Book Review - The Silent Fountain by Victoria Fox

Amazon UK

Title: The Silent Fountain

Author: Victoria Fox

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: HQ

Publication Date: 9th March 2017

Rating: 5 Stars

Hollywood, 1975: 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 dark shadows haunt her new husband’s past…

Tuscany, Present day: Everyone in London is searching for Lucy Whittaker – so Lucy needs to disappear. But her new home, the crumbling Castillo Barbarossa, is far from the secluded paradise it seemed.

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…

Sitting here open mouthed in wonderment, but equally speechless with just how much I completely adored this book.  

I read the first 3 chapters when I had a short bit of time, and then spent the next few hours thinking about how the book would progress, which showed me just how much it was under my skin instantly. I had many questions just from the beginning and over the course of the book I did get all the answers. 

My next stint of reading too me to about 75%, where I incredibly reluctantly put the book down, only because it was 2.30am, and I figured I should probably go to bed. I just had to keep on turning the pages, and kept gasping in shock, as various elements were revealed, or turns in the story occurred. 

Of course I read the last bit in one sitting too, so the book was basically unputdownable for me, and whenever I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about the characters. 

The Silent Fountain is a remarkably different book from Victoria Fox, who is more known for her big bonkbuster summery novels. This story however has far deeper veins running through it, and tells two different stories alongside each other.

One starts in the 1970s, and is the story of Vivien Lockhart's life, from her early childhood, and through her marriage, and issues with her sister-in-law. The other story is set in present day Tuscany, and all you know to begin with is that Lucy Whittaker is needing an escape from the UK, and from something terrible that she has done. 

I found both stories equally engaging and I just wanted to know more and more about Vivien especially, and her life. There is always a chapter heading when you are getting the past so it was easy to tell who or what you were following at any time. We also see a small amount of what Vivien is like in the present day, and large amounts of her story are heartbreaking. 

The Silent Fountain is a story that edged under my skin, leaving it on my mind even when I wasn't reading. I found it atmospheric, full of details, and loved reading about the Castillo Barbarossa and the secrets within its walls. I am also incredibly impressed by the change of style from Victoria Fox, and shows she is an even more talented author than I may have first thought.  Not really sure how to describe the sort of book this is, other than if you like books that seep into your conscious, like a bit of mystery and drama, then this could be the book for you! 

Thank you so much to Netgalley and HQ for this copy of the book which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.  

Guest Post - The Changing Face of Women's Fiction by Victoria Fox - Blog Tour

Women’s fiction is changing. ‘Chick-lit’, a provocative tag, used to be about high heels, handbags and heartbreak – but not any more. Over recent years, women’s fiction has seen a surge in psychological thrillers, blockbuster action and exotic time-slip. Cosy armchair romances, thanks to what I call the ‘Great Vintage Revival’, have found a new fan base, incorporating baking, teashops and beach houses. There is a whole host of women’s literature, a huge variety with potential to appeal between ages and sexes. Why, then, are women writing for women seen as light, frothy or inconsequential?

The chick-lit hangover is one we’ve got to get past. Often, my books are referred to as chick-lit – I don’t mind, after all the chick-lit stable is one I’m happy to join, peopled as it is with the groundbreaking likes of Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes – but undoubtedly it is a reductive term. Men do not have an equivalent. Novels about fast cars, great battles, agents and spies, subjects deemed (absurdly) to be male pursuits, are not labelled ‘lad-lit’. So why us? It’s the emotional content, maybe, the loves and losses and heartbreak, the secrets, the sex and the below-surface, that classify these books as women’s. It’s diminutive to men, too: it’s not seen as masculine to be interested in these things. Books are life experience, everyone’s experience. It’s not as cut and dried as a pink cover or a blue cover.

