The One Unspoken (The One Unspoken #1)

Book ONE of The One Unspoken

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Pub Date 27 Mar 2018 | Archive Date 26 Mar 2018

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Description

The One Unspoken is the first installment of The One Unspoken

Sidonie Verdier and Gabriel Saint-Martin are neighbors who live worlds apart. Born in western Louisiana in 1841, Sidonie is the last and only surviving child of an impoverished white Creole cotton planter, who has abandoned his pregnant wife. When her mother dies in childbirth, Sidonie is left to the care of Adelis, a midwife and former slave who has blackmailed her freedom from her mistress on her deathbed. The two develop an unlikely bond, which is cemented when Adelis realizes that they share a gift—the ability to see and communicate with ghosts. As she grows older, Sidonie also discovers that she has a singular talent for music, passed down from her mysterious and beautiful mother, Isobel Ballantyne. But when Sidonie’s father returns with plans to reclaim the plantation, forge his daughter into a proper Creole lady, and sell her into marriage to the highest bidder, Adelis and Sidonie’s fragile peace is shattered. 

Meanwhile, on a neighboring plantation, Gabriel St. Martin is leading the privileged yet fraught life of a free black sugar-planter’s only son. He chafes under the expectation that he will inherit the plantation, dreaming instead of a career in medicine far beyond the confines of his remote, rural home. When Gabriel is sent to fetch Adelis for the birth of his mother’s seventh child, his orbit collides with Sidonie’s, leading to passionate, forbidden love and a tragedy that will destroy his family, revealing the tangled bloodlines that bind them all. 

From the backwoods bayous of Louisiana to the corrupt, glittering decadence of antebellum New Orleans, THE ONE UNSPOKEN peels back the barbed layers of the Code Noir, which governed both free and enslaved African-Americans. It conjures a shimmering world of voodoo curses, extravagant affairs, and skeletons in family closets, and will appeal to readers of The Movement of Stars by Amy Brill and The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope by Rhonda Riley.

The One Unspoken is the first installment of The One Unspoken

Sidonie Verdier and Gabriel Saint-Martin are neighbors who live worlds apart. Born in western Louisiana in 1841, Sidonie is the last and...


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ISBN 9781948099714
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Featured Reviews

In mid 19th century Louisiana, Sidonie is left with Adelis, a former slave and midwife to care for her after her own mother dies. The two share a peculiar gift – the ability to communicate with the dead and form a bond. When Sidonie’s father returns to see that his daughter is married off to a wealthy Creole planter, she rebels. She meets Gabriel St. Martin, free black, who lives on a neighboring plantation when he requires Adelis’s skills to help his mother deliver yet another child. The two develop a passionate and forbidden relationship that could literally cost them both their very lives.

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The One Unspoken—a book that is written in almost ten years—tells us about some rich origins and history, and the never-ending love of a mother, biological or not, and a true love that is worth fighting for. A very remarkable and exceptional book that you will surely love.

On the first part, the story took place around 1840. The story revolves around Sidonie who had an ability to talk and see the dead, and oddly enough, Adelis, a midwife and former slave who has blackmailed Sidonie’s mother for her freedom. She will meet in the latter part Gabriel whom soon she will fell-in-love with, and that’s where the fight for freedom and love will begin. And not just the romantic love, but the never-ending love of a mother and the mother figure. This book will surely move you to tears, especially the ending.

It was yet another thrilling book that I set my fingers in. I rarely read books under Historical Fiction because it bores me to death, but this book was an exception. The moment Adelis blackmailed Isobel, I already found myself reeling for some information. After Sidonie grew up, I found the book’s phasing going slow at first but after a while, I realized that the information being handed was crucial to both part two and part three of the story.

There were too many characters, and yup, it’s a little confusing, though each of the characters had their own story to tell. With regards to the plot, the story was done carefully—the story depicts perfectly the discrimination era. I heard that the story took ten years to complete and that maybe is the reason of the perfectness of the story. 

I would also like to acknowledge the precision and depth of understanding of the author with regards to the history she used in this book—I rarely see this kind of flawlessness in a fictional book, and I was hoping she will write some non-fiction books that seems to be her forte.

DISCLAIMER: I requested for an ARC of this book in NetGalley and I was given a copy in exchange for an honest review. The description of the book had caught my attention.

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Sarah Bryant brings us a well thought out tale from the depths of Louisiana covering time from June 1841 through Aug 1859, the life span of Sidonie, the only living child of Isabel and Clement Verdier, owners of Verdier Plantation, and Gabriel Saint-Martins, son of the black family owning the Chenes Plantation fairly close by. Time spent in New Orleans by both families is also very interesting, following true to the time and place. Music, a freed black woman named Adelis, and, surprisingly,
Edinburgh, Scotland tie Sidonie and Gabriel together despite code noir laws, his murderous mother, and her drunkard father. But will love ever be enough?

I received a free electronic copy of this historical novel from Netgalley, Sarah Bryant, and Curiosity Quills Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

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A good and entertaining book with an interesting theme. It kept the promises of the cover blurb.
I liked and recommend it.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher.

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Netgalley provided me with free digital access to this title in exchange for my honest opinion.

I am not a reader of romance, typically, but I can appreciate a good love story if there's other stuff going on that interests me. In this case I was drawn to the promise of spookiness and secrets, and it didn't disappoint, but I also really found myself drawn into the love story and rooting for the lovers. This title also made for some fascinating historical fiction.

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I received this from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

I won't reiterate the blurb, but suffice it to say this is a good book. Set in Louisiana in the mid-1800's, the story is well thought out with interesting characters and events that are set true to time and place.

My first read by author Sarah Maine and I look forward to the second book in this series.

4☆

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