Review: Spaces Between Notes by Kristina M. Sanchez

Title: Spaces Between Notes
By: Kristina M. Sanchez
My Copy: Ebook from Author
The BookWhisperer's Rating: 

Nikolai Amorosa is one of those men’s men. You know the type—allergic to feelings, couldn’t have a heartfelt discussion if he tried, which he never did. Then, he lost his voice, and any chance of communication went out the window.

Unable to speak or otherwise interact with anyone, Niko’s anger was off the charts. It could’ve been worse; he could’ve been in jail. Instead, he found himself doing construction on Carys Harper’s house. Carys talked—a lot—both with her voice and her hands. She was also at the beck and call of her deaf little brother, Benny, which drove Niko nine kinds of crazy. Not that he would’ve said anything, even if he could.

Something else that drove him crazy? Carys was stubborn. She wouldn’t let him wallow. More than that, she seemed to hear all the things he couldn’t say. She understood him like she understood music. She heard what existed in the spaces between notes. She knew that sometimes silence screams the loudest.

A friend recommended “Spaces Between Notes” to me because she had read past fanfiction that Kristina Sanchez has written and really enjoyed the world that she created.  Since one of the greatest things about book blogging is finding new authors and stories, I grabbed an ARC and started reading. 

In all honestly, I thought that the story had a really solid base.  Niko can’t express his emotions verbally like he used to be able to do or how he wants to now so instead of talking about his anger, he goes violent on his old childhood home.  Before his steam runs out, during his episode, a woman, Carys, walks out and a deal is made between them that he will pay off the damages by fixing the house.  This sudden connection builds into friendship, teacher, and eventually much more.  So, it is a good, solid base of a story.

After finishing the book, I would say I had two major problems.  The first problem was the formatting of the ARC.  Normally, I don’t state if there are misspellings, random strings of numbers, or copy write information because I understand authors wanting to protect their work however, every chapter’s beginning was missing dialog.  I felt like I missed a lot of what was being said and what tone was being set with this design.  I don’t know if it was on purpose, it may not have been, but it was always hard to start a new chapter when I only received the last three words in the sentence. 

The second thing was that none of the characters felt genuine to me.  All the secondary characters came and went throughout the story as they were needed.  Jamie, Niko’s best friend, would only be there when work was to be done or Niko needed a translator.  Micah, Niko’s little brother, showed up three-fourths through the book and played almost a big part but just kinda fizzled out at the end.  The other characters: Bennett, Del, etc walked in and out of the pages and it didn’t feel natural.  They brought their own baggage of problems but I never received closure for any of them.  And then there is Niko and Carys.  I liked them but I didn’t love them.  They would fight for each other but they would never fight for themselves. I don’t want to list why because I think it would spoil the story but if you read it, I think you will get what I mean.

While the story was good and had major potential, I just couldn’t really get behind it.  Yes, I feel bad for saying this.