Review of "Whispers of Yesterday" by Auburn Hartley

Score: 92+/100 (9.2+ out of 10)

Whispers of Yesterday is a warm and tender romance novel by Auburn Hartley. It is the first book in Hartley’s Beach Sands Series, a shared-setting collection at the Beach Sands Luxury Resort where each romance stands alone. One of the interesting things about the resort (and the series) is that it's geared toward guests ages 50+, meaning that all of these characters bring a wealth of wisdom, experience, and--particularly pertinent to this book--baggage.

Baggage comes with every relationship, but especially one that involves people who've been around for decades.

Speaking of baggage... this book follows Rainer, a broken and disgruntled man who has all but severed his relationships with his children following his wife's battle and death from cancer. He also wrestles with guilt and trauma from his experiences as a drill instructor in the German army during its darkest time.

Rainer's partner in this tango of turbulence is Sarah, a recent arrival at Beach Sands who carries the weight of her husband's death in a car crash. Sarah also struggles with other traumas and fears including a phobia of dogs as a result of suffering dog attacks in the past. In addition, it is revealed that Sarah's family is Jewish and that her uncles were murdered during the Holocaust, causing tension when Jessica (Sarah's daughter) raises this issue in relation to Rainer's military past.

Both carry a lot of weight on their chests and shoulders, each of them battling their own internal demons.

So, one of the most beautiful things about this particular book is how it demonstrates how relationships can help us to heal and overcome fears and blocks in our lives. Relationships can fill and mend gaps that have existed for a long time. They can encourage a person to step outside their comfort zone and try new things (or things they were afraid of doing before). We see that time and time again in this book. Sarah gradually becomes more open to water activities at the resort due to Rainer. And, in one of our favorite scenes in the book, she becomes more and more comfortable with dogs after an experience with Jax and Moxie, Rainer's Dobermans. She also demonstrates the courage to stand up to her family, which blames Rainer and the German's for past bad experiences.

Meanwhile, Rainer experiences a tremendous amount of healing. It's because of Sarah that he finds the courage and an opportunity to reconcile with his estranged adult children, who were cold, distant, and hurtful while Rainer's wife (and their mother), Angelika, was dying of cancer.

Both Rainer and Sarah's family learn forgiveness.

The theme of forgiveness and reconciliation reverberates throughout this book. We loved that.

Another thing we appreciated is that this book is almost the perfect length. It comes and goes, checks in and out, like a guest at the resort. It doesn't overstay its welcome and insist on itself.

While this book is mostly straightforward, there are a few aspects of this book that got us a bit mixed up.

First and foremost, the whole Holocaust angle seemed strange and out of left field to us. It didn't seem to fit with the rest of this book. It seemed unnecessary and tacked on. It also made us confused about when this book was supposed to take place and how old the characters actually were. Like, is this taking place in the late 40s or early 50s or something? Jessica makes it sound like the killings just happened recently, which is strange considering the advanced medical and vehicular technology that is later described in the book. On second reading, we had greater clarity that these characters are A LOT older than we originally thought.

A second thing that confused us on our first reading (and this is kinda embarrassing) is that we weren't quite sure if Rainer was a biological male or not until the scene which explicitly says "his shaft." We were open to the possibility that Rainer was LGBT+ or something and that it was just tactfully being left unspoken. On the second read-through, we had greater clarity that this was an older heterosexual couple and not a 20-something-year-old LGBT+ one (although they seem really virile for their ages). Look, we're transparent about our experiences with a book. If we interpret something wrong or get confused, we're gonna tell you. We all went back and reread it to be fair to the author.

With that out of the way...

One of the most emotionally-gripping and heartbreaking aspects of this book explores Rainer's last days with Angelika, who battled cancer with courage until the very end.

This is a solid romance book that says a lot about healing, reconciliation, and moving on with life without discarding or forgetting the past.

Check it out on Amazon!