Friday, February 21, 2020

The Winters; Lisa Gabriele



TITLE: The Winters
AUTHOR:  Lisa Gabriele
PUBLISHER: Viking/Penguin
PUB. YEAR: 2020
SETTING: Cayman Island and Long Island, NY
FORMAT: ARC
RATING: - 3/5


Loosely based on Daphne Du Maurier's novel Rebecca, this is one of those books that you might have to suspend belief a bit, but, it hooked me early on -- at least for a while.

In this story, the 26 year old unnamed narrator looks back at a romance that is clear has ended badly. She's a sad young woman whose parents are dead, she's living in the Caribbean working at a charter boat rental establishment.  It's there that she meets Max Winter, a rich senator from the state of New York. After just a month or so there's romance, passion and expensive gifts, making Max hard to resist.

Max whisks the young woman back to his mansion Asherley, in Long Island, New York.  She leaves the Cayman Islands for a life of luxury, but, unfortunately, memories of the first wife, Rebekah, are everywhere haunting her at every turn.  Then there is his 15 year old daughter, Dani, who wants nothing to do with her father's fiancee, even threatening to kill herself.

This was a fun read initially. The air of mystery held my interest but, then unnecessary animal death written into the story line spoiled it for me, causing me to skip ahead to see how it would end. Overall, my rating might have been higher but, for me, never is animal cruelty acceptable -- even in fiction.

8 comments:

  1. How disappointing that a book you were enjoying was spoiled.

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  2. It sounds like I'd be safe to skip this one.

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  3. Yep, you know we wouldn't have kept reading either and we'd probably cut the book up and mailed it back to the publisher.

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  4. Hi Diane,
    I hope publishers are listening to your thoughts about this book. Animal cruelty is so much of a downer that no one wants to read a book that has that in it. I totally agree with you! Why is that necessary? Really.

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  5. I was on the fence about this one but the animal death made me jump over to the "nope" side. I don't do those kinds of things very well - especially if it feels unnecessary.

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  6. Pretty risky I sat trying to write a novel loosely based on Rebecca.

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  7. I might be tempted to read it but not in a rush to go out and read this one.

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  8. I agree, animal cruelty is a nonstarter for me and can ruin plenty of plots.

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