The Silent Stars Go By

July 11, 2022
In Nicholls’s (All Fall Down) emotionally layered historical novel, set in 1919 after WWI, 19-year-old Margot Allen grapples with feelings of regret surrounding an unplanned pregnancy while navigating her family as they converge on their Yorkshire vicarage at Christmastime. When Margot was 16, her then-19-year-old fiancé Harry Singer went off to war; shortly thereafter, he was reported missing in action, and Margot discovered she was pregnant. To avoid social disgrace, she was secretly sent off to a mother-and-baby home to deliver her son, James, who was then raised by her parents and siblings as her brother. Now 19 and returning home from a secretarial course in Durham, Margot suffers from her vicar father’s disapproval, feels as if her internalized indignity alienates her from her tight knit siblings, and tries to avoid Harry, who survived as a POW before finally returning to Yorkshire. While Margot and Harry’s chemistry proves palpable, and their series of romantic misunderstandings provide tension, it’s Margot’s longing for James, the strain of her perceived shame, and her desire for forgiveness that underpins this deeply resonant post-war tale. All characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.

August 1, 2022
Grades 9-12 The year is 1919; the place, North Yorkshire, England, and 19-year-old Margot is coming home to the vicarage for the Christmas holidays. Much hinges on the visit, as Margo will spend time with her illegitimate 2-year-old son, James, who--to avoid scandal--is being raised by her mother, with Margot posing as his sister. It's also when she plans to confess all to 22-year-old Harry, the boy's unwitting father, with whom she's still very much in love. Harry, who was a POW during WWI, knows nothing of the child, and, to avoid his finding out, Margot hasn't replied to any of his letters. Much of this very British romance is devoted to Margot's subsequent efforts to bring herself to tell him. How could she risk ruining "the simple pleasure of his easy happiness"? How, indeed, sympathetic readers will wonder even as they enjoy this smoothly written, well-plotted novel that will be catnip for both adult and YA romance fans.

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Starred review from July 15, 2022
A complicated romance unfolds in the wake of World War I. In 1916, Harry Singer, a carefree, floppy-haired boy of 19, entered the war effort. He was sent to the front and went missing one month later, just as then-16-year-old Margot Allen, the pretty blond, blue-eyed vicar's daughter he was sweet on, learned she was pregnant and was packed off to a home for girls in her condition. Now it's 1919, and Margot is returning from her secretarial course in the big city of Durham to her North Yorkshire village to celebrate the first Christmas since the war ended. She'll get to see 2-year-old James, who is being raised as her brother. Harry, who had been a prisoner of war, will also be returning for the holidays. Since learning he was alive, Margot hasn't found a way to tell him about James and has avoided communicating with Harry altogether. The novel's strong pacing alternates between wartime and its aftermath, vividly capturing postwar life with its continuing food shortages and the devastating loss of life both in combat and to the influenza pandemic. The experiences of Margot's older brother, Stephen, show the lasting impact of the war on someone who survived many months in the trenches. At the heart of this story lies a tale of young love interrupted by the realities of war and life's complications. A textured historical romance that is far more than the sum of its parts. (historical note) (Historical fiction. 13-18)

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