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A review by bookish_kristina
Without Words by Ellen O'Connell
5.0
A really sweet slow burn.
My heart stayed in my chest with this one, when usually Ellen rips it out and stomps on it. Not a bad thing, just a different, more fuzzy romance centred story from her. Bret is a great caretaker hero and Hassie (dumb name) has an untapped inner strength, optimism and resilience that I admired. However I’m petty and filled with vengeance so I needed a better comeuppance for the brother and his wife, and Hassie was almost raped three times in this and we hear of a few almost rapes from her past as well. It felt excessive that her whole life is one big failed rape attempt.
But for real, Ellen knows how to write a title better than any author, they always have deeper meaning and I never forget them (and I tend to forget titles really quickly).
So this is a mid four star read but I can’t quite bring myself to round it up to sit next to Eyes of Silver and Beautiful Bad Man by the same author. That’s probably unfair but this is my review and I do what I want haha.
Update: I decided to round up because I think my slump was making me nit picky and I picked up a really terrible book right after this and felt like coming back and rewarding good writing. Ellen really deserves all the stars. So 4.5 stars rounded up.
My heart stayed in my chest with this one, when usually Ellen rips it out and stomps on it. Not a bad thing, just a different, more fuzzy romance centred story from her. Bret is a great caretaker hero and Hassie (dumb name) has an untapped inner strength, optimism and resilience that I admired. However I’m petty and filled with vengeance so I needed a better comeuppance for the brother and his wife, and Hassie was almost raped three times in this and we hear of a few almost rapes from her past as well. It felt excessive that her whole life is one big failed rape attempt.
But for real, Ellen knows how to write a title better than any author, they always have deeper meaning and I never forget them (and I tend to forget titles really quickly).
So this is a mid four star read but I can’t quite bring myself to round it up to sit next to Eyes of Silver and Beautiful Bad Man by the same author. That’s probably unfair but this is my review and I do what I want haha.
Update: I decided to round up because I think my slump was making me nit picky and I picked up a really terrible book right after this and felt like coming back and rewarding good writing. Ellen really deserves all the stars. So 4.5 stars rounded up.