An Empty Quiet Place

This is an Apple Books audiobook narrated by a digital voice based on a human narrator.

Sarah had lied to her mum.  She had never lied to Mum before, and she did not like the feeling it had left her with.  Nevertheless, it was done, and now here she was.  In a city, strange to her, and with her younger sister. But wasn't it her younger sister's idea to come here in the first place?  Not that that excused the lie, and their being here.

But the man she had met, just hours before, she could not get out of her mind.  She had dreamed about such men.  Not that she had ever met such a man, other than in her dreams and fantasies.  And this man was the kind of man she had dreamed of.  A man Mum would not approve of.  Nor should she, were it not for her girlish dreams and fantasies.  But the brief meeting, and listening to his invitations, aroused feelings within her that she had heard of, and read about in books.  And she was tempted to somehow return to this city and give her fantasies actual life.

Now in the darkness of night, the two of them, with her younger sister standing behind her, trembling and crying, on the dark and dingy street.   Before them, blocking their way, stood a man.  A big man.  A dirty man.  An ugly man.  And in his hand, he held a big knife.

A best friends to lovers story.  Love was right before Sarah Vandergriff's eyes all the while, but she refused to see it. Bryan Wimberly had loved her from the time of their early teen years. She liked him in return, but not in the way he wanted her to like him. He was her best chum. Even her confidant. He was the one she enjoyed being with. Why couldn't he just be content to be that close friend to her? Why did he have to want so much more?

There was nothing amiss about Bryan in her judgement. He simply was not what she believed she desired in a man. That ideal man would be a very masculine and sophisticated man. He would be a man of the world. Rugged, mysterious, and the image of the knight in shining armour who would come to her, capture her hand and heart and carry her away to his mysterious and romantic castle far away.

Then she met a man like that. Two such men, actually. But they both turned out to not be what her dreams had always told her such a man like that would be like. In life, not dreams and fairy tales.

Then everything changed for Sarah. In a moment's time, her world changed, and nothing would ever be the same again. The accident left her without the use of her legs. She would never walk again. And, to make it worse, if it could possibly be worse, the man of her dreams, the kind she had dreamed of since her youth, and the one who had promised to make her his wife, betrayed and abandoned her. Now she knew. No man would want her. Of that she was convinced.  Now it becomes a story about losing the will to live and how she learns to come to terms with her new reality.

But Bryan wanted her. He had never wavered in his love for her. What would it take to get her to see what was there all along?

You first met Sarah Vandergriff and Bryan Wimberly in the first book of the series, 'A Ship Called Abigail.' Both just kids, just now thirteen years old, they quickly became the best of friends. For Sarah, Bryan was her best chum. For Bryan, his feelings were more.  Theirs is a slow burn romance story.  A holding onto hope story of not giving up on a dream.

Now in the concluding story of the series, 'An Empty Quiet Place,' both are now grown into young adults. Still close as friends, Sarah's still sees him as just her closest friend, while Bryan's feelings for her have grown to become so much more.  The slow burn romance which we saw beginning in the first novel of the series is now found fulfilment.