Silent Retreat
A Novel
by Sally Quinn
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Pub Date Jun 03 2025 | Archive Date Not set
Amplify Publishing | Subplot
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Description
When prize-winning reporter Sybilla Sumner checks into a monastery for a silent retreat, romance is the last thing on her mind. She plans to spend five meditative days surrounded by the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley—and apart from her famous husband and their crumbling marriage.
James Fitzmaurice-Kelly isn’t looking for romance either. He’s the Archbishop of Dublin and has maintained a vow of celibacy for decades—even as he’s publicly questioned the church’s teachings. But as Sybilla and Fitz continue silently crossing paths, an undeniable charge builds between them, one that could see them abandoning their vows.
In this sophisticated, sexy, and soulful love story, novelist Sally Quinn explores the boundary between flesh and spirit, restraint and ecstasy, and asks what we’re willing to sacrifice in the name of passion.
Advance Praise
“With her shrewd eye and large heart, Sally Quinn has always brought a novelist’s sensibility to her work as one of the great chroniclers of power and of faith in America. Tireless and gifted, curious and empathetic, she is always worth reading, for she writes of the things that matter most: sin and grace, appetite and love, fear and hope.”
—JON MEACHAM, political speechwriter and author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House
Available Editions
EDITION | Hardcover |
ISBN | 9798891385528 |
PRICE | $28.00 (USD) |
PAGES | 224 |
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews

Unlike many other contemporary romances, Sally Quinn builds a relationship with nearly no dialogue and even minimal interaction. I was skeptical of how focused the FMC and MMC seemed on each other from the beginning, but the more you learn about them through the narrative, the more obvious it is that they're meant to be together. They're twin flames in the best and worst of ways.
Quinn unexpectedly addresses religion and spirituality with profound thoughtfulness. She certainly cites her sources and is unafraid to make bold claims - which I find refreshing in a time where many authors seem hesitant to make comments on spirituality in fiction novels. I was very surprised by the ending and, quite frankly, I'm not sure that I liked it. In fact, I massively disagree with many things in this book. Nonetheless, it absolutely felt like a five-star read to me because it managed to make me reflect and feel.

The premise of this book intrigued me, and I tend to love the mixture of romance with heavy fiction aspects to make for more developed characters. This novel wasn't short in that - both characters being fully developed people with their own goals and desires that stood on their own. It set a very great scene, and had an "Eat, Pray, Love" vibe.
While there was a lot of tension between the two characters, I didn't really find myself terribly invested in it. I think that has more to do with my own personal tastes than anything else. These two seemed to have an instant connection, and I just wasn't following that from the roots.
However, the writing itself was great and romance aspect aside, this was a decent work of fiction.