In a Nutshell: Started off nicely but I started drifting off midway as it started going wilder. Explores many themes, but also has many strong triggers. Not a bad book, but not memorable as well.

Story Synopsis:
Penelope, an expert obstetrical nurse, is pregnant with the baby of her ex-boyfriend, who broke up with her after confessing that he wanted to save his marriage. Penelope doesn’t want this baby, but can she opt for abortion, knowing what she does about foetuses?
Nia, an ex-model and first-generation American, is happily married to Edward. The only blip in her happiness is that they don’t have children even after many years of fertility treatments. With increasing pressure from her mother, Nia has to take a call on whether IVF is the only way to go, or if Edward and she can opt for other modes of becoming parents.
Lotus is, in many ways, as unconventional as her name, being in a poly-amorous marriage with Rob, running her own yoga supplies business, and allowing her toddler to nurse at will. Lotus is sure that she wants a homebirth for the baby she’s carrying. However, when her bisexual husband’s ex-lover comes over for a brief stay, her peace of mind is disturbed.
This book tells us the story of these three distinct women, whose only common point is that they are all navigating the journey towards motherhood, albeit through different paths.
The story comes to us in the third person limited perspective of the three main characters.

Bookish Yays:
✔ I liked how the three protagonists were crafted with a distinct identity. Each of them comes from a different background in terms of financial status, job status, family background, and marital status. Even in the present, though they all are on the mothering path, their ways couldn’t be more different from each other’s. The individuality of their situations allows no confusion to creep in while reading their storylines.
✔ Penelope’s and Nia’s arcs seem mostly realistic. Nia isn’t written as a clichéd supermodel. I loved her relationship with Edward as it seemed mature, and based on mutual love and understanding. Penelope’s introductory scenes that showed her capability as an obstetrical nurse were excellent. Penelope’s arc was most interesting to me, even though she was too wavering in her decisions for my liking.
✔ Both Penelope and Nia seem self-made and independent. This also means that they always look for perfection. As the story progresses, they realise that asking for help doesn’t compromise their independence. Their characters arcs show good growth.
✔ As a debut work, the book does have the ‘kitchen sink syndrome’, with a whole load of pregnancy-related themes within the plot. We get abortion, adoption, difficult pregnancy, single pregnancy, miscarriage, stillbirth, IVF, fertility issues, weaning-related issues, labour-related problems… Surprisingly though, none of the themes felt forced in, and each topic fit into the natural progression of the women’s lives. I am still surprised at how the author managed to pull this off so well.
✔ The relationship across the women is positive. Penelope and Lotus are distantly related, and Nia knows Penelope as her husband Edward and Penelope once worked together. So their friendship across the trio isnt by choice but grows with time. They are mostly supportive and not vocally judgemental, and there are no unnecessary fights to add to the drama.
✔ I liked the short, quick chapters. Though the perspective also changes quickly, it doesn’t get confusing. The number of secondary characters is limited to the essential.


Bookish Nays:
❌ While the book starts off excellently, it delves into clichés after the midway mark. The content also becomes slightly farfetched as we reach the finish, with many exaggerations and coincidences popping in. With every OTT element, I drifted further and further away.
❌ Lotus’s lifestyle was too bohemian for conventional old me. Initially, I appreciated her approach towards living life on her own terms, but soon, it was clear that her terms weren’t based on common sense. I found it tough to connect to her as a character. The overly hippie lifestyle, the open marriage, the parenting decisions she took for her toddler, her situation with her husband Rob, her indecisiveness – all were points that stopped her from being relatable to me.
❌ The content jumps many important decision-impacting scenes, which we learn about only retrospectively through the characters’ conversations. This affects the on-page experience. At the same time, the two scenes related to childbirth are needlessly extended and in one case, even has traumatic content.
❌ The epilogue went a step too far for my liking. ‘Eight years later’ is not a justified time jump for this plot. It felt like a forced way of ensuring satisfying endings for the three characters. The story was an emotional one, so there was no need to give them all HEAs by hopping so far ahead in the future. A hopeful ending would have worked better.
❌ Though the chapters go by quickly, the story doesn’t. There were many chapters where I felt like nothing was happening. The middle section of the book drags much.
❌ This wasn’t strictly a Nay for me, but boy, is the book full of triggers! The blurb should have mentioned at least some of the content warnings because the going isn’t easy. Just as we have every possible pregnancy-related theme in the content, we also have many pregnancy-related triggers such as miscarriage, stillbirth, and infertility. Furthermore, there’s also infidelity and drug abuse. This isn’t a book to relax with.

All in all, I did love the core idea of the plot. But I began to zone out in the second half, most probably because the plot became needlessly convoluted and farfetched.

Regardless, this ought to work as a good enough option for women’s fiction readers, even though it might not be more than a one-time read. Do take heed of the triggers though.

3 stars.

