Archer's Voice (Where Love Meets Destiny #1) by Mia Sheridan
I wanted to lose myself in the small town of Pelion, Maine. To forget everything I had left behind. The sound of rain. The blood. The coldness of a gun against my skin. For six months, each breath has been a reminder that I survived--and my dad didn't. I'm almost safe again. But the moment I meet Archer Hale, my entire world tilts on its axis . . . and never rights itself again.
Until I trespass into his strange, silent, and isolated world, Archer communicates with no one. Yet in his whiskey-colored eyes, something intangible happens between us. There's so much more to him than just his beauty, his presence, or the ways his hands communicate with me. On me. But this town is mired in secrets and betrayals, and Archer is the explosive center of it all.
So much passion. And so much hurt. But it's only in Archer's silence that we might just find what we need to heal . . . and live.
Review: Bree has had a traumatic experience that resulted in the loss of her father. She has traveled to the small town of Pelion, Maine to try to get away from the memories that haunt her and immediately meets the mysterious Archer Hale. After asking around, she learns that he is reclusive and hasn't spoken since a terrible accident when he was a child, an accident in which he also lost his patients. Although to the town he is seen as strange and damaged, Bree feels inexplicably drawn to him.
I liked a lot of elements of this love story, including that two people with really traumatic pasts are able to connect and help each other heal. Archer has never dated before, or even really had a true friend before and Bree wants to get to know him without judgement of his differences or disability. The flashback chapters of Archer as a scared and innocent little boy before the accident that changed his life were heartbreaking and added a lot of depth to his character.
Bree gives Archer the chance that seemingly no one else has. But why is this? I kept wondering the whole time why the whole town turned their back on a scared and scarred little boy. Why did no one reach out to him? With the sole exception of his odd and eccentric uncle that took him in, not one person ever tried to help or befriend Archer his whole life? It just seemed cruel and unlikely to me. And how was he really that excluded from the world? He doesn't even own a phone and has to learn how to text when he meets her. A veritable modern day noble savage. It would have felt a little more believable if he had at least one kindly soul in his life, or some sort of employment to better explain how he was supporting himself alone as an adult.
There were also a lot of elements of this that just felt too coincidental. Archer can't speak but no worries! Bree's late father just happened to be deaf, so she's already fluent in sign language. And even better news! Archer just happened to study sign language in a book and though he's never spoken it with anyone before, he's basically already fluent! The communication in particular irked me. Despite the fact that they are supposed to be communicating via sign language, they sign back and forth in the longest, most wordy sentences. It just did not feel realistic at all that that is actually what they were signing to each other.
I also felt the back story of how Bree ends up in Pelion was shaky at best. She's on a "road trip" and just decides to stop there, rent a cottage, and get a job for kicks. And just happens to meet the town's most reclusive man, that no one ever interacts with, on day one. And despite the fact that the town has done nothing his whole life for him, they are all bending over backwards to make her feel welcome. Her elderly neighbor practically begs Bree to take her bike, so she has a way to get around town. She instantly makes friends that ask her to go out with them. She instantly has a man (another Hale man!) trying to date her. It did not feel like real life.
Stars: 3
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