Book Review: Winter Garden

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Meredith and Nina are sisters. Daughters of a kind and loving father and a remote, cold mother. Their mother's coldness affects both sisters, driving them away from her until their father dies and the girls are left to pick up the pieces, keep their promises, and make sense of their own cold lives by convincing mom to finish the fairy tale she told them as children.

The book is fabulous in many ways. I wept when the dad died. I wept when mom finally revealed the ending of the fairy tale. I wept in several places, in fact, but I won't go into detail about those.

I have to say that both Meredith and Nina seemed a bit too delusional to me in the beginning. None of us sees ourselves as others see us, I get that. But it was hard for me to believe that these two women could think how cold their mother was one minute and then fail to recognize that same coldness in themselves, even a little bit.

I really wanted to understand the fairy tale and find out what it meant in their mother's life, but there were times when the sections of fairy tale were a bit too long and detailed for me. Through the middle of the book, I found myself skimming the fairy tale so I could get back to the current story. That may have been because the sections of fairy tale seemed repetitive for a while. As a result of my impatience, I missed a couple of details along the way but none that were important enough to make me go back and re-read what I'd skipped.

But even with those two minor flaws I enjoyed the book. It's definitely worth reading, especially if you're in the mood for a good cry.



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