Are my books populated by ‘chicks’? No, more often cocks, hee hee. Because mine is a bonkbuster, loud and proud. It’s got the emotion but it’s also got the action, the helicopters, the assassins and the scandal. It’s a story led by women but they’re not sitting at home with their knitting needles: they’re running the show. Read a ‘chick-lit’ book and you’ll find the protagonists are much more than your Jimmy-Choo-wearing, Sex-and-the-City-watching, Cosmopolitan-drinking stereotype. Frankly, you couldn’t write a book about anyone at all if those were their limits. But if these female characters express emotion or thought or analysis, they instantly become ‘chicks’. It’s a tricky word to navigate, but we’re managing it.

I think the key is in giving a protagonist more to think about than a man. For too long, chick-lit has been associated with the single twenty-something looking for marriage and babies, as if that is all a woman can and should aspire to in life. Do we see her male counterpart sitting cross-legged in a nearby bar, nursing a glass of Pinot Grigio and worrying about whether he’s too fat for a girlfriend, or his calves are too big for Tinder? 

Now, thankfully, we’re seeing a great spectrum of women heroes leading their stories, and they’re nothing to do with Getting the Guy. It’s about getting the job, or getting the house, or getting the truth, or getting the dream. It’s about taking control and taking charge. Pour the wine down the sink and put some trainers on instead of those heels. Better to run in. 

The covers have long been a problem – it’s not just men who don’t want to be seen reading a pink, glittery book; it’s me, and many other women – but they’re changing too. Packaging is catching up with content. And soon, hopefully, it won’t need to be called women’s fiction at all – just as ‘men’s fiction’ has no place on the bookshelf. Fiction, one and all, from a vast, shared pool of imagination.

Victoria Fox’s The Santiago Sisters is published 28th July (MIRA, £7.99)

Thank you so much Victoria Fox for your thoughts on Women's fiction and Chick Lit, and I must say I do love a good bonkbuster!

About Victoria Fox

Victoria Fox divides her time between Bristol and London. She used to work in publishing and is
now the author of 6 novels.

@Mira_BooksUK   @VFoxWrites   #TheSantiagoSisters


Amazon buy link: http://amzn.to/2aa6KFg

Book Review - The Santiago Sisters by Victoria Fox - Blog Tour

Amazon UK

Title: The Santiago Sisters

Author: Victoria Fox

Format reviewed: Ebook

Source: Netgalley

Publisher: MIRA

Publication Date: 28th July 2016 

Rating: 5 Stars

They should have stayed as one. They couldn’t survive apart.
It was fate, forever destined to come to this: from birth to death, two halves of the same whole.

Twins Calida and Teresita Santiago have never known a world without each other…until Teresita is wrenched from their Argentinian home to be adopted by world-famous actress Simone Geddes.

Now, while Teresita is provided with all that money can buy, Calida must fight her way to the top – her only chance of reuniting with her twin.

But no one can predict the explosive events which will finally bring the Santiago sisters into the spotlight together…

Powerful..compulsive and intriguing story, that is fast paced and Victoria Fox at her best. This has to be one of the best poolside reads of the season, with its glitz, glamour, secrets, strong female characters, sex and even some sun! 

I was hooked from the first page until the last, as I was drawn into the tale of twin sisters Calida and Teresita Santiago, as you learn of their vastly different lives from childhood until the incident in the prologue. 

In fact the prologue and small snippets of what was to come were cleverly inserted through the book, but in such a way that although you understood the action, the involved characters are kept a secret until the last possible moment, where the pace is ramped up further and the book reaches its dramatic conclusions. 

Two sisters, who both believe the other no longer cares about them, due to one decision on behalf of their mother. The first part set on an Estancia in Argentina was fascinating, as its the sort of location I didn't know much about before reading the book, but one that I got a decent feel for as I was reading the book. 

I was bewitched by the storytelling, and it reminded me of how much I love this author, as its been a few years since I read anything by her, although suddenly I don't mind waiting as long for a book, when you then read something with this level of quality and enjoyment. 

A simply superb summer hit book, The Santiago Sisters, was an unputdownable triumph to read, spanning a 20 year period, and a solid look at the lives of twins, that have been separated and still seem to have various things in common. 

Thank you to Netgalley and MIRA for this review copy. This was my honest opinion.