Review: The Silent Fountain by Victoria Fox

The Silent Fountain

by Victoria Fox

Publisher: MIRA

Pages: 400

Format: book

Buy the Book: Amazon

Goodreads:  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.


Kritters Thoughts:  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? 


Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from TLC Book Tours.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.