Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: Silent Is The Heart
SERIES: Standalone
AUTHOR: Dianna Roman
PUBLISHER: Wild One Press LLC
LENGTH: Approximately 326 Pages
RELEASE DATE: March 4, 2025
BLURB:
One cold night stole everything from Easton Bennick—his childhood, his voice, and the only person who loved him. A ward of the state, left with nothing but pain and no way to communicate it, Hampton Hills Rehabilitation Center feels like a sentence rather than a road to recovery, until Aaron Manicki.
Eight years ago, Hampton Hills was supposed to be a steppingstone in Aaron’s speech pathology career. Dreams shattered, he never imagined ending up right back where he started. Looking for new meaning in his life, Aaron’s curiosity takes him in search of the guarded boy he worked so hard to reach years prior. What he finds is not a shy teen, but a full-grown man with an unexplainable chip on his shoulder.
Determined to integrate himself into Easton’s world, Aaron finds his quest to reach Easton may be as much a road to self-salvation. If Aaron can get Easton to speak, will he be able to hear how silent is the heart?
An MM romance of second-chances, second-guesses, and first love.
REVIEW:
As a teenager, Easton brutally lost everything that was precious to him. While in the hospital, the annoyed at the world, selectively mute, teen classically fell for the man who made his stay bearable. Then, one day, that man was gone, tearing Easton’s heart and future recovery into shreds. Eight years later, Easton has his life together and has become a love-em-and-leave-em man. Aaron returns to Hampton, broken, needing something, anything familiar. He goes looking for the boy whose case he left unfinished, but he finds a fine man. Then Aaron realizes that his appearance has sparked deep feelings of betrayal and seeks to make amends. Are they destined for happiness, or will the hell from the past make hell for their future?
Silent is the Heart is a standalone story whose characters captured my heart and whose journey took some unexpected twists. There are some tales that a person can predict – not this one. The first part developed the characters and made me embrace Easton and Aaron. The second had me turning the page, eager to know what happened.
The story is told in the first person from Easton and Aaron’s viewpoints. Worldbuilding takes place between the men’s homes and work. This suited my reading tastes as once the initial descriptions were done; the story concentrated on their lives and emotions instead of the color of the couch.
Hailing from the effects of alcohol-laced abuse, Easton rebuilds his life with tragedy in his past, a chip on his shoulder, inbuilt determination, and a talent for art. He has loyal friends, a protected heart, and a sense of right and wrong. Easton relies on ASL when his voice gets tired, or he simply doesn’t want to talk. But when Aaron returns to his life, Easton can’t help but want a piece of flesh, and he uses all the tools he can to achieve his goal.
Aaron is a good man, an idealist, who has had a supported, successful life. That is until it all falls apart. Aaron returns home to his mother and brother with less than nothing and is ashamed to admit anything. The only thing Aaron has left is his pride. Seeing Easton’s old file, Aaron wants to do right by the man, and he tries so hard.
This is where I found myself seeing both sides of the cat-and-mouse game, with both eventually having epiphanies, and fences to build. Their resulting actions melted me. THEN, if that wasn’t a good enough reason to love this story, the author throws in twists where I couldn’t read quickly enough to find out what happened. It was unexpected, brutal, thrilling to read, my heart pumped out of my chest, and totally brilliant.
Bravo.
Yes, I’d recommend this tale. xx
RATING: 
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