Winter Garden [Mass Market Paperback]

The task of summarizing the plot of "Winter Garden" is not an easy one. Usually when this is the case, it's because the novel in question has no plot to speak of, or a very weak and jumbled one at best. Reverse that observation in the extreme for "Winter Garden." Adele Ashford has woven together a storyline so intricate and powerful, that it is difficult to give readers very many descriptions of it without giving away too much, thereby spoiling it for you. Indeed, even the smallest of reviewer comments could weaken from the intensity of its experience. Keeping that in mind, let me attempt to summarize the plot of "Winter Garden" for you.

Thomas Blackwood is an agent for the English government who has gone to the village of Winter Garden to bring to justice a nobly born gentleman dealing illegally in the opium trade. It is easy for Thomas to blend in with the Winter Park locals without bringing undue attention to himself because he's known to them as a recluse and a scholar...a role that comes readily to him since he truly is both of those things.

Thomas has lived alone for years. He has isolated himself both physically and emotionally from the rest of society and has no one in his life that he is close to, save a son that is studying abroad. He wishes, however, that his fate was different. And from the first moment he laid eyes on Madeleine DuMais, he knew with all certainty where his destiny lay...

Madeleine DuMais is a French-born woman of lowly birth who was fathered illegitimately by an Englishman. She carries many deep, unhealed emotional scars as testament to the horrid childhood she bore. Nevertheless, Madeleine has managed to carve out a place for herself in gentle society. To the French aristocracy, Madeleine is known merely as a celebrated beauty; to a select group of English government officials, she is known as one of Britain's most revered spies. Because of her gender, Madeleine is able to glean information in ways that are socially impossible for a gentleman in the mid 1800s to do. So when she is called from France to Winter Garden in England to aide in the capturing of an opium smuggler, she is prepared to give her all. What she isn't prepared for, however, is the giving away of her heart to a mysterious, reclusive man who makes her feel emotions she'd thought long dead...

"Winter Garden" is a sensuous, erotic, and emotional tale that will leave you fanning yourself one minute and reaching for a tissue the next. The sensuality level of this novel is very high and is expertly woven throughout, while its erotic atmosphere is achieved through both character dialogue and (explicit) love scenes. The emotional intensity between the hero and the heroine only heightens the effect.

This book (the sequel to "Stolen Charms") is, without a doubt, one of the best books I've ever read. This is one purchase you simply won't regret making.

-full review originally published in The Romance Reader

Thank you for those reviewers who gave me some insight into this book. The characters are different from the 'older' romance books as well as the staid formulas of so many historicals and one of the reason's I quit reading them a long time ago. But this book was worth going back into the genre'.

There are many differences from the basic plot lines that make this story just not feel or sound so familiar.

One of the differences is in the characters----

First, the hero is far less than physically perfect, a first for me after reading bizillion's of 'romance' novels. I don't mean just a mild problem either, but something heartwrenching even by today's standards. Sadly, in so many of the formulamatic HR's, the worst any hero had to deal with was maybe an eye patch and a facial scar that just, well, made him look sooo much better in the end.

But this hero will just about tear your heart out. I don't know, but the term tortured for the first time really seems to apply here. For me, I was actually aching from the descriptions.

Secondly, the heroine is well, not a spring chicken and not pure as snow. OK, so I'm old enough to be her mama, but still..

As a woman who is no longer young or a virgin, the 'first time virgin bedding' of some books was getting a bit tedious to say the least. And boring.

Purity can be dull because it can also mean a character without facets. But she has many layers, lots of personality and you can see why the hero has fallen for her. She's also, GASTHP!!! pretty outgoing sexually. Not in a skanky manner either, but in a loving, generous, "I really do care for you and want to make you happy" way that just makes you like her all the more.

WG is also different in the intent and context---too often we have the woman jumping through hoops to win the man's love. Or we have the tortured Alpha-male that is fighting his feelings. Or we have a couple that hasn't figured out yet how they feel for each other. Predictable to the in'th degree and often frustrating.

Well, this just sets the whole pattern on its ear. Not only do we have a hero that adores the heroine, but Oh my, the degree is so intense.... It had me in tears in a few places.

Lastly, the book is very erotic, but it's so right with these two characters. It adds to and flows with the story line....

WARNING- For those who think this book is pornographic, erm...PLEASE don't go near anything by Kenyon, Moning, Knight, Feehan, Howard etc, and stay the HECK away from Ellora's Cave. You'll be toast.

So, on a rating of 1 to 10, with 10 being burn the house down Angela Knight and 1 being genteel Woodiwiss...this book is about a 6 or 7. OK, maybe more a 8. But a very sweet 8 ;)

Lastly, the ending will have you squalling. The next to the last chapter was dang near heartbreaking for me (geez, I'm just a marshmallow). But the last chapter is so sweet. I found myself afterwards going back to re-read it several times.

OK, recommended for not being predictable, not being a boring HR that is so overdone that my teeth hurt at the covers alone, having very different characters, absolutely fabulous eroticism and lastly, a sweetness that permeates the book and just makes it a joy to read.

One of THE most enchanting, touching, and beautiful books I have read in recent memory. I only hope I can find adequate words to describe how I am feeling right now.

Winter Garden, by Adele Ashworth is THE read of the year as far as I am concerned. This is the first time I have read her work and I am totally and completely knocked over by the depth, complexity and emotion with which this woman writes. I don't know how authors feel about comparisons to other authors but I would give Ms. Ashworth my highest compliment by saying I have not been so touched or overwhelmed by anything since LaVyrle Spencer.

The characters in this book are so real and complex you can feel their every touch and emotion. The heroine, Madeleine DuMais, is different - not virginal nor dependent on anyone but herself. The hero, Thomas Blackwood, is scarred but strong in his determination and love for Madeleine.

This book has a great storyline with a mystery but NEVER waivers from the main point of any good and pure romance novel - the love and struggles of the main characters. The emotions are deep and complex and the reader feels each of them with both characters.

The sensuality in this book is beyond words. It is intense, it is beautiful, it is erotic and Ms. Ashworth goes beyond where most "angels" dare to tread and brings it off in an incredibly beautiful way.

I congratulate & thank this author for an incredibly beautiful story and for her courage to write the kind of sensuality that goes beyond the "norm" to a place where beauty abounds in no holds barred sex and her talent to give it the emotion, intensity and the feeling of "rightness" that is so realistic and touching yet is sometimes forgotten (or not dared) in romance writing today.

I have found a new to me author who will from now on be on my ever shrinking "auto buy" list.

If ANY of you haven't read this book I urge you to run to the bookstore and get it - and don't just throw it on your TBR stack - read it NOW.

Gosh I hope I've done this book justice. It is almost beyond words.