Sandy M’s review of After the Silence (From Kenya, With Love, Book 2) by Rula Sinara
Contemporary Romance published by Harlequin Heartwarming 01 Mar 15
I went into this book with a bit of trepidation – I had just finished a short story by Rula Sinara, and, unfortunately, it didn’t work for me hardly at all. Thus, I wasn’t sure what I was getting into here. But I’m happy to say this story is full of emotion and such growth for the characters, something we are all forced into when tragedy hits.
Ben Corallis is home on leave. While looking forward to seeing his wife and kids, he’s already thinking ahead to redeployment. He feels out of place in his own home with the ones who mean the most to him. When death comes to his front door, it’s the one time he’s not sure how to handle it. With the loss of his wife in a car accident, Ben now has to raise his kids, and it’s not been easy. Especially with his oldest, Maddie, who hasn’t spoken a word since they learned of her mother’s death.
Working in a busy, short-staffed Nairobi hospital, the stress is starting to get to Hope Alwanga. Her future is mapped out and she’s working to make her parents proud. But her brother talks her into a vacation in the U.S., helping his best friend’s brother-in-law with his kids. Hope is a little skeptical, but she eventually agrees. Of course, she’s taken with the children immediately and she wants to help this broken family as much as she can. Everyone takes to Hope just as fast, tossing doubt into their path as to what will happen when her eventual departure comes.
But Ben can’t doubt that Hope’s presence and influence are making a huge difference in the children’s healing and lives. They’re much more resilient than he is, though. Even when their home life is on a more even keel and he’s finally connecting with his kids, he still believes they may be better off with his wife’s parents and he should go back to the military. Even with the growing attraction between them, Ben lets his doubts get its claws very deep into him. Then again, even I had doubts when Hope does get on a plane and goes back to Nairobi. But the ending is perfect, one I hadn’t thought of.
Though this is the second book of a series, you don’t miss a thing by reading out of order. So much emotion, from Ben’s distress to Maddie’s guilt to Hope’s uncertainty, can be found in these pages. Nothing is left out from beginning to end. I will be picking up the other books in the series as soon as I can.
Grade: B+
Summary:
Does following her passion mean losing her way?
Marine Ben Corallis is an expert at facing death, but nothing comes close to the terror that grounds him when his wife is killed in a car accident the day he returns from duty. He’s left to raise an infant, a toddler and a ten-year-old girl who hasn’t uttered a word since her mother’s death.
It’s hard not to care for the widowed marine with three young children. Yet he’s still grieving, too burdened with guilt to fall in love again. And Hope Alwanga’s future as a doctor awaits her on the other side of the world, in Nairobi. If two such opposites can’t agree on a common country, how can they ever create a safe place to call home?
No excerpt available.
Other books in this series:
