The Winter Rose

This is a big book and so good I didn't want it to end. So much history and romance. Fabulous book about women, Engliand and medicine many years ago and about Africa. I reread it right away and ordered the other books/

This is the most enjoyable novel I have read in a long, long time and I am a voracious reader. Fabulous characters, a detailed and layered plot that keeps moving (even when you think it can't), emotional intensity that had me weeping, and outstanding historical information on early Victorian life in East London. I cannot recommend it highly enough!

Once again Jennifer Donnelly has made me love historical romances. After reading THE TEA ROSE (which I absolutely loved) I eagerly began reading THE WINTER ROSE and was immediately drawn into the story. Donnelly has created two wonderful characters in India Selwyn Jones and Sid Malone. It was easy for me to believe in the love story between the two of them because of the wonderful writing. And again, just as with William Burton in THE TEA ROSE, we are given a wonderfully despicable bad guy in the form of Freddie Lytton. We are also brought up to date on Fiona and Joe from THE TEA ROSE, who both pay an integral part in this story as well as Fiona's younger brother Seamie and his love Willa, both of whom I'm guessing are going to be the featured characters in Donnelly's next book in the series. If I have one complaint with the book, it's that it might be just a tad too long. Around page 600 I was getting anxious for the story to conclude. But that doesn't really matter. THE WINTER ROSE is still a wonderful follow-up to THE TEA ROSE.

The Winter Rose, a sequel to The Tea Rose, is a simply stunning tale of family drama, politics, and medicine at the turn of the last century. Ms. Donnelly brings back familiar characters such as Fiona and Joe, and adds newer ones that equally enthrall. Long and densely written, this is a book you will not want to put down and one that will stay with you for a very long time. The scene opens on India Selwyn Jones's graduation from medical school in 1900. Full of idealistic notions, India chooses to forestall marriage to Freddie Lytton while she pursues clinical help in the lower classes of Whitechapel. India isn't marrying Freddie for love, though she is fond of him, but his reasons are much more nefarious. Naive and determined, India is shocked when she has to treat the notorious gangster Sid Malone. As Sid's life hangs in the balance, the two share their stories and eventually become lovers. At the same time as their story is unfolding, Joe Bristow decides it is time for him to go into politics, and his life takes a nasty turn at the hands of Sid. Or was it Sid? The story moves at a fast clip and keeps the characters entangled with lots of coincidences and near-misses. How the path to happiness develops for India, Joe, Fiona, and Sid will keep you turning the pages. The introduction of Seamie, Fiona's younger brother, and his adventurous spirit, help set the stage for a third entry in the series sometime in the future. This is a fabulous book with larger than life characters. It is satisfying in its ability to bring the reader into the story and it will make you care deeply for every person and situation. It is indeed a tour de force, and one I can wholeheartedly recommend to those who love family sagas, historical fiction, and plain good storytelling. Highly, highly recommended.

I loved this book! It's not very often you come across an epic-length novel (707 pages!) that completely transports you to another time and place, where the characters live and breathe, history comes alive, and you are so engaged in the story the pages fly by -- the end comes too quickly. Many of my Southern literary friends might gasp at this, but not since Gone with the Wind have I enjoyed such an epic historic romance. Admittedly, it's a bit of a bodice-ripper, and, yes, the central romance, between an aristocratic female doctor, working among London's impoverished in 1900, and a notorious underworld criminal is highly improbable...but come on, people, this is escapist fiction, with a fascinating side of history and politics, circa 1900 East London and then on to Africa and San Francisco. Jennifer Donnelly does an excellent job interweaving history and fiction, with glimpses of Jack the Ripper; Winston Churchill; class society and division in London in the 1900s; poverty and politics; the emergence of Women's Rights; British colonial expansion and policy in Ireland and Africa. The Winter Rose is many stories intertwined. I loved most the broad spectrum and flow of characters and setting, the historic detail. All the pieces fit together. At its best, literature takes us out of our normal everyday experience and carries us away completely. It can make for a hard landing at the end, when the book is over and the connection to characters is abruptly broken, but a great story stays with you, as will The Winter Rose. Sherri Caldwell, co-author: "The Rebel Housewife Rules: To Heck With Domestic Bliss!" (Conari Press, 2004)

I loved the first novel in this series so much that when I heard the second book had been published in England years ahead of when it was coming out here I ordered it from the U.K. and waited eagerly for it to arrive in the mail. When it finally came I was so happy I did a little dance. I admit to having very high expectations of this novel, but they were met in spades. "The Winter Rose" did not disappoint. Just like its predecessor, "The Winter Rose" is exciting, romantic, atmospheric and packed full of little historical details that make the words spring to life off the page. You may not want to read past this point if you haven't read "The Tea Rose." In "The Winter Rose" we meet up again with Charlie Finnegan, who at the end of "The Tea Rose" was discovered not to be dead, but living under the name of Sid Malone as a crime boss in London. Though his sister Fiona tries to get Charlie to come back to his family, he has lived too long as Sid to feel he can rejoin society. Enter India Jones a recent graduate of medical school. Though she is from a highly privileged family, India wants to practice medicine in one of London's worst neighborhoods-White Chapel. Here she meets Sid and saves his life. Though she's disgusted by his life of crime, India soon finds herself going to Sid to procure birth control for her poorest patients-something that "modern" doctors will not prescribe or allow patients to have. A bond soon forms between the two that evolves into something more than friendship-despite India's privileged, long time fiancé. And as is a must in any great sequel, the characters we came to know and love in "The Tea Rose" have returned, and though they are not the center focus, we get to see what their lives have become since we left them. Like "The Tea Rose", "The Winter Rose" takes place in two parts, years apart from one another. It takes us from the poorest sections of London to the high reaches of Kilimanjaro, from Coffee plantations to California hillsides. We met murderous men, compassionate women and scheming politicians. "The Winter Rose" is an epic love story, an adventure and a feast for any reader. It is a book to savor, to read slowly and take in all the details, though you may need to speed through it to find out what happens! I cannot recommend it highly enough. Five stars. I eagerly await the third novel in this series. This author does write slowly, but the finished product is more than worth the wait