Review: A Smile in a Whisper

It’s a beautiful thing when you find an author you love. You know just what kind of book you’ll get when they release a new one and you know you’re bound to adore it just as much as you have with their others. Jacquelyn Middleton is one of those authors for me. I’ve been reading her books for so long and every time she announces a new book, I rub my hands together in anticipation. I know I’m in for a swoony (and usually steamy) read with all the feels that won’t shy away from hard topics. A Smile in a Whisper, just out today, delivered all those feelings when I read - and loved - it.

Here’s the book’s description:

Not all farewells are forever…
Evie Sutherland throws herself into everything. Like many on Scotland’s picturesque Orkney Islands, she works several jobs: managing her family’s shop, researching genealogy for tourists, and writing historical romance novels. Evie aces most challenges—except love. With a childhood diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and a disastrous dating history, Evie has convinced herself that guys won’t date the “sick girl” and the blame falls on the shoulders of her first love, a famous boy from London who spent his summers on her island.
To the outside world, Nikolai Balfour lives a charmed life. Starring in a popular British TV series as a teen, young Nick stole fans’ hearts from the Isle of Wight to Shetland. However, that was a lifetime ago, and the years since have been filled with “Didn’t you used to be…” moments, career wrong-turns, and empty relationships. Now finding success behind the cameras, Nick is still racked with regret and guilt over how things ended with the Orcadian girl he’d loved and left behind.
But when a television series filming in Orkney blows Nick back into Evie’s quiet life, they’re forced to face their heartbreaking past and revisit old secrets that should never have been kept.
Unfolding in alternating past and present timelines, A Smile in a Whisper is a touching story of first love and second chances, and the enduring summer memories that shape us.

If you’ve read Middleton’s books before (and if you haven’t - what are you waiting for?), you know that she often has characters who deal with various mental health issues, such as anxiety. In A Smile in a Whisper, she wrote a main character who lives with a physical condition: Crohn’s disease. Middleton chose to include this not only because we need more representation of all sorts in books but because her husband also has Crohn’s. It’s not a sexy disease and isn’t discussed enough because it deals with digestive issues. While I don’t have Crohn’s, I am dealing with my own issues (and tests…and questions…and lots of unknowns. My god, it’s frustrating.) and I’m learning so much about the way the digestive system works. I hated that Evie felt like her friends and boyfriends weren’t understanding (and, truthfully, some of them weren’t) and I felt for her when she wanted to just be like everyone else and have a drink or two and eat whatever she wanted. It sucks and I wish more people would be considerate when someone isn’t “normal” and concessions have to be made. Let’s not be judgey if someone turns down a drink or a cupcake, ok? And maybe, if you’re the one who has to turn it down, let’s tell them exactly why your bowels can’t handle it. Keeping things hush hush won’t help anyone.

In addition to the representation in Middleton’s books, I also love the romances she writes. They’re always so intense - in the best way. Evie and Nick were high school sweethearts (even though they didn’t go to the same high school). They were still young when they first got together but that doesn’t diminish their feelings. Those teenage feelings, man. They’re something! But even though I do get all grandma sometimes and wonder how kids these days can know their own minds, I do understand what it’s like to start dating the person you’re going to be with forever when you’re a teen. But Evie and Nick didn’t have the chance to grow with each other and mature and evolve. Miscommunication (ugh) and the teenage inability to deal with Major Issues meant they split up instead of doing the hard work. Even before the reader knows the whole story, they know there are a lot of unresolved issues and that makes for some excellent drama and tension when it comes to romance. Will the pair actually be able to work out their issues? And how many sexy times scenes will we get as they try?!?

Middleton did something a little different with this novel in terms of timelines. The story is told in two timelines, a lot like how Carley Fortune wrote Every Summer After. Present day moves along over the course of a few weeks and the past timeline starts 18 years prior and moves forward a few years at a time, getting to know young Evie and Nick a little bit more with every chapter. With the way the pair are acting in the present timeline, you just know there was an epic break up (or break down) and I liked that Middleton put us in the past instead of just telling us what happened. It also gave some fun YA vibes along with the (very) adult vibes with the present day timeline.

And I can’t finish this review without mentioning the setting! Middleton chose to set this book on the Orkney Islands, where her own family is from. I adore all things Scotland and reading this made me really bummed that I won’t be able to make it to Orkney when I visit later this year (so much land, so little time). This novel wasn’t just a love letter for Evie and Nick. It’s a love letter to the Orkney Islands, too. And I, in turn, loved that.

A Smile in a Whisper was a wonderful novel and I so very much enjoyed reading Jacquelyn Middleton’s latest romance. It’s emotional in all the right ways, just as I hoped it would be, and it gave me a chance to “travel” to a part of Scotland I may never visit. It’s a must for romance readers who want depth with their reads!

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About the Author
Jacquelyn Middleton is an award-winning author of love stories for hopeful romantics--'hopeful' because her novels are always full of optimism and a 'happy ever after' is important now more than ever before. But life is messy, relationships are messy, and her books aren't afraid to go there, too. If you enjoy character and relationship-driven stories about people dealing with the triumphs and disasters we all face, Jacquelyn's books are for you.
In 2019, she was named BEST CANADIAN AUTHOR at the Toronto Romance Writers 'Northern Hearts' Awards for UNTIL THE LAST STAR FADES. She is also the author of LONDON BELONGS TO ME, LONDON, CAN YOU WAIT?, SAY HELLO, KISS GOODBYE, and THE CERTAINTY OF CHANCE.
An own voices author, Jacquelyn has dealt with anxiety, panic attacks, and depression all her life, and is dedicated to depicting mental health challenges realistically and empathetically in her novels.
Jacquelyn's books have been featured by The Hollywood Reporter, NBC News, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Daily News, USA Today, Cosmo, Redbook, and the Huffington Post.
She lives in Toronto with her British husband and Japanese Spitz dog.

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*A copy of this novel was provided by the author and by Valentine PR, the latter for the purposes of a blog tour with a review. All opinions are honest and my own.*