Review: Excellent, exceeds expectations!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2012
Breaking the Silence was a delight to read. Having checked out the reviews, I had high expectations. At the same time, I was also prepared for a let down because when reviewers gush about characters, I am continually reminded that I seem to have very different ideas about likeability. Not only were these characters likeable, they were loveable, endearing, clever, witty and most precious of all - believable. I laughed out loud reading the dialogue between Jenny and Will at one point. Jenny had been out drinking with her gay friend Christian (nice play on words there Katie Allen)and she was giving Will directions to where they were. I so identified with that drunken dialogue it made me feel like this scene actually happened to me; maybe it did and I simply don't recall it clearly enough.The eroticism was underlined and bolded by the intensity of desire and depth of need the author expressed so well. This was not just a hot description of moves and and how said moves feel. The need Will felt for Jenny came through loud and clear. His lack of experience certainly conflicted with his ability to expertly arouse Jenny. We've all known the fumbling of the first time. A man with no experience cannot possibly know his way around a woman's body, cannot possibly balance interpreting her response to his touch while somehow knowing the right time to move on, the right duration, the right intensity, ect. Will's ability to do everything right was believably set up by the way the author describes his utter fascination with knowing every inch of her body by touch, taste and scent. If I say much more I will give too much away... and also have to end this review right here, ahem.I have to give major kudos to the author for the delicate balance struck between making Will a damaged man with a wide open vulnerability demonstrating his self deprecating view of himself steeped in honesty, yet showing his quiet understated inner strength. There was no cheap self talk going on, obvious and insincere ways an author can give the character strength to keep moving forward in a believable way. Will came across as a brutally honest man, knowing his weaknesses and his past marked him. Knowing how his life was a shell of what life is supposed to be, yet being content with the fact that it wasn't worse than it had been in the past, or could have been as a result.How Will deals with Jenny's attack was dead on and the icing on the cake of this reader falling in love with him. True to his character already set up, he follows his needs to be close, to protect, to make it better and at the same time, NOT make it worse, not scare her, not overwhelm her. More Kudos because Will's character is so perfectly fleshed out with very little dialogue on his part. I fell in love with Will and wanted his happiness more than anything and I don't think I've ever felt that toward a grown male character before.I purchased this in ebook for my kindle, but I'm going to have to buy the print copy too. This is a feel good, in all the important ways, novel and it deserves every bit of recognition and profit it can get.