My thanks to Red Adept Publishing, LLC and NetGalley for the DRC of “Words We Cannot Say”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

This story is a tale of friendship and their different takes and relationships to and because of their pregnancies. While this is well written - my 4 stars is simply because I can't stand one of the characters! This story covers a range of all things baby - miscarriage, IVF, adoption, abortion and the loss of a child at birth - lots of triggering life events. Personally, I didn't approve of one's lifestyle, one's life decisions and I did like Jesenia. I'm thankful for the opportunity to leave an honest review in exchange for digital copy of Words We Cannont Say from Netgalley and Sita Romero

Book review:

This book is a intruiging and thought provoking. The story revolves around friendship, pregnancy, sisterhood, marriage and divorce. The author pours light on three women who indulge in their problems and seek solution with the help of each other. It helps in finding oneself, accepting the truths , experiencing loss , love and hope.

They each have their own interests, beliefs, desires, and ideas of what they want out of life, but their bond throughout the book grows stronger as their individual journeys come together, diverge, and join again. The character development in this book is spectacular and it was a privilege to watch these three women grieve and grow together.

I loved reading this impactful book. I am thankful to netgalley and the publisher for giving me this book in return of an honest review.
Happy Reading !

Thanks to Netgalley for sending me the ARC! I liked it but expected so much more. I didn't agree with some of the characters morals so it was a struggle to get through it. I rate it a 3.1

Sita Romero, the author of ‘Words We Cannot Say” has written an intriguing and thought-provoking novel. The Genres for this story are Domestic Fiction, Women’s Fiction, and Women’s Domestic Life Fiction. The timeline for this story is set in the author’s present and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events. The author describes her dramatic characters as complex and complicated. The themes in this novel revolve around friendship, pregnancy, motherhood, sisterhood, marriage, and divorce. This is also a story about finding oneself, accepting the truth, and experiencing loss, love, and hope.

Three of the protagonists in the story are women from diverse backgrounds. One is single, one is in a non-conventional marriage, and one is in a traditional marriage. The women, each have different lifestyles and careers. The one thing in common is that they are pregnant. They may be expecting, but life is not necessarily meeting their expectations. At times there are situations that are out of their control. I do appreciate that the author writes about a “sisterhood” in a sense of how women do help one another in many ways.

I would recommend this memorable book to other readers. I look forward to reading other books by this author. (less)

Words We Cannot Say is a deep dive into the various perspectives of motherhood, each as unique as the person who experiences it. It was hard not to identify strongly with at least one of the main characters, as they were all quite likeable and multifaceted. Romero is a master at capturing both elation and sorrow, both of which come through the book flawlessly.

Although I felt that 90% of the book was very strong, the parts written about Penelope's past seemed a little disjointed. This was my only major gripe. Her grandmother, aunt, and brother were important to her, but their parts were confusingly intertwined with her cousin Lotus' back story. It was hard to develop any emotion towards those characters or understand their significance.

Note: I received a free ebook copy of Words We Cannot Say from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was amazing. I don't even have the words to describe it!
Its a story about coming together, friendship, heartache, loss and births.

Pull up a comfty chair and a box of tissues for this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for the ARC.

Life is a series of unexpected events, isn't it? That's what i thought after i completed this book.

We follow three women; Penelope, Nia and Lotus, each with their own complications and circumstances that revolves around marriage, motherhood and facing the outbursts of their fates full of twists and turns.

I enjoyed how each character represents the society and community in such way it depicts the problems and the inner voice that remains unheard. Barrels of conflicts and self-doubt drapes around each woman's minds and thoughts, and how they came into closure ceased my inner turmoils.

This book clearly potrays the reality of life of a woman who came across a crossroad, whether she should be choosing a path that might costs her everything. It was also shown that motherhood is never easy, with your partner being absent physically and mentally, and dealing this on your own, these are tough cases and I'm glad these things were being discussed in this book.

It astounded me that things like in this book could or might happened in real life. Learning their pain makes me ache for them. I dont blame their choices, for what they had been through they deserves to decide what's best for them. What they want for themselves, no matter what must be sacrified. Each chapter feels as important as the others, and how each chocies were decided proved how difficult life can be and how much sacrifices you should make. Discovering your true self, dealing with your own insecurities and fighting the things that hold you back are not easy, and I saw these cases being handled by each woman.

I couldnt elaborate more on this stuff as I need to educate myself more and properly on the issues discussed in this book. Overall, this book is a great start for readers who wants to explore woman's thoughs and words that they couldnt say out loud.

The women in this book are so understanding, compassionate, and inclusive. Their lives are fascinating and interwoven in a nuanced way. Discussions of complicated topics surrounding parenthood and relationships are handled with amazing care.

All of this leads me to my main critique of the book: most of it happened off the page. Some of the larger plot points are explained in the first paragraph of each chapter and then the reader spends the chapter learning how the women felt about the development.

It was an interesting choice and kept me engaged but it would’ve been really nice to know what happened in some of the more (potentially) riveting scenes.

I’d definitely read another book about these women.

An ARC kindly provided via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Words We Cannot Say was an emotional but good read. It follows three women and their life choices. It dealt with many things that people face, and for that, I appreciated this book. However, I felt like it jumped around between past and present, and I struggled to get through it. It wasn’t bad, just not a love from me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Adept Publishing for this arc.