Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

Winter Garden (Reading Group Gold)

by Kristin Hannah

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photo journalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, these two estranged women will find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. On his deathbed, their father extracts one last promise from the women in his life. It begins with a story that is unlike anything the sisters have heard before - a captivating, mysterious love story that spans sixty-five years and moves from frozen, war torn Leningrad to modern-day Alaska. The vividly imagined tale brings these three women together in a way that none could have expected. Meredith and Nina will finally learn the secret of their mother's past and uncover a truth so terrible it will shake the foundation of their family and change who they think they are. Every once in a while a writer comes along who navigates the complex and layered landscape of the human heart. For this generation, it's Kristin Hannah.
Mesmerizing from the first page to the last, Winter Garden is an evocative, lyrically-written novel that will long be remembered.

Reviewed by Whitney @ First Impressions Reviews on

2 of 5 stars

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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.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 10 July, 2016: Finished reading
  • 10 July, 2016: Reviewed