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The Chequered Silence
What could justify her years of silence? Leah had deserted Max Calvert and her acting career for a reason that seemed valid at the time. But she'd never offered any explanation, and Max had never forgiven her. Now, five years later, he was going to direct The Chequered Silence, the new play Leah was producing. If only she could tell him why she left him, and that the play itself held the answer....
- GenresRomanceHarlequin Romance
187 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 7, 2018
I didn't feel the love in this one.
Actress and Director date and move in together with the understanding that marriage is not in the cards, the two of them are way too ambitious in their respective careers.
Actress is diagnosed by her doctor as gradually losing her sense of hearing. She panicks, retires from acting, and leaves the hero like a thief in the night, with a vague Dear John note on the mantle, and no forwarding address.
Actress starts learning sign language at a school for the hearing-impaired, dabbles into theater there, and even falls in like with one of her teachers.
Then, when she is starting to accept her disability and realizes the pity party needs to stop as her life is far from over and she has a new life full of a support network of friends, acquaintances, colleagues and teachers, her doctor performs a miraculous surgery that restores her hearing.
At no point does the heroine contact the hero to at least explain why she ran and even inquire how he is doing and how he feels about it all. She has written him off. Instead, she embarks on a new career as a theatrical producer, to great success.
Four years later, she bumps into Director at a dinner party, where he cuts her dead and promptly leaves as if he cannot bear the sight of her. For one year, she hears nothing from him.
Then, one year after their accidental meeting, they are reunited despite themselves to respectively direct and produce a play about a hearing-impaired girl who falls in love with a hearing man. The play is written by heroine's boyfriend, the same sign language teacher who befriended her five years ago and who seems to be her somewhat lukewarm but steady date these days.
Director is similarly dating a buxom woman's magazine editor (he makes no qualms that he has been having a fully satisfying dating life for the past five years) even as he gives punishing kisses to the heroine on the sly and tries to convince her to dump her sign language teacher boyfriend. The director is torn between his desire for her and some righteous anger at the callous way she dumped him five years ago, imagining it must have been another man. Heroine once again does NOTHING to dispel his erroneous impression that could have cleared up, if not their romantic relationship, at least their working relationship.
Things come to a head when two days before the premiere of the play, both the main actress and her stand-in get into a car accident, not major enough to have incapacitated them for life, but damaging enough that they won't be able to star in the play two days away. This conveniently leaves the door open for the heroine to finally return to the stage and simultaneously reveal her big secret that she was temporarily hearing-impaired and that was what caused her to walk out on the Director.
The Director doesn't seem to hold a grudge and they reunite predictably for their ILY scene combined with theatrical triumph.
I liked the fact that the author gave her heroine a disability because God knows how boring all these perfect Harlequin Mary Sues can get. I just don't think she pushed it far enough. I didn't like the miraculous surgery plot device, it is one of the lamest, most overused tropes in HPlandia. It would have been a more interesting book if the characters both had to deal with this situation and given a chance to work through it. Probably the fictional play of the book (which sounds suspiciously similar to the Marlee Matlin vehicle Children of a Lesser God) would have been the better story to tell.
I will remember this one for heroine's arachnophobia which was the catalyst of her initial chance meeting with the hero, as well as instrumental in their reconciliation. They had each respectively and unbeknownst to each other paid the hero's 8 year old nephew to dig up a hairy eight-legged creepy crawly and dump it in heroine's washbasin so as to provide a good pretext for some nighttime damsel in distress and knight in shining armour activities. Turns out the nephew pocketed the money from both and dumped two spiders in the sink :)
Actress and Director date and move in together with the understanding that marriage is not in the cards, the two of them are way too ambitious in their respective careers.
Actress is diagnosed by her doctor as gradually losing her sense of hearing. She panicks, retires from acting, and leaves the hero like a thief in the night, with a vague Dear John note on the mantle, and no forwarding address.
Actress starts learning sign language at a school for the hearing-impaired, dabbles into theater there, and even falls in like with one of her teachers.
Then, when she is starting to accept her disability and realizes the pity party needs to stop as her life is far from over and she has a new life full of a support network of friends, acquaintances, colleagues and teachers, her doctor performs a miraculous surgery that restores her hearing.
At no point does the heroine contact the hero to at least explain why she ran and even inquire how he is doing and how he feels about it all. She has written him off. Instead, she embarks on a new career as a theatrical producer, to great success.
