"Silence" by Becca Fitzpatrick

"The noise between Patch and Nora is gone. They've overcome the secrets riddled in Patch's dark past...bridged two irreconcilable worlds...faced heart-wrenching tests of betrayal, loyalty and trust...and all for a love that will transcend the boundary between heaven and earth. Armed with nothing but their absolute faith in one another, Patch and Nora enter a desperate fight to stop a villain who holds the power to shatter everything they've worked for—and their love—forever."

"Silence" by Becca Fitzpatrick has delivered a provocatively, seductive and exciting third book in an already phenomenal book series. Delivering an uproar to all fans everywhere at the beginning of the novel by wiping the memory of Nora so she did not remember anything about the last 5 months, (the first and second book) not even Patch was frustrating and at times painful, but in the end served to make for an exhilarating read.

Starting from the beginning we find a short snippet of Patch and Hank’s discussion in the same cemetery where Nora wakes up eventually after she has been missing for 3 months. Hank, diabolical as ever, makes a bargain with Patch: to ensure Nora is safe, Patch must betray his kind. I say that for the readers who have yet to actually read the book because something heartbreakingly tragic does happen with Patch. It had left me sad for him, although we did get a glimpse at just the length that he will go to make sure Nora is safe. This moment basically defines how the rest of the story between Patch and Nora play out throughout the book.

Patch now known as “Jev”, his original name, has been AWOL for about 4 or 5 chapters. As Nora struggles to remember the last 5 months of her life, conveniently the time that Patch was in it, she finds things a little “off” with her investigation. Which I have learnt that with this particular character means she is going to go snooping into place we all know she cannot handle nor should be. With this thought in mind Nora finds her first circumstance of this when she stumbles across a grouping of three fallen angels beating on a Nephilim to swear an oath of fealty. Jev enters stage left, in his oh so mysteriously dark, damaged, sexy way he does. Not revealing to Nora at first that he knows her, he helps her get out of trouble when the three fallen angels decide to make Nora their target for “fun”. This is the reader’s first encounter with the new Patch and it brings you directly back to the first book, “Hush, Hush”. He is distant but alluring in his way; he is torn between helping her and staying away.

I will not divulge the full extent of their contact and how Nora does finally figure out how she knows Jev, although I do have to comment on the creativeness of Becca in the way she “assists” Nora in remembering. The colour black. Nora dreams about it, she sees it everywhere, deep black eyes, silky black hair, it surrounds her in a comfort, and she knows she must know what it all means. I absolutely love the imagery of the colour and how Fitzpatrick used it; I found it to be a very unique way of addicting the reader to see how Nora will unravel the mystery behind the colour.

All of the relationships in this book I find have either grown and matured so much, or have fallen apart due to lies and deceit. And as shocked as I believe some readers were, there was a little less Vee in this novel. With the amnesia that Nora suffers so does her friends and family. Vee has suffered I think more hardly with the memory loss and seems to be vexed about men; she is going on a “man diet” let say. This puts a strain on Nora and Vee’s relationship when Nora asks about Patch/Jev and Vee lies about ever knowing a Patch but in fact she does. Marcie Miller also plays a part in Nora’s relationship building, although does not last for very long. As a fellow blogger, DemonsRead Too, has quotes so perfectly, “the bitchiness is still there, its just lace with a smile”. That line describes the exactness of Marcie and Nora’s relationship. They obviously both do not agree with Hank dating Blythe, and that brings them together in a “frienemy” sort of way. But of course Marcie double crosses Nora in more than one way, which brings their friendship to an end as instantly as it started.

But, finally we get to the real relationship the world of “Hush, Hush” has been dying for since the end of “Crescendo”. Patch and Nora. I know I had been dying to find out what had happened, and now through the first third of the book I just couldn’t help thinking that Nora will never remember Patch and their relationship they once had. With Nora losing her memory we see what happens when Nora and Jev are newly introduced. I found that their relationship grew from this problem. Jev tried to stay away but Nora would stumble into him, sometimes quite literally. Jev/Patch could not escape her, and he even admits near the end of the book that when she was missing she haunted him; he missed her so dearly it nearly killed him. The romance between the two grew into a provocative, mature relationship and as Nora grew into the new Patch/Jev we see even further into whom he is.

Patch will always be the mysterious, dark, drop dead sexy boy, with the upside down “V” shape scars. But in “Silence” he becomes responsible, protective, and open with Nora. He loves her that is clear, but he begins to show her how. Showing Nora his room, his home is one thing (by the way, his place is a bachelor pad of solitude black silk sheets and all). He keeps his promises, and when they finally share a kiss long waited for, it is passionate, seductive and exhilarating, for everyone.

“Silence” delivers what the readers wanted. There was more passion, more mystery, and more answers to everything left unsaid in “Crescendo”. There was not a huge cliffhanger for an ending, although the seductiveness of the second last chapter is left unanswered and I believe that is what I will be waiting for in the fourth book. How will Patch and Nora over come their intimacy fears, the new problems with the Nephilim, and how much more do we need to know about Patch before he is completely naked and has nothing to hide. Curiosity is a better word to use than cliffhanger because that is exactly what you are left with. Enough to be excited about the fourth book but just enough to subdue that urge to break into the nearest chapters when it is finally published.