Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Rose series will always be my favorite , 7 Jun 2007
The Winter Rose was a great sequel to the Tea Rose. I knew that it would be a tough one to top, but the author did it! I am so glad I was able to see Fiona and Joe once more, and the addition of the new characters and the re-introduction of Charlie as Sid Malone was wonderful. Another wonderfully detailed written book by Jennifer Donnelly! Beware: This book is LONG! When I recieved it and cracked the binding for the first time and saw the 700 pages of 8 point type, I almost fainted! Well worth it though!
NOTE*** To those who are wondering about the third installment of these wonderful books, This is what Jennifer Donnelly Wrote me in March 2007:
"...Yes, the Rose books will be a trilogy, but it will be a year or two before Book Three -- The Wild Rose -- is ready. I'm just in the plannign stages now. I've a young adult title to write first, and I've got to get that one done before my YA publisher kills me. But I'm very much looking forward to revisting the Finnegans and their circle. They totally wear me out while I'm writing about them, but the minute I finish, I really miss them!..."
I think that somewhere down the line, they decided to call the american version "The Wild Rose" due to the fact that if you got to the Amazon.UK site under "The Winter Rose, it gives a link on the top of the page to the "The Wild Rose" on the U.S. amazon site. That is just a theory. Sorry, kiddos, i don't think we can expect the thrid book for a while, unfortunately...
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11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely "un-putdownable"!, 23 Sep 2006
I totally agree with the reviewers before me - when I reached the end of 'The Tea Rose' I was almost devastated and experienced a real sense of loss, as I had come to so love the characters and couldn't believe the story had come to an end. Hence my pure, unadulterated joy to learn there was to be a sequel and I raced down to my local bookstore in Sydney, Australia to be the first to pick up a copy (yippee that Australia seemed to be the Guinea Pigs of the publishing world in this case, as we received our copies before the UK *and* the USA!). My husband took one look at it and named it my new doorstop as it was so enormous (!) but every page was a joy, and I whipped through it amazingly quickly...as the others have said, you simply can't put it down. I was reading this thing while I stirred my oatmeal in the morning, as I hummed my toddler to sleep for her midday nap, as I waited outside school to collect my son, and before I went to sleep every night. My copy came everywhere with me!
I agree, too, that you don't necessarily need to have read the original to enjoy the sequel, although having done so you will appreciate so much more of why the characters behave the way they do and understand more of how the plot relates to them. I didn't think I could ever love characters as much as Fiona and Joe, but India and Sid/Charlie absolutely captured my heart.
I have to add too, Jennifer Donnelly is just amazing with her writing. Not only is this lady a true-born storyteller (I'd love to attend a dinner party at her house for the chit-chat alone!) but she also researches everything so intricately that you completely step into her world with each page...it draws you in 100%. And she manages to capture the style of conversation, the history, the atmosphere of whatever region and country she's writing about, from England to the USA to Africa. I adored A Gathering Light/A Northern Light just as much as the Tea Rose duo and yet it was SUCH a different book and written so differently. Jennifer never ceases to impress me.
In closing, if anyone of influence *happens* to be reading this, all 3 books would make amazing films in my opinion :o) And specifically with the Tea Rose/Winter Rose books, surely I am not alone in now having a very real NEED now for a third!!
Jennifer I salute you - you're an inspiration! Can't wait for the next one, whatever it may be!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sequel that's every bit as good as its sucessor, 31 Dec 2007
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 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
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