4 stars!

This was a haunting, addictive and atmospheric story. I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and setting of this novel told in dual timelines – Hollywood, 1978 and Tuscany, Present Day. I was equally intrigued with each storyline and was quickly flipping pages to see how the two timelines would intersect.

The majority of this book unfolds within an old mansion, the Castillo Barbarossa, nestled and secluded in the Italian countryside. This eerie Italian villa becomes a character of its own, with its crumbling stone façade, its old stone courtyard fountain, endless rooms, dim hallways, dark stairways and the forbidden, locked-up attic. This Italian manor house had such a dramatic and eerie feel – I could fully imagine the characters within its walls, secluded behind its massive structure.

The author, Victoria Fox, did an outstanding job building suspense as each page was turned. I was completely engrossed in the writing and found myself absorbed within the characters thoughts and predicaments. A few minor pieces of the story seemed a little unrealistic, but nothing that took away from my overall enjoyment of the novel.

I found this novel to be an easy and highly entertaining read with just the right mix of suspense, historical plot, eerie atmosphere and suspenseful secrets.

A big thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin and Victoria Fox for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!!

The Silent Fountain is not a fast read. Rather, it unwinds like a road through the Italian countryside, the kind where there might be sunflowers on one side and a grove of olive trees on the other. It’s full of intrigue and deception, scandal and sorrow, and it’s worth every moment it takes to follow the various twists and turns.

I’ve always enjoyed parallel stories. In this novel, we have the story of faded movie star, Vivian Lockhart, a recluse wrapped in mystery and loss, and Lucy, young, vibrant, and equally troubled. As these two women exist near each other, around each other, and eventually open up to each other, each works through her own issues, and while the bond they form is neither lasting nor unbreakable, it’s supremely real nevertheless.

Of course, there is a third primary character in this moody book: Castillo Barbarossa itself. It’s an old, spooky house with dark corners and the titular “Silent Fountain,” and it looms large throughout the entire story, serving as both setting and silent chorus.

While this book was, ultimately, nothing like what I expected, it was a compelling read, well crafted, and truly beautiful.

Goes well with buttery roasted chicken, roasted peppers and tomatoes, and a bottle of any local table wine you like.

Two storylines going on at the same time in this book and I loved that they wind around each other the entire book and then completely combust near the end. Viven Lockhart is in both the present and historical storylines, in the historical storyline she is a retired starlet who has taken up residence in a beautiful Italian home with her husband and his sister and its worth reading the book to find out why the sister is in residence with the couple. In the present day, Lucy has some drama on her own so she decides to get away to this Italian home for a job and escape, but drama always finds you!

I always love a book that has two storylines, but this one felt different. With one character in both the past and the present the stories converged early, but there were still mysteries and secrets to discover. With each page the reader is learning more and more and finally the bomb is dropped and it spins the story around and around and I loved it! Of course I won't spoil when and where this happens, but when it does, it is oh so good!

I would encourage readers who don't always enjoy historical fiction to try this one, the historical storyline isn't too far in the past and isn't too "historical". The guts of the story are the relationships - sister and sister-in-law, friends, women and women, relationships are hard and difficult and it takes work to maintain them with family and friends and sometimes they hurt you and sometimes they help you, and I loved reading this book with all the different relationships it portrayed.

This was my first Victoria Fox read and after checking out her Goodreads page I need to read her backlist, has anyone read anything else by her? Where should I go next if I loved this one?

I like to read dual time period books, usually the time difference spans 50+ years but with The Silent Fountain the time lines were closer.

Current day we have Lucy, there is some scandal that forces her to flee not just England but her family as well.

Beginning in 1975 there is Vivian with her troubled family life which sets her off to change the direction of her life.

The Silent Fountain is a book about relationships, secrets and new beginnings. I will admit that the first few chapters didn’t draw me in as other books have. But as the story lines involved I was flipping through the pages trying to unravel the mystery. With the Castille Barbarossa in Florence, Italy as the connecting thread, this book had that Gothic feel with the darkness of the plot. You could almost say that the Barbarossa is one of the characters here, with it’s isolated location, desolate rooms, hanging portraits of ancestors and a fountain that doesn’t work but still has water replenished every day.

There is a compelling story line here but I have to say I enjoyed the past one a little more as I felt more invested in the characters and connected to Vivian, I could feel her wide range of emotions. Lucy's story line was also interesting but I found it lacked the suspense and intrigue that possessed the earlier years. But don’t get me wrong here I enjoyed this book immensely.

