REVIEW:

You know why Kristin Hannah is such a pro in my eyes? Because she first wrote her 2010 novel, Winter Garden, as a standard WWII + modern day dual-timeline narrative and quickly realized she needed to redo it because the present storyline wasn’t nearly as compelling as the past. She deserves a round of applause for that alone, because honestly, when was the last time you read a dual-timeline book where you enjoyed the current story as much as the historical one?

Her solution? To re-frame the reflections of her senior protagonist, Anya, as a fairy tale she’s told her daughters over the years. Now grown, Meredith and Nina have never felt loved by their mother but remain fascinated by the Russian fairy tale she used to share with them as children. Their beloved father is now dying, and he urges Anya to tell the girls the real story…. all the way to the end. Perhaps if they hear it, they’ll finally understand their mom’s iciness, and why she spends hours in the cold sitting silently with her thoughts in her cherished winter garden.

It’s possible that, for me, Hannah over-corrected in her rewrite, because I actually found the chapters about Meredith and Nina more interesting than their mother’s gradual fiction-into-fact revealing of her tragic experiences in the siege of Leningrad. I also found the ending to be a little too tightly wrapped in giant happily-ever-after bows of coincidence and catharsis, but readers who need cheerful conclusions may feel differently.

Now a note of caution: If you have recently lost a parent or a child, there are scenes in Winter Garden that you may find too tough to read. A father on his deathbed; children succumbing to the terrors of war. Kristin Hannah sure does know how to pull heartstrings, even if sometimes they’re tugged a little too hard

Winter Garden is currently available as part of the Kindle Unlimited program and includes WhisperSync for those who prefer the audiobook format.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

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 photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time — and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya's life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother's life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.