I fell in love with Spells for Forgetting, spent my nights kicking my feet over The Unmaking of June Farrow, but it seems that A Sea of Unspoken Things has left me wanting more. This adult contemporary fantasy, set in the beautiful Six Rivers, Northern California, it was hoping for more goodness from an author I have been loving, and I’m not sure I can say I found that.

The only thing James and Johnny Golden have ever had is each other. For as long as she can remember, James’s deep connection with her twin brother, Johnny, has gone beyond intuition—she can feel what he feels. So, when Johnny is killed in a tragic accident, James knows before her phone even rings that her brother is gone and that she’s alone—truly alone—for the first time in her life.  When James arrives in the rural town of Hawthorne, California to settle her brother’s affairs, she’s forced to rehash the ominous past she and Johnny shared and finally face Micah, the only person who knows about it. He’s also the only man she’s ever loved.  But James soon discovers that the strange connection she had with Johnny isn’t quite gone, and the more she immerses herself into his world, the more questions she has about the brother she thought she knew. Johnny was keeping secrets, and he’s not the only one. What she uncovers will push her to unravel what happened in the days before Johnny’s death, but in the end, she’ll have to decide which truths should come to light, and which should stay buried forever.

I love the premise, and the story itself was pretty good. The plot was intriguing and tense, with that stranger in a close-knit town aspect charged with far more emotions and characters with so much history crossing paths once more. I really like James as a character, her own internal conflicts and struggles with her brother and the town making her homecoming more difficult for her. I like Micah, the complexities and emotional layers to him that both clash with bits of James and compliment her. I like their rocky history and the unsaid things ebtween them clouding their feelings and decisions. But I feel that the space off page at the end made it so we missed a big emotional breakthrough with them. It is mentioned throughout the book that James left Micah when she was younger to go to arts school, among other things, and I appreciate the turmoil it creates between them. But I didn’t get the sense that this was addressed between the two in A Sea of Unspoken Things (almost like there is still a sea of unspoken things between them…sorry).

I also didn’t feel as strong a payoff and imprint at the end of the novel like I had with Spells for Forgetting and The Unmaking of June Farrow. There is a lot that is happening in terms of Johnny’s death and the events surrounding it, not to mention the develops that arise throughout the novel. I get that, and I genuinely do like how the main storyline was written. I guess I am just a little lost on the emotional relationship line with James and Micah, perhaps a little unsure of what her wants and response is at the end. I put some things together, hashing out the possibilities and how she could be feeling, but I wasn’t sure if that was what her character would want. Again, I feel the emotional conversation between the two would really help to see where she is at with all of this going on in her life, and missing out on that makes the ending feel a little up in the air for me.

Perhaps I just feel spoiled from her other adult fantasy books, and I know I will still be reading her work when she comes out with new releases. It isn’t a bad read by any means, and I still like it as a book, but it did feel a little flat compared to the other two. I hope this doesn’t deter anyone from reading A Sea of Unspoken Things, but maybe it can just be a little warning – you may not like it as much as the others, but it will still be a good time.