Absolutely AMAZING novel about historic Spain!

Hey everyone, it's been a while! Welcome to another book recommendation post! Before we get started, I just wanted to let you guys know, I have a new travel/life blog called Love, Emily and you can see it right here. I post there pretty often and starting from now, I'll try to keep posting on this blog too. As always, your comments, feedback, and recommendations are extremely helpful, and they motivate me greatly to continue posting! If you're new here, leave a comment to let me know, and I'm glad to welcome you to my blog. I hope everyone enjoys this post!

Today I will be reviewing and recommending The Fountains Of Silence by Ruta Sepetys.

Title: The Fountains of Silence
Author: Ruta Sepetys
Genre: Historical Fiction
Page Length: 514 pages

This novel is one of the best books I've ever read. Even if you don't normally enjoy historical fiction, this book might be an exception for you. Personally, I read a lot of children's/middle-grade historical fiction in 3rd-4th grade, but I haven't really enjoyed it since then. However, The Fountains Of Silence was a total exception. The book is just so captivating, complex, and enchanting. It's also educational, as you can learn a lot about historical Spain and the secrets within 1957 Spain.

The Fountains Of Silence has two parts, one taking place in 1957 Spain and another one, more of an epilogue, taking place 18 years later. Daniel is an American tourist from Texas visiting Madrid, where his Spanish-American mother is from. His family is wealthy because of the oil company that they run. Daniel is a talented photographer who loves capturing stories with his camera, and he doesn't want to go into the family business. Ana is a hotel maid living in Spain, suffering from the dictatorship of Franco. Ana's parents were murdered because of their political beliefs and she is affected by it all herself. Her remaining family is quite poor, and Ana works to support them and herself. She's a young, romantic girl with a mind full of dreams but she knows her boundaries and she would never overstep them. The story is one of dark secrets and twists, and it highlights the good through all of the tragedy. Ana and Daniel meet when she is assigned to serve his family at the Castellana Hilton Hotel. The perspective/point of view varies from chapter to chapter, making this book very exciting. Romance, plot twists, and history keep this book incredibly fascinating, and I enjoyed it very much!

Here are some quotes from reviews I found on Google Books and LibraryThing.

I love reading Ruta's stories - and I always find myself saying.. "Wow... I didn't know that!" 

I hate when chapters drone on and on, but in this book, a chapter is never more than a few pages long, some are just one page. It really gives the illusion of reading this book quickly and it makes the pacing and time within it go by very quickly. Where there isn't a lot of action per se, the writing in this book makes it seem like there is. 

 Formal education can only go so far; the in-depth research and writing that historical fiction writers go through and write about for such specific books such as this one really take the stage and deliver a much more intimate and intense glimpse of history.

More information can be found here at Google Books. I completely agree with all these reviews and I'm so impressed with how Ruta wrote this book. I'll definitely be reading her other books soon. Finally, my star rating for this book is: 100000 stars out of 5!

Thanks for reading! If you liked this post, make sure to leave a comment telling me so I can make more like this. If you have any suggestions, I'm completely open to constructive criticism and feedback! I also love hearing your book recommendations. Please follow and comment on my other blog at emilypeng.travel.blog! I'd love it if you'd take a look and tell me what you think! I'll try my best to post as often as possible both here and there, bringing you quality posts and book recommendations. See you next time!