The town switched sides too quickly. I mean they’d hated Dallas for ten years, made him a pariah to the point where he avoided going into town at all. Then, overnight they swarm him with love and generosity? Don’t believe that. No thank you, I don’t need that kind of people in my life – or in my books. Bring me genuine friends that will stand by someone through the hardships, the pain and sorrow.

Michael Pauley did a good job bringing this book to life, giving both Nolan and Dallas a voice. Making them heard. I just love listening to his voice, and I can honestly say his voice is one of my favourite ones. If not the voice. There’s just something about it that is soothing and relaxing, that even in the middle of a migraine I wouldn’t mind listening to is voice. But that’s his voice mind you, not the narration in itself. I do feel that at times there could be more of a difference between how he narrates different characters, but this is just a minor thing, and definitely not something that will ever keep me from listening to one of his narration.

Locked in Silence is a beautiful book about second chances. A second chance at love, of family, friendships. But more importantly, a second chance at life. Because before they met again, neither Nolan or Dallas were truly living, they were surviving one day to the next. It’s a hurt-comfort book that will have you swearing at the injustices of the world and at the narrowmindedness of the small town people. But it will also bring a warmth to your heart because underneath there are some wonderful people capable of great love,

RATING:

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