Customer Reviews

Silentheart

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Silentheart is the story of Sarah, a 28 year old woman at a crossroads in her life after her marriage falls apart. She goes on an ancestral journey and moves her life halfway across the country.

After arriving at her newfound home, she discovers that people are not always who they seem. A whole other world lives within ours; seen but not recognized.

Her history, both in the figurative and literal sense, keeps catching up with her to both her delight and chagrin. She is soon faced with choices that will affect not just her life, but also the afterlife.

Silentheart was an original and interesting vampire story. It is chaste enough for teenagers, yet adults don't feel like the book is suppressed. I was intrigued to learn that vampires don't always behave the way we think they do. While I wish that some characters had more dimensions, Sarah is quite relatable. The storyline compels you want to read quickly to find out what happens next.

Divorce created a new opportunity for Sarah Abbott and after deciding to move and start completely over, she also wanted to know more about her past. Taking a summer class on genealogy provided more answers than she expected when she discovered that the professor of the class was actually her great-great-grandfather. As her old life, which included her ex-husband collided with her new life that she was trying to navigate with her living ancestors, she finds that her vampire great-great-grandfather along with another vampire (Carter) had been acting as her guardian. Now she has found out that Carter has also been in love with her for a long time and is willing to go to extreme measures to make sure she is happy, healthy and safe. The threats that this new closer relationship causes will take all their strengths to get through.

Another twist to the vampire existence, another explanation of how and why they are the way they are. This one has a `Near Dark' twist to it that is new (to me) for this genre. This is a tame vampire story with some drama, suspense and a little action. The story is drawn out in a repetitive way told completely in the first person - constantly changing who "I" was from character to character. The pre-existing love that Carter has for Sarah is difficult to figure out, he doesn't seem to have a reason for his feelings and the author doesn't seem to take the time to try to explain them, they just are (personal pet peeve of mine - I like to see the characters fall in love, it is what lets me have feelings for them also). As the characters go, Sarah seems a bit wimpy to have a vampire love, the bright spot is great-great-grandfather Benjamin and even Carter grew on me with his ever protective personality. If I had to go with an overall feeling, I did enjoy the concept of the vampire hierarchy and the collision of human and vampire worlds, but I missed out on what could have been a good love story.

Mrs. Hoffer has presented Silentheart, the first book of a new Vampire trilogy, in a manner that if adults did not care for the pandemonium of the Twilight Saga, then this would be the next exciting paranormal romance to choose. I found that I was immediately caught up in this unwinding, twisting story and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The story begins with a woman finding that the man she married has just destroyed their marriage, so her life seems to be falling into shambles as she tries to pick up the pieces. What is worse, her best friend was privy to the upcoming divorce. She decides to make a fresh start to her new life by moving to a new town and taking up a teaching career.
As she desires to trace her lineage, she takes a class to learn more. It is when this class is over, that she learns more that she thought... Her long lost grandfather was still alive, when her family suspected him to be deceased. Not only this, but she learns of a few other relatives that are considered to be the `walking dead'. Even after learning this, she accepts them immediately into her life, despite the dangers this knowledge possess.
The story goes on to introduce a very special vampire whom claims to be destined to be in her life, even despite her marriage. What is more amazing is the immediate bond the two share.
Upon receipt of this book from the author, I did receive a letter directly from her. She told me in advance how the characters were inspired, and they are indeed interesting and strong. However, in some places of this book there are some word errors, and I did notice that near the end of this book as events were unfolding, that it was more difficult for me to follow a few characters as Hoffa switched so often between `first person' and `third person'. I am not sure if this is a part of her errors to `remind her that she is not perfect', as stated in her note to me... but the quick change in perspective was noticeable and somewhat distracting as it broke the flow for me personally.
Despite a few grammatical flaws, this was an amazingly interesting story with some very creative ideas on vampires. It is hard to find a story that does not always carry the same themes on the walking dead. I am very much looking forward to the next two chapters in this unfolding saga as the reader is left hanging and wanting more!

I just finished reading Silentheart, and I found myself more than satisfied. Silentheart by Roberta D. Hoffer is a paranormal romance story with many unique twists and turns.

The book is about Sarah, age 28. She is easy to like and I identified with her personal struggles. When Sarah comes to terms with her situation and the dissolution of her marriage, she moves to a new town to start a new life.

When Sarah decides to research her ancestry, we learn about and are introduced to a unique blend of vivid, and interesting personas such as: a great-great grandfather thought to be deceased, yet clearly alive; a strange and passionate vampire; and other family relatives who are "the walking dead."

This book contains all of the elements of a great story: excitement, suspense, and fascinating characters.

Silentheart was an easy, fun read; an enjoyable, fast-paced book that was difficult to put down. I read it straight through, beginning to end and could not wait to find out what happened.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys paranormal fiction - you won't be disappointed.

