I absolutely adored this preview of The Fountains of Silence which was just enough to make me crave reading the book in full! The premise, character development, story idea in general was just pure perfection! What a great, truly enticing concept this is and I am eagerly anticipating reading more! Highly recommend!

I received a free preview. I was worried because it is marked as young adult but I now know that the preview did keep my attention. I won’t hesitate to read the whole book!

Just wow! Everything that I love about historical fiction and so well done. I will say that I started this one as an audiobook and it was a bit difficult to follow. I switched to the Kindle version as I had both checked out through my local digital library. The first quarter of the book I was thinking this would be a three-star read. It was challenging to keep up with the characters and the events and I did need to research a bit about Spanish history during this time to fully understand. After that point, it just got better and better. Highly recommend!

I received a free extract of the first eight chapters of The Fountains of Silence from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. But this intriguing story drew me in so completely from the very first page and I immediately rooted so much for the two main characters, Daniel and Ana, that I couldn’t just stop after the extract but needed to read the rest of the book straight away! So this 5 star rating refers both to the extract and to the whole book.

And here is my review of the whole book, which I bought myself, and read in one sitting:

The Fountains of Silence is a beautiful, romantic, sad but hopeful, honest and gripping historic gem by Ruta Sepetys. It is set in postwar Spain, and takes us on a journey into the dark and secret life under the fascist dictatorship of General Franco in the late 1950s. The story is told from several POVs, but with the eighteen-year-old Daniel Matheson - the aspiring photographer son of a Texas oil tycoon - and Ana Torres Moreno - who works as a maid at the hotel where Daniel and his parents are staying - as the two main characters.

When Franco opens the door to American business men to invest in his country, the Mathesons take the chance to do oil business and to connect with the country of Daniel’s mother. Hoping to win a prestigious photography contest, Daniel tries to discover the real Spain through the lens of his camera, with Ana as his guide. Via his encounters with Ana’s family and friends and their interweaving obstacles, Daniel (and we readers) learn more of the fears and hidden horrors and brutality of Franco’s Spain, including a parallel story of stolen babies.

I loved all of the characters in this book and the multiple POVs that truly brought the story to life. Daniel was such a sweetheart; so genuinely kindhearted, eager to learn and caring. And I completely rooted for Ana, wanting to rescue her from her hard and brutal reality. But besides Daniel and Ana, there were so many other memorable and real characters in this book as well; Ana’s family members who all had at least two jobs each to try and keep the family together after their parents were executed by France, bull fighter Fuga who dared to dream big, journalist Ben who became a mentor to Daniel, and American ambassador son Nick with much more depth beneath his party animal impression and many others.

What I love about Ruty Sepetys’s books is that she always mixes the darkness with light, always shows the best and worst of humanity at the same time, always gives you so many wonderful characters you immediately fall in love with and hope and romance in the midst of the horrors. Compared to her previous books, The Fountains of Silence is perhaps not quite as devastating and heart-breaking, but it is nevertheless a powerful and gripping story of love, loss and the hidden violence of silence under a dictatorship. It’s a book that deeply touched my heart, and with characters that will stay with me for a long time.

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read the extract and find this unforgettable book!

I received this as a sample from Netgalley. The sample was certainly enough to pique my interest in this book.

This story is set in the late 1950’s in Spain under the reign of the dictator Franco.

I will definitely be getting this book so I can finish it and give a proper review. Thank you Netgalley and Penguin for this advanced readers sample.

I love Rita Sepetys' writing and I'm very much looking forward to reading this book in full! This book draws you in with interesting characters and I will read this once published and recommend to library patrons. Thanks to publisher and Netgalley for this preview.

This preview was perfect! I only wish I had the whole book. I'm new to Ruta Septys, after loving Salt to the Sea. I can tell this will be another book that I learn a lot from, about a time that is overlooked in history. I'm excited to learn more from the rest of the book!

I received a sample of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I love the characters and look forward to reading the novel. I really don't feel as though I can review it since I read so little of the content, however.

Lovely writing in this sample, Short, crisp sentences that are packed with meaning and delightful inserts from historical docs. Beautifully put together.

This was just a small sample of the book but it's enough to get me interested! I really enjoyed the characters introduced and I'm curious enough about them to want to read the rest of the story.

This was only an excerpt, but it only made me want more. Although I can't judge the novel as a whole , it was enough to tell this will be a very interesting book and I can't wait to read it. Sepetys writing is engaging and keeps my attention. I loved her book 'Salt to the Sea' and I'm sure, from the little I've read, I will love this book as well.

Thanks to PENGUIN GROUP Penguin Young Readers Group through Netgalley for an advance excerpt of this book.

Based on the eight chapters you have provided me:

This is a really interesting premise. I am a sucker for the stories of regular people living under brutal regimes or in brutal times such as a war. And so far this is really piquing my interest.
The chapters switch between characters, giving a little bit of each of their stories at a time. This makes me feel like I am a detective, trying to piece the whole story together.
The chapters are short, this makes the book feel fast and slightly hurried. With this being a small sample it didn't bother me much, but I hope it evens out a little bit in the full story.

To conclude, I'm interested. This is definitely on my "to read"-list now.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read an excerpt of The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys. I am providing a review herein for this excerpt only and not for the book as a whole. I would be honored to review the book as a whole, if granted.

By reading only a short excerpt of The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys, it is apparent to me that this will be an extraordinary story. The writing is beautiful, descriptive and imaginative. The story line and characters are gripping and engaging. In just a few paragraphs, I immediately knew I wanted to know the whole story.

Ruta Sepetys' books are always fascinating, and the excerpt of The Fountains of Silence makes me think this one is also going to be a page-turner. I love historical fiction, and Sepetys writes some of the best as far as I'm concerned. The excerpt has whetted my appetite, and I must read the whole book!

I can’t wait to read the rest of this book. The sample was extremely interesting and sucked me in immediately. I’m very picky when it comes to historical book, but this one is definitely a keeper!

I only read the first chapter and I did that because I want to read the entire book and not just an excerpt.
I can't wait to get my hands in this book
it had always looked interesting a d now that I started it I believe I will love it .

I have read the sample excerpt and love the flow of the novel up to this point. The author takes time to show Spain during this era. The introduced characters seem real, interesting, and make me want to read the book once it's published. I can't wait to learn more about the characters and hear their stories. Two cultures colliding!

Very promising except from a beautifully written work of historical fiction. I was very pleased by the except sample and can't wait to finish the story. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to review this except.

This preview is very promising and I'm sure I will read the entire book instead of just this excerpt. I enjoyed Sepetys' writing style and I would love to learn more about Francoist Spain.

This is a tough one to review, as I only received a sampler. It seems like it could be interesting, but I didn't have enough time to get to know the characters or get involved with the story. I will give it a 3/5 stars since it seemed like it had promise.