Four years later, she bumps into Director at a dinner party, where he cuts her dead and promptly leaves as if he cannot bear the sight of her. For one year, she hears nothing from him.
Then, one year after their accidental meeting, they are reunited despite themselves to respectively direct and produce a play about a hearing-impaired girl who falls in love with a hearing man. The play is written by heroine's boyfriend, the same sign language teacher who befriended her five years ago and who seems to be her somewhat lukewarm but steady date these days.
Director is similarly dating a buxom woman's magazine editor (he makes no qualms that he has been having a fully satisfying dating life for the past five years) even as he gives punishing kisses to the heroine on the sly and tries to convince her to dump her sign language teacher boyfriend. The director is torn between his desire for her and some righteous anger at the callous way she dumped him five years ago, imagining it must have been another man. Heroine once again does NOTHING to dispel his erroneous impression that could have cleared up, if not their romantic relationship, at least their working relationship.
Things come to a head when two days before the premiere of the play, both the main actress and her stand-in get into a car accident, not major enough to have incapacitated them for life, but damaging enough that they won't be able to star in the play two days away. This conveniently leaves the door open for the heroine to finally return to the stage and simultaneously reveal her big secret that she was temporarily hearing-impaired and that was what caused her to walk out on the Director.
The Director doesn't seem to hold a grudge and they reunite predictably for their ILY scene combined with theatrical triumph.
I liked the fact that the author gave her heroine a disability because God knows how boring all these perfect Harlequin Mary Sues can get. I just don't think she pushed it far enough. I didn't like the miraculous surgery plot device, it is one of the lamest, most overused tropes in HPlandia. It would have been a more interesting book if the characters both had to deal with this situation and given a chance to work through it. Probably the fictional play of the book (which sounds suspiciously similar to the Marlee Matlin vehicle Children of a Lesser God) would have been the better story to tell.
I will remember this one for heroine's arachnophobia which was the catalyst of her initial chance meeting with the hero, as well as instrumental in their reconciliation. They had each respectively and unbeknownst to each other paid the hero's 8 year old nephew to dig up a hairy eight-legged creepy crawly and dump it in heroine's washbasin so as to provide a good pretext for some nighttime damsel in distress and knight in shining armour activities. Turns out the nephew pocketed the money from both and dumped two spiders in the sink :)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 5, 2023
This is an oldie from 1984. It was tame and dull. No sparks were flying. He was not really angry at her for having left him without a trace and he was no alpha male.
And there were also too many other people involved in the story. After a while I went from reading to skimming.
In my opinion the story would have been much better if she hadn’t had that magic surgery after which her hearing was completely healed.
I would have found it more romantic if he had proven her wrong, that he loved her and that her deafness made no difference to him at all.
And there were also too many other people involved in the story. After a while I went from reading to skimming.
In my opinion the story would have been much better if she hadn’t had that magic surgery after which her hearing was completely healed.
I would have found it more romantic if he had proven her wrong, that he loved her and that her deafness made no difference to him at all.
August 22, 2022
Ex-actress and now fledgling theatre producer Leah is reunited with Max, the director she was in a relationship with 5 years ago until she was diagnosed with incoming deafness and fled. The deafness caused her to learn sign language and then an operation cured her. He's hurt and angry, she's confused and uncertain. They both still have powerful feelings for each other with which they contend, surrounded by a lively theatrical cast as they work on a play with deaf characters. This writer has a truly elegant style and I thought it was terrifically well done. A real, intelligent, old-fashioned charm to the story but lots of modern vibes about female empowerment, deaf empowerment and mutual respect.
February 19, 2021
Too tame!
The heroine ran away 5 years ago without explanation to the hero after living together for a year. She was going deaf and didn't want to be a pity project.
Now they meet again and the hero is still furious with her. He believes she left him for another man.
A huge plus for bringing readers' attention to problems of hearing-impaired people.
The heroine ran away 5 years ago without explanation to the hero after living together for a year. She was going deaf and didn't want to be a pity project.
Now they meet again and the hero is still furious with her. He believes she left him for another man.
A huge plus for bringing readers' attention to problems of hearing-impaired people.
October 12, 2025
Heroine left hero when she thought she was going deaf. As an actress, she didn't think she would have a career much longer and she didn't want up-and-coming director hero to feel pity for her.
