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Jan 12, 2009

Laura rated it:

This fluctuates between heartwarming and trashy. A group of loosely connected people wind up together at an estate house in some small Highland town, where they make friends and heal their wounded souls, all in time for Christmas. Parts of it are very sweet, and I’m yearning now to spend a Christmas in the snowy north of Scotland, but the author’s lack of moral clarity was so off-putting that it spoiled the book. It’s as though she couldn’t possibly be so judgmental as to condemn the stupid choi More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Lynne rated it:

This is one of my favourite books of all time. The writing is fantastic, the characters so well penned that I came to care about them, and when I put the book down, I wanted to continue to know these people, which to me is a good indication that the book is top notch. Scotland came to life for me here, and I really wanted to go there at christmas time and experience Scotland at that period. I have read it several times and will continue to pick it up on occasions.

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Holly (2 Kids and Tired) rated it:

I love Rosamunde Pilcher. I love everything she's written. Most people rave about The Shell Seekers, and while I love that book as well, it's not my most favorite.

Winter Solstice is delightful and thought-provoking. Pilcher's narratives are pure prose. You find yourself immersed in the world of Scottish tweeds and cottages and hospitality. She captures the intense feelings of grief, and the hope that comes when you learn to love again.

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2009

Relyn rated it:

I just finished listening to this book again. I have it on my iPod. I bet I listen to it at least once a year. Probably more than that. I adore Rosamunde Pilcher's world, and I think this is her very best book. I could go on and on about Pilcher. I have read everything she's written. At least, that I know about. I mourned when I found out that she doesn't intend to write another book. This is my favorite author. She is full of warmth. She writes of the comforts of home. A warm fire, More...

8 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2009

Sheri added it

This book really disappointed me. While the writing was fun and entertaining and did feel like a holiday (all the cozy cottages and teas and twinkling things), I felt icky inside when I was done with it. The author seems to glorify adultery, divorce and sex outside marriage as long as there's an "understandable" excuse (ie: done in the name of "love"). If you've read the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - this, to me, is Turkish Delight.

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2011

JayeL rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jul 26, 2010

Carolyn rated it:

Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. A brief time, when darkness predominates. Yet in this brief time, Rosamund Pilcher has set a story filled with light and warmth.
The book is classic Pilcher, full of detail and texture, housed in quirky old buildings and peopled with obliging neighbors, wet dogs, unexpected guests and a cast of characters we can grow to love.

This is not a book to be rushed through. Don't read it in bits and pieces, wedged into stolen moments during More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2009

Dorothy rated it:

Winter Solstice is truly a delightful story. It is one of those books that you just wished you had in hand when your outlook on the world is weary and dreary. For once in your lifetime, a book gives you a happily ever after ending. Oh, there is death, divorce, and the tawdry aspects of every day living, but the silver lining behind each little cloud almost makes you forget them.
Pilcher's tale could very well be entitled, a story of convenience. Why? You see after Elfrida's thir More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 23, 2011

Lady rated it:

Winter Solstice is a story of tragedy, of hearts that have been shattered and haven't mended, and of an unlikely gathering of people... who heal each other, who happen to be for one another the thing that this person or that person needs to move away from the grief that has created the circumstances which brought this motley crew together. The scenery, the setting, the plot, and the characterization are thoroughly, even lovingly, tended to, and Scotland is itself a character, as it is in most of More...

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Apr 11, 2011

Chana rated it:

I don't think I've ever read a book set in a small English village that didn't turn up a dead body and have a detective inspector just happening to be vacationing there or something. So I kept waiting for the dead body even though this is not a murder mystery. Imagine my surprise when this actually happened. But it wasn't a murder, it was a tragedy. Not my kind of book already. This is basically a romantic but clean, old-fashioned kind of family saga.
And it goes on and on and on and More...

4 comments like

Aug 19, 2011

Connie rated it:

Altho, I loved reading about the preparation leading up to the event, as is always the case with a Rosamunde Pilcher book, I was very disheartened
about the ending. I loved the set of mismatched strangers coming together and ending up celebrating a very festive holiday each one of them
separately were determined to avoid. I loved each detail as they got closer to the day. I loved how they carefully selected the gifts for the other
guests. Then, I felt like I was dropped flat. Ce More...