Victoria Fox is a new author to me, I enjoyed her writing style with its twist and turns and an ending that I did not anticipate at all. Definitely a book I recommend.

Favorite Quotes:

I’ve never told my family anything about my life, and the more personal it is, the more precious and the less willing I am to share it.

Sometimes she pictures the materials of this house, the solid wood and hard marble, the cool stone, absorbing every thought and feeling her body has expelled. If she squeezes the drapes, tears will seep out, like the wringing of a cloth; if she scratches the stairways, secrets will plume and curl in a thin ribbon: grey smoke.

He looked like a prince who had lived for a thousand years and never aged a day. His skin was marble, lightly tanned by the LA sun but harbouring the deep, permanent colour of foreign blood. She imagined him living in a forest, surrounded by sky and leaves.

Vivien knew that Isabella was multifaceted, but even she was impressed at the dazzling persona that now charmed Gilbert Lockhart like a snake winding through grass.

It felt like a long time that I was standing there, and that the rest of the café was transfixed. In reality, it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds and nobody else cared.


My Review:

I was quickly sucked down the rabbit hole with this well-crafted and superbly written tale and didn’t want to surface until I reached the heart-squeezing conclusion. The Silent Fountain proved to be a tantalizing treat that was irresistibly intriguing and maddeningly paced. This was my first experience reading Victoria Fox’s unique form of genius but I expect her to become a habit, as she is a master storyteller who certainly knows how to captivate and maintain the reader’s attention as well as tease the imagination with anticipation and misdirection. I was engaged, immersed, and taut with tension. I loved it! I was fascinated by the alluring and mysterious characters and was deeply embedded in the eerily compelling storyline and found myself becoming increasing conflicted as I neared the conclusion. I was anxious and eager to solve the mystery yet I didn’t want the tale to end. Victoria Fox is an evil genius and has diabolically mad skills and an instant fangirl!

There is nothing like fall to make you want to read a mystery or a Gothic novel…..well at least for me! Fall is the perfect time to curl up with a creep or suspenseful book and spend the day lost in the mystery. That’s exactly what I did with The Silent Fountain!

I read this book as part of Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, it was hard to break with my Pink Carnation book but somehow I found the ability to read something else, and I was not sad in the least. This book was a great Gothic novel!

Hollywood, 1978:

Tragedy sends troubled film star Vivien Lockhart into the arms of Giovanni Moretti–and it seems her fortunes have finally changed. Until she meets his sister and learns that her new husband’s past holds dark secrets…


Tuscany, Present day:

Lucy Whittaker needs to disappear. But her new home, the crumbling Castillo Barbarossa, is far from the secluded paradise it seemed. Strange sounds come from the attic. The owner of the house will never meet her in person.

The fountain in the courtyard is silent–but has never run dry.

Across the decades, Vivien and Lucy find themselves trapped in the idyllic Italian villa. And if they are ever to truly escape its walls, they must first unearth its secrets (summary from Goodreads).

I liked this book more than I was expecting to. The first chapter or two was a little meat for me. Plus I tend to like my Gothic novels set in the Victorian-esque time period, not just before I was born.

It just didn’t seem to be long enough ‘in the past’ for me to really get into it. I wasn’t convinced when I read the description, but so many others loved it on Goodreads so I decided to give it a go. I was not disappointed in my decision in the least.

As I said the first couple of chapters were kind of ‘meah’ for me. I wasn’t really invested in the story or characters but then when I was on a Readathon break, I found myself thinking about the story and wondering how things were going to progress and how the characters were going to evolve.

Before long, I found myself wanting to know more and wanting to keep reading. This books had hints of Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart without being a cheep carbon copy of them and also a little more modern which I thought was tantalizing.

The duel storylines worked well and I liked watching how things culminated for the two plots in the end. The end was a little rushed considering the book was long with plenty of time to build up the ending, but on the whole it was satisfying.

This is a new author to me but from what I gather, this book is a little darker than some of her other books. I liked the tension and darkness within the plot but at times felt like things moved a little too slow in places that could have been faster and oo fast in places that things should have been slower, if that makes sense.

