Winter Garden (Reading Group Gold)

by Kristin Hannah

[Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews]

Winter Garden takes patience, 150 pages of patience, but I plugged on because I could tell the book had potential. In reality, I had to wade through a lot of bullshit from Anya’s daughters Meredith and Nina to get to the good stuff, Anya’s story, the truth behind her fairy tale. It was a heartwrenching story reminiscent of Sophie’s Choice but not as well done. There was something missing, a warmth to evoke emotion never came and instead felt forced into sympathy rather than the need to earn it. The characters were a bit one-dimensional particularly those of her daughters and almost wished they had been left out as their waves of realization just annoyed me.

I will say that despite my thoughts on the book Kristin Hannah is a good writer, she can easily spin words and creates a picture that is easy to imagine. My problem was the lack of imagination and originality to the storyline, particularly since I thought it held promise. I also think that it would have been better if the author had stayed in the past rather than flip-flopping to the present as I felt it did little in contributing to the offered “fairy tale”.

I desperately hoped that the ending would save Winter Garden, instead I received a predictable Hallmarkesque conclusion that left me frustrated and hanging my head with regret for lost time.

Overall, Winter Garden did keep me reading but it was a recycled plot that led to disappointment and a contrite ending.