0 comments like

Dec 03, 2011

Cheryl rated it:

This is a charming, albeit long at nearly 600 pages, novel full of lovable odd characters, a freezing Scottish winter, and lots of friendship and love. There is tragedy and loss, but there is also rebirth and recovery. Life goes on. Circumstances change and much like in real life these characters keep going and try to find their place in things.

Others have criticized Pilcher's moral code with the drunk-driving and infidelity threads in this novel, but I think Pilcher probably feels More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 26, 2009

Dana rated it:

I have been in love with this author since I read The Shell Seekers years ago. OK, my 4 star rating is based largely on emotion and sentimentality. Why not? I want to go to the places she writes about, sit in the houses and gardens, know the people. There are difficult times, thoughtfully and intelligently handled by the strong, likeable female main characters. In the end there is resolution and a sense of contentment. I find the books inspiring and humorous in a subtle and sly way. The b More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 08, 2008

Carrie rated it:

This is probably my all time favorite Pilcher book. I love her writing and regularly return to reread old favorites, but Winter Solstice had become a yearly ritual for me. Lie most of Pilcher's other novels, this is not an action packed book, but instead is a sweetly told story of people who come together to form an unlikely family.

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Oct 20, 2007

Pam rated it:

I love the settings & the characters in Pilcher's book. She has a knack for making the rather ordinary (Oscar, the church organist who remained a bachelor until late mid-life) seem unique & the rather non-conventional (Elfrida, the London actress) seem cozy, warm & motherly. Set mostly in Scotland, w/ an assortment of extended family members.

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 14, 2011

Kathie rated it:

I can't help it, I have to give Rosamund Pilcher's books a 5 star rating. They are set in the United Kingdom (England, Scotland) so that immediately makes it a favorite read. Having been to England twice I can return there in her books. Her character development is bar-none. She paints pictures with words: the weather, the landscape, the person, their clothes, the event. I am drawn in so easily and find myself planted in Creagan, Scotland, looking up the lane at a mansion, feeling the cold wi More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 20, 2009

Christy rated it:

Rosamunde Pilcher writes very well and it is easy to get into her books. I found this one to be a little overly descriptive and felt like it could have ended sooner than it did. Also, I could live without the gratuitous romance...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 01, 2011

Carolynne added it

Someone called this a "great comfort read," and that's a good description. The basic plot: Retired actress Elfrida Phipps and widowed friend Oscar move to an old Victorian house in Scotland, complete with roaring fires, and expected British inconveniences, along with her niece Carrie, grieving the loss of a lover, and great-niece Lucy, basically abandoned by her parents. In the midst of a snowstorm arrives Sam, surviving a loss of his own. In the hands of another author this would More...

0 comments like

Oct 06, 2010

Donna rated it:

Rosamunde Pilcher wrote books that were an absolute delight to curl up with. Her characters were always interesting and well formed and usually very likeable. She wrote such satisfying, cosy books, including a lot of detail about houses, usually as they are turned into "homes", and everyday life, but also with good plots. This book, as usual, takes place mostly in Scotland over the period of time leading up to Christmas, perhaps with a rather unusual cast of characters that you gro More...

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Jan 14, 2011

Leeswammes rated it:

Several unrelated, or barely related, people end up in a house in Scotland where they spend Christmas. The book leads up to Christmas but isn’t too Christmas-y (if you’d want to read it in the summer, you’d be fine).

Elfrida, a former London actress in her sixties, is living in a quiet town in the countryside where she befriends Oscar, a retired organist. Carrie is Alfrida’s second cousin and has just returned from Austria where she worked in the ski business. She is worried about her n More...

