58330

An excellent book showing how what happens when we are young, shapes our adult lives. ( )

It's been a while since I've read Dee Henderson. I did enjoy her O'Malley series and to some extent her True Valor series. I'm not sure if I read the story that introduces Paul and Ann Falcon (I'm sure there is one).

It took me a while to get into this book, and I think if I hadn't had past success with reading this author I might have given up on the book as some reviewers did. I think if they'd stuck with it, they might have liked it a bit better than they did when they gave up on it.

I don't think it ranks among Henderson's best, but if you can push past the beginning part of the book, I think you'll start to like it.

Charlotte starts out as a buttoned up shirt and as she learns she can trust Bryce, starts to open up. She also starts more actively working on her relationship with God--I think because she wants what she sees Bryce has.

WARNING: SPOILERS MAY OCCUR IN THE REMAINDER (READ ON AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION)

It's a little "convenient" that Charlotte ends up having enough money to do pretty much whatever she wants, including being able to facilitate the capture of the one person who hasn't yet been found.

If the butterfly pin was Ruth's, why didn't Ruth's sister recognize it when it came up in the Baby Connor investigation? (Not that her sister didn't have distractions at that time, but . . . you'd think at some point, it might have come up sooner than it did.)

I like that Bryce is patient and that he thinks of what is best for Charlotte--but he almost seems too perfect. He doesn't even gripe about it a bit to a friend who has more connection to him than to Charlotte. Now I do realize that if he hurts Charlotte, he'll have John to deal with, but still . . . at least once you'd think he'd express frustration to someone, even if it's only to God.

I like that both Bryce and Charlotte listen to each other and store thoughts about each other's likes and dislikes and then utilize those in picking out gifts for each other. ( )

I think this particular novel arc (the "un" series) is much weaker than the O'Malleys, and somewhat weaker than the Evie series. I'm not entirely sure what the problem was, but part of it is that the novels definitely needed to be edited down -- the length of the stories detracts from the (mostly minimal) suspense action. There's also a lot of "talk about the potential romantic partner instead of talk to the person themself" which is quite annoying. I get the idea that each book in this series focuses on a particular subject area (coins in this one) which is kind of a neat plot device but easily gets bogged down in esoteric details. ( )

Closer to 2.5
Based on the blurb, I assumed Unspoken would hold more suspense and more in relation to the kidnapping of Charlotte; however, it was more about the budding friendship/relationship between her and Bryce. I never felt a connection to any of the characters, especially since we never really get to see what Charlotte is feeling and thinking. I suppose that was to add to the mystery surrounding who she is and the details of the kidnapping, but for me, it just made it difficult to relate to her. The first half of the book spoke heavily about coins (the reason for their initial meeting) and barely touched at all on what happened to Charlotte years a go. There is a "twist" but it is fairly easy to figure out and I found it predictable based off of the information given throughout the novel. I also found many similarities between this book and Henderson's other book, Danger in the Shadows, which made the story seem less original. ( )