Review: More Than Words (by Jill Santopolo)

 My rating: 2.5 stars rounded up to 3 stars

I decided to read this book because I had read this author Jill Santopolo’s earlier novel The Light We Lost back in 2017 and liked the story well enough, even though with that book, the characters didn’t work for me and the emotional aspect was lacking – however, even with a few issues, there had been a twist to that story and the dialogue was meaningful enough that it almost made up for some of its flaws.  In other words, I was still able to enjoy that book to some extent, even though it wasn’t a genre that I’m particularly keen on (contemporary romance).  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about Santopolo’s second book More Than Words, which publishes next month (on February 5th).  While I would say that, just like her debut, this book was also well-written and definitely readable, one huge difference was that this time around, the story itself lacked depth – the impression I got after finishing this book was that the story was too superficial and clichéd, the plot so predictable and formulaic that about halfway through, I felt like I didn’t have to finish the book and I would still know exactly how the second half would play out (I finished the book anyway and yes, the rest of the story matched almost exactly with what I had predicted).  In addition, many of the same issues that I felt had plagued the first book (and therefore made it an average read for me) also existed in this one as well – namely, the lack of emotional depth, especially as it relates to the main characters.  In this case, the main character is Nina Gregory, the young heiress to a hotel chain who finds herself at a crossroads when her beloved father dies and she not only has to deal with her grief while preparing to take over the family business, she also has to struggle with the realization that the life she had been living was perhaps not the one she was meant to live.  Since this is a romance novel after all, Nina’s “struggle” also involves having to choose between two men she truly loves. 

I honestly was not able to connect with Nina at all for some reason – with all the “struggles” she goes through, I know I’m supposed to sympathize with her or whatnot but I actually didn’t feel anything, even during the supposed “emotional” scenes where I’m expected to feel for her.  Perhaps it’s the way the character was written, but she just felt very one-dimensional to me, almost like her character was merely “going through the motions” with everything instead of being a character that comes alive with heart and soul.

The writing as it pertained to bringing the story together as a whole also left much to be desired.  With Santopolo’s previous novel, even though it had also lacked emotional depth, at least the story was written in a way that some of the dialogue gave me food for thought and made me ponder a few things (albeit not too deeply)….with this one on the other hand, I felt nothing at all.  Even right after finishing the book, I had difficulty recalling much about the story or the characters, which is not a good sign, as it usually means the book is forgettable.

In a way, I do feel that part of the problem is with me in that, as I mentioned earlier, contemporary romance is not a genre that I prefer and though I hate to say it, there is a certain amount of preconceived bias on my part that these types of books usually lack depth, so in a way, the author (through the book) has to work harder to convince me otherwise.  Unfortunately, this book didn’t succeed in swaying me.  With that said, there were many who liked this book quite a bit so I would suggest checking out those reviews.  One thing I do feel I should mention though, in case this matters to those deciding whether to give this book a try – there were a handful of mildly graphic sex scenes in the book that I personally felt were unnecessary in terms of the amount of detail used to depict the physical interactions between the characters…for me, it wasn’t too big of a deal but others may be bothered by it. 

Overall, this was an okay read for me – quick and easy to get through but if I had to choose, I would prefer this author’s previous novel slightly more.

Received ARC from G.P. Putnam’s Sons via Edelweiss