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Aug 12, 2009

Cperkins rated it:

This was a great summer read. I felt like I was right there with the characters living in Scottland. Everything is homey and comfortable and I didn't want the story to end...the characters became like good friends I could visit with each night before bed. Still the ending was satisfying, everything came full circle.
I liked the values Rosamund Pilcher wove into the story. The main characters were happy living on what little money they had and were rich in friends. Whereas, the mother More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 21, 2011

Margaret added it

Former actress Elfrida leaves London for a geriatric bolthole in the country where she meets retired schoolmaster & organist, Oscar. Meanwhile, Carrie (Elfrida's 2nd cousin), returns to London from Austria where she had a brilliant career in the tourist industry, only to find her niece, 14-yr-old Lucy, sadly neglected by her selfish mother & equally spoiled grandmother. Finally, handsome Sam is recalled from New York by his company chairman to revive an ailing Scottish textile mill.

~~ More...

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Nov 08, 2011

Brad rated it:

Though sometimes dismissed as a
woman's writer, Ms. Pilcher's last novel is one of the most heartwarming
Christmas novels I've ever read. A cast of characters who have all
experienced recent tragedy in their lives are thrust together by accident
and each, in their way, catches the first glimpse of sunlight at the
solstice that promises an end to winter. She is an extraordinary writer who
completely eschews sturm and drang; instead, most of the conflict in her
books More...

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Nov 11, 2011

Debbiedowner rated it:

I found this book at a dollar store along with dozens of other copies. I had read Rasamunde Pilcher's novels in the past and enjoyed them for what they were, so I figured with Winter Solstice she had hit a wall. Best sellers don't end up in a large stacks at dollar stores. I tried several times to read this novel--it's not often I hold a hardcover in my hands. I wanted to get into it, but I couldn't. There is so much repetitive and unnecessary exposition, not to mention endless descriptions of e More...

0 comments like

Oct 09, 2009

Erin rated it:

Since my pastors are from Scotland, albeit not from as far north as this book was, I found it an interesting read. Plus, I remember reading some of my Mom's Rosamunde Pilcher books when I was younger and enjoyed them. I can't believe this book was 700 & something pages but I liked that b/c then I wasn't disappointed when it ended. I really enjoyed the lady in her 60s who was uncovential and had lived her whole life like that. She just seemed like a lot of fun to be around and it didn't matte More...

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Dec 15, 2011

LemonLinda rated it:

If you are looking for a great Christmas book to read in December, this one is the perfect choice. Pilcher gives us the background story on a retired actress who has moved to the country from the London stage, a retired schoolmaster and church musician, the actress's niece who returns to London with a heavy heart and the niece's 14 year old niece who she rescues from a selfish mother and grandmother for the holidays. Also involved is a late 30 something very successful businessman who is flounde More...

3 comments like

Dec 04, 2011

Jess rated it:

I am so glad that my grandmother recommended Rosamunde Pilcher to me. Sometimes, I'm just in the mood for something with slower pacing--something cozy, if you will. Sinking into a Rosamunde Pilcher novel is like curling up with a comfy blanket and a warm cup of tea.

Despite having a slower pace, this book is by no means boring, and the pages fly by pretty quickly. For one thing, Rosamunde Pilcher really writes beautifully. I had a picture clear image in my mind as I was reading, and I More...

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Jun 03, 2010

Amy rated it:

I could list ALL of Rosamunde Pilcher's books but I like the long ones--more time to be involved with the characters!! So, Winter Solstice, September, Coming Home and Shell Seeks I have read numerous times. The shorter books I have read too but I like some better than others. Her books are like visiting with a good friend and catching up on community happenings. Very comforting. They ARE always drinking tea; sorry, I'm American, prefer coffee!!! Wish she wasn't done writing but I believe she More...

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Sep 21, 2011

Patricia rated it:

Once again this author entwines the lives of her characters in a tale of love, growth, and acceptance. The author develops her characters in chapters describing what is going on in their lives and how one character gets introduced to another. The setting starts out in the country side of England, moves a little to the town life of London and finishes with life in Scotland. The uniqueness of the characters and the intertwining of their lives is well done and make for a good story.

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Jul 25, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

One of those books to read on a cold winter's day. A bunch of people come together enjoy themselves, heal their mental and emotional wounds and are much happier for it. One of those books where everything turns out well. Food, friendship, snow and family are its main themes. No real plot and not a great work of literature but a simple and soothing book without pretensions or delusions of grandeur. Take it for what it is and you won't be disappointed.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

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