C.J. Good, Author

This book is full of MISTAKES and who could take Hoffer seriously? Her SENTANCE STRUCTURE is less than professional! She calls herself a Christian and yet Hoffer writes about DEMONS (vampires!). Hoffer is 'LUKEWARM" and will go through the Tribulation if she doesn't REPENT... Hoffer knows nothing about BIBLE PROPHECY and will face G-d's Judgment not long from now. It's no wonder her church asked her to cease all activity about vampires or leave the church as a Christian preschool teacher...She cries her Constitutional rights are infringed... That's a bunch of crap... Hoffer can write whatever she wants but not under the umbrella of Christianity if it conflicts with G-d's H-ly W-rd.
Roberta Hoffer calls me a disguising name on her website and belittles her previous church just because they and I won't go along with her DEMONIC WRITING!!! file:///Users/rickthorne1/Desktop/SILENTHEART%20INFLAMITORY.webarchive
If Hoffer was a real Christian she would spread LOVE instead of hate... She isn't representative of a real Christian. Hoffer's husband threatened her former church minister with lawsuits and sent threatening E-mail's to Lutheran Church...My final word is Roberta and Kevin you must REPENT before the L-rd returns not long from now! I pray for your Salvation and forgive you of the name calling....

To begin with, let me make myself perfectly clear. I have read a great number of vampire books during the last few years based on what is an iffy plot in the first place and turning it into a vampire novel, thus hopefully insuring their place in the "craze of the day". This is wrong on on so any levels, first: it takes an inventive and successful book series and borrows not just plots but mannerisms, characterization and some so called authors have even "borrowed" far more, walking a thin line to keep from falling into what I Like to call the lake of
what I like to refer to as plagiarism, which we all know is wrong.

This is where my review of Silentheart comes into play. Written by Roberta Hoffer, Silentheart
is for vampire lovers, a disappointment of epic proportions. Not only is the theme and plot thin, with predictable characters complete with an estranged/divorced woman escaping to begin a new life, away from her abusive husband, it is also brings said abusive husband back into her life to "get his revenge". As this is expected by the main character Sarah who discovers upon moving to Maryland that her ex-husband has not only sought her down but is still waiting for his pound of flesh, Sarah should not be surprised nor should the reader when she is accosted in her own home.

Of course as in all vampire books, we must find out how our heroine is connected to vampires. In Sarah's case it is that far into her family history, there are vampires galore. She discovers she has a guardian vampire who has protected her all her life with the name of Carter and this vampire is in love with Sarah. And so the story goes. It takes all the important elements of a good vampire story, tosses them around like a Cesar salad and calls it good.

But there is much more to writing a good book based upon vampires.

First the characters have to have personality and not be cardboard cutouts or predictable by modeling them whether consciously or unconsciously after hundreds of other vampires in literature. Second, think as many authors have previously to show major characters such as Sarah, with some strength and devotion to those she loves. The days of vampires lying on fainting couches (think Barnabus Collins in Dark Shadows) waiting for their vampires is too tame (and lame for today's reader.

And lastly, if you are going to go to all the trouble of writing a book, get a darn good editor ad copywriter to check, recheck and check again, language used throughout the books and how it fits each character.

All sentences should make sense and if they do not, ask yourself why they do not and rewrite that page or perhaps delete it all together. And my personal pet peeve is books that have glaring mistakes of mixing tenses, so the reader is thoroughly confused and lost. If a best seller is hoped for, writing must flow one scene into another and there should be no doubt as to who is speaking at any time.

And if the grammatical and editorial errors were not enough to break my chain of thought when it came to keeping the characters straight the spelling errors were the icing on the cake. Run spell check and avoid errors for instance, that were so glaring, my 12 r old son spotted them just upon leafing through the book in my office.

To be brutally honest, this book was not only hard to get into as the editorial glitches were more than just mistakes, they were annoying. And if little mistakes had been more carefully pursued and corrected, this book would have stood a chance to at least be "OK". But as it is I found it a great mistake, far too predictable and full of so any copy write errors that my attention was ever fully on the plot.

I'm sure the author had great hopes for this book and the basis for a good book is there. But in my opinion, it needs to be reworked with some fantastic and new, exciting and unpredictable events thrown in to capture the readers attention.

As it is now, I honestly cannot recommend this book to anyone to read. But I do have a recommendation for the author. Consider another publisher with employees who have your best interests at heart and begin to tighten up the plot.

Or if you really want a hit, Hide far away, this "One hit wonder" "subject of the day... vampires" and leave the bloodsuckers alone; They have way more than their 15 minutes of fame...it's time to move on. If I were the literary guru of the day, I would bring back more stories of everyday teens finding adventure in the strangest of places.

In fact I just read a book which fits this criteria and I personally would find it a breath of fresh air were vampire books to fade away and a new book craze be introduced with vampires left far behind. I am tired of vampires and if my unofficial poll makes a difference, consider this. Out of 20 individuals asked, between the ages of 10 and 80,.....85% want a new genre to read and are tired of vampires and the other 15% could read a medical journal front to back and not be bored.

Authors and publishers are you listening? It is time for something new and fresh for your loyal readers! I sincerely believe so and so do your fans as well. Let the fresh writing begin!