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Oct 03, 2011

Gloria rated it:

Be patient during the first half, it gets very good and emotional the second half. This is written in the past and present tense, which is a common scenario in many novels, but one that I enjoy. It's like reading two different novels.

What starts as a dysfunctional domestic situation between 2 sisters (American born) and their Russian-born mother ends up being so much more. Grief and a deathbed promise brings these unhappy women reluctantly together, and what seemed like a familial d More...

4 comments like (16 people liked it)

Jan 29, 2012

Karen rated it:

Kristin Hannah's books have been recommended to me by a lot of friends, and I love the cover arts! (Who said we can't judge a book by a cover?) Unfortunately, I read The Night Road as my first book, and did not enjoy it as much as I enjoyed works by other similar authors, namely, Picoult and Chamberlain.

However, at the persuasion of more friends, I decided to give her another chance, so I chose Winter Garden as my fluff read at the end of last year to balance the stress. I was so wr More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Jan 07, 2012

Almeta rated it:

This book was actually abandoned in our apartment complex library. (Something that is done by the residents, once they are finished with a book and wish to pass it on.) I seriously doubt that I would have made a decision to read it otherwise. It is quite a departure from my chosen reading genres.

And c'mon, its cover was just crying to fit a Winter challenge somewhere!

Still it was a very good book, and I am glad that I decided to read it. Just reminds me that I need to s More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Oct 05, 2010

Janelle rated it:

This is one of those books that reminds me how much I truly love historical fiction!

Anya Whitson is a Russian immigrant who moves to the United States after marrying her American husband. Anya is very hard woman who shows no love to her two daughters, Meredith and Nina, throughout their lives. Nina is an unsettled world traveling photographer and Meredith is a workaholic wife and mother who remains home to run the family orchard and never does anything for herself, it's always for ot More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Apr 14, 2011

Vickie rated it:

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale An More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 04, 2011

Ellen rated it:

My daughter recommended Kristin Hannah's book, Winter Garden, to me. As my daughter said, "Mom, I don't think you would have liked Kristin's other books, because they're light reading for housewives. But I think you might like this book, because it's complex and has a historical bent to it."

So, I decided to read Winter Garden, and I'm very glad that I did. The story tells of two sisters, who lead very disparate lives, but are forced to deal with each other and their mother, More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 31, 2010

Ns rated it:

Winter Garden is a mesmerizing and enchanting novel about survival, enduring love, family, and the choices that can forever haunt you.

With the death of the patriarch comes the further disintegration of an already fragile bond between a distant, secretive mother and her daughters who are as different as can be. With the loss of their father, Meredith and Nina Whitson find themselves no closer to their mother at a time when they should have found comfort in one another. Instead their More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2010

Sarah rated it:

Not my usual type of read, but I won this book in a Goodreads First Reads giveaway and started on it right away. To be honest, I almost put it down at the beginning because I didn't like many of the characters, especially Meredith who pretty much turned me off instantly. Though I did eventually find myself caught up in Meredith and Jeff's story, the floundering relationship between two people who were childhood sweethearts - could their cold marriage turn warm again? But at the heart of the boo More...

2 comments like (13 people liked it)

May 18, 2010

Deanna rated it:

I won this on a Goodreads give away.

First off, I LOVED THIS BOOK! Second, it well written and engaging. Third, this book could have gone 100 different ways and she went with it with a direction I could live with. And finally, I cried, twice. I don't cry over books.

This book is about two sisters who were raised by a very loving American father and a very hateful Russian mother. They never felt like their mother loved or cared about them. As adults their father, who is d More...

1 comment like (4 people liked it)

Dec 27, 2010

Cindy rated it:

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9 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Lisa rated it:

I think this is the best Kristin Hannah book I've read yet. It's about estranged sisters, Nina and Meredith, who have grown up with a very distant Russian mother. When their beloved father dies, he makes Nina promise to get their mother to finish telling them the fairy tale she used to tell them as children. Trying to figure out their own lives as well as their mother's makes for quite a story. And I didn't like this book just because Meredith's husband has the same name as my childhood crush, I More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 12, 2011

Julie rated it:

I was saddened to read some of the reviews calling this story trash. I think having read The Bronze Horseman series about this very tragic time in Russia's history gave me a better understanding and appreciation of what the mother went through, how it haunted her her entire life and made her so hardened and cold and how that affected her daughters and their lives. I loved the fairytale element that was woven throughout and the journey of all of the characters finding themselves and each other. I More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 19, 2010

Riley rated it:

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

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 30, 2010

Ashley (cnthrdlywt2bwz) rated it:

While the writing wasn't the solidifying factor in my five-star rating, it helped. What got me to love this book so much was my connection to it on a personal and a reader-level and also the development of very different characters that I loved seeing evolve and change as the novel progressed. I want to absorb this a bit more, but trust in me when I say that I enjoyed this very much, got (more than a little) teary at the end, and wish there was more to it. I am definitely interested in reading m More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Oct 12, 2011

Stacie rated it:

Reluctantly, I picked this up at the library as an audio book. I am not a Kristin Hannah fan, but there were 'slim pickins' in the audio book department this particular visit.

I expected yet another 'two best friends, this one has it all, this one has less and is jealous but loves her anyway, they part and get back together with lots of drama' Kristin Hannah book. What I got, happily instead, was an unexpected piece of historical fiction taking me to the horrors of Leningrad during th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 19, 2011

Kari rated it:

The Whitson family is rocked by the sudden death of patriarch Evan, a warm, loving man who doted on his two adult daughters, Meredith and Nina, and his reserved Russian wife, Anya. Meredith, who runs the family business, and Nina, a photojournalist whose job takes her to war zones around the world, have never been able to connect with their cold, forbidding mother. When Anya begins to act strangely, Meredith thinks she belongs in a nursing home, but Nina decides to try to fulfill her father’s dy More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2011

Mandy Jo rated it:

This week’s headline? mom and daughters

Why this book? recommended by mom

Which book format? kindle enhanced version

Primary reading environment? vacation with mom

Any preconceived notions? high-strung, emotional

Identify most with? urge to run

Three little words? “Mom turned slowly”

Goes well with? meal at Veselka

Recommend this to? boyfriend (for recipes)

Two weeks ago, I sent my mom a copy of an More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 30, 2011

Sheila rated it:

Sisters Meredith and Nina have grown apart once they reached adulthood. Meredith took over the family business and raised a family, while Nina followed her dreams to traveling the world as a photojournalist. When their doting father suddenly becomes ill and dies the sisters world is rocked to the core. As a dieing wish, their father had made the girls promise to spend time with their Russian mother, who has never been the warm motherly type.

As the girls try to come together on a dec More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 22, 2011

Irene rated it:

I may be unfairly harsh on this book because it is not my preferred reading. This is a recycled story. A woman endures overwhelming trauma as a young adult and emotionally shuts down in order to survive. But, the pain carried in secret, crushes her relationship with daughters. It is only when the adult daughter can learn the mother’s story that empathy can grow and affection can flow between the generations. This is The Bone Setter’s Daughter with the substitution of Russia for China. Only More