This book was hard to rate, on one hand I wanted to give it 4 stars because I liked the Gothic feel of the novel but on the other hand I felt a little frustrated with the pace of the novel in various areas (both too fast and too slow) which made me want to give it 3 stars. I decided to combine the two and go with a 3.5 rating. It was enjoyable and had a distinct Gothic feel to it so fans of that genre will enjoy it but it needs some polishing in the pace department.

Book: The Silent Fountain by Victoria Fox

Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Published March 9th 2017 by HQ
ASIN B01MRGTPMI
Review copy provided by: Author/Publisher in exchange for an honest review
This book counts toward: NA

Hosted by: NA
Books for Challenge Completed: NA
Recommendation: 3.5 out of 5

Genre: Gothic lit, romance, suspense

Memorable lines/quotes:

Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me. I had a hard time following what was going on in the beginning. Neither the story nor the characters were engaging enough to keep me interested.

This was romantic suspense - heavy on suspense with a seriously Gothic feel. The atmosphere just hummed with ominous secrets and every conversation felt threatening. And really an almost abandoned Italian villa is plenty creepy all on it's own but throw in some foreboding warnings and a reclusive, rarely seen inhabitant and the creep factor raises to almost oppressive.

The characters were intriguing and Vivien's story especially was brutal and fascinating. Lucy was a little harder to like. She's running from something and spends a lot of time worrying about whatever secret she's running for and struggles to follow the incredibly restrictive rules in the villa.

What made this book just okay was the pacing. It seemed like such a slow read and I got frustrated not knowing ANY of the mounting secrets. I get that part of the atmosphere is the not knowing but I felt like I didn't know anything that was going on and that got a little tedious after awhile. I think the writing style was good and the characters and plot were interesting and maybe if I had been in the mood for a slower paced book this would have been a better read. As it was it wasn't a bad read but it didn't pull me in and keep me reading either.

Heartbreaking, romantic and utterly alluring!

The Silent Fountain is an incredibly absorbing and emotive novel about love, life, loss, deception, infidelity, friendship, family, jealousy, obsession, and tragedy.

There are two main memorable characters in this novel. Vivian, a starlet from the 1970s who moved to Italy with the love of her life until one day everything she held dear was taken, shattered and destroyed. And Lucy, a young woman who fell in love with the wrong man and is now hiding from the public and media revile being cast her way.

The writing is eloquent and expressive.  The plot is well crafted and uses a past/present, back-and-forth style to create suspense and emotion as it subtly unravels all the histories, personalities, relationships, and motivations within it. And the characterization is well done with a cast of characters that are distressed, raw and endearing and a setting, Castillo Barbarossa, that is a character itself with its dereliction, isolation, and multitude of secrets.

The Silent Fountain is truly a clever, haunting, atmospheric novel that swept me away to a city touched by both cruelty and love and immersed me in a poignant, moving story that certainly had me shedding a few tears.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I really disliked the beginning of this book. The premise is intriguing but the writing is clunky and the dialogue unrealistic. The narrator keeps referring to an incident with someone she was seeing. The details are sketchy - she's lost her job, or did she quit? The secretary blames her for something. She's not seeing the guy anymore and he's not calling - is he dead? Angry? Detached? Something happened to a lady. Her name will soon be infamous and a headline in papers, but not yet - is it still under wraps? I thought it happened a year ago? Why isn't it in the paper yet if it happened a long time ago? Every one hates her, but not her roommate who is a girl but has a guy's name and doesn't think badly of her - or maybe she does but she's keeping it herself because she needs someone to share rent? What happened to the narrator's apartment? Anywho, the roommate knows about a job in Italy caring for a house - or is it caring for the occupant? Is she dying?

That's the first 30 or so pages. Ain't nobody got time for that. Why was this reviewed so well? Should I keep plodding through? I don't wanna!

This novel was an absolute surprise for me!!! From the synopsis, I was pretty sure The Silent Fountain was going to be a decent read, but it ended up being a fantastic read!!

I loved everything about Victoria Fox's writing style!!! Victoria did a wonderful job with tell two women's stories 35 years apart, all the while unraveling the mystery that will ultimately touches both the ladies lives. I found myself immediately immersed in the plot and of course I tried to put the pieces together. I won't spoil anything for you, but I will say you will be just as blown away as I am!! The Silent Fountain is a 4.5 star novel that combines many book genres--it has something for everyone! I am truly looking forward to reading more from Victoria Fox in the future!!

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