They meet again five years later. Hero is still bewildered and heroine is still too proud to tell him the real reason she left. She has left acting and is producing a play about a deaf woman finding love - hero is directing.
They predictably get back together without a lot of fireworks.
The cliches continue with heroine stepping in as a last minute understudy. There's also a travelogue of New York City.
The story was fine, but the author poured more into describing the play rather than the romance.
They meet again five years later. Hero is still bewildered and heroine is still too proud to tell him the real reason she left. She has left acting and is producing a play about a deaf woman finding love - hero is directing.
They predictably get back together without a lot of fireworks.
The cliches continue with heroine stepping in as a last minute understudy. There's also a travelogue of New York City.
The story was fine, but the author poured more into describing the play rather than the romance.
November 14, 2025
This one started off kind of slow, and with a ridiculous premise that the heroine clinged (clung? clanged??) to waaaaaaaay too long, but it picked up toward the end imo.
I liked the recognition the story gave to deaf people; ended up liking the theater setting despite myself, liked that the heroine was a capable, competent person (I mean except for her questionable romance/personal choices of just hiding everything from the H for so long, for no reason).
My favorite part was toward the end where not one, but two big spiders ended up in the h's bathtub, provoking their showdown/get together/ finale... which turned out to be BOTH of them playing the same trick lol.
I liked the recognition the story gave to deaf people; ended up liking the theater setting despite myself, liked that the heroine was a capable, competent person (I mean except for her questionable romance/personal choices of just hiding everything from the H for so long, for no reason).
My favorite part was toward the end where not one, but two big spiders ended up in the h's bathtub, provoking their showdown/get together/ finale... which turned out to be BOTH of them playing the same trick lol.
November 25, 2018
Love the H/h's chemistry and the plot. Considering this book was return back in the 80s conservative era, it still sizzles and is really refreshing. The characters of both H and h were strong and very well developed. There was none of the recriminations, pseudo revenge that Harlequin and Mills and Boon are famous for.
priority
May 24, 2022Five years ago, for what she had considered the best of reasons, Leah had broken off her relationship with Max Calvert, without ever explaining why. Not unnaturally, he had been bitterly resentful, but Leah had firmly cut all the ties between them and they had not seen each other since.
Now they had met again, in very different circumstances: he as the director of the play she was producing; and still Max was bitter and resentful. Would they be able to work together? And would Leah be able to pick up the threads of their love again, or was Max lost to her for ever?
Now they had met again, in very different circumstances: he as the director of the play she was producing; and still Max was bitter and resentful. Would they be able to work together? And would Leah be able to pick up the threads of their love again, or was Max lost to her for ever?
November 12, 2025
Another of those "noble idiot" stories. This time, the h learns she's going deaf and not wanting to be a burden to the H or have him stay with her out of pity (shows what she thinks of his character) she does the old disappearing act. Her deafness doesn't last, since there's an operation that will cure it, but she's too cowardly to face the H and just lets it go. Besides, she's made a new life for herself, switched from acting to theatrical production, works extensively with TFDF (Theatre for the Deaf), made many friends and a special friend/OM, whom she dates on a friendly basis. All in all, she's doing fine and doesn't seem to care all that much about the H no longer being in her life, or at least that's the vibe I got. She wasn't the type to put another person ahead of her career, probably stemming from her lack of love growing up, with two totally-in-love parents who didn't want anyone - including their unplanned pregnancy daughter - to take their attention from each other, so off to boarding school!
This was a DNF for me, since I just didn't care for the h, so why read a whole book about her? Where the author went wrong was in curing her deafness too soon. Instead, she should have made her deaf for quite a time, had her star in the play about a deaf young woman who falls for her teacher, had the H learn the truth, get over his resentment and try to be a part of her soundless world, and then - when things between them are good - they find out about the operation that will get her hearing back, because now she's secure in his love and whether she can hear again or not it won't matter.
Alas, another of those missed (and wasted) opportunities!
This was a DNF for me, since I just didn't care for the h, so why read a whole book about her? Where the author went wrong was in curing her deafness too soon. Instead, she should have made her deaf for quite a time, had her star in the play about a deaf young woman who falls for her teacher, had the H learn the truth, get over his resentment and try to be a part of her soundless world, and then - when things between them are good - they find out about the operation that will get her hearing back, because now she's secure in his love and whether she can hear again or not it won't matter.
Alas, another of those missed (and wasted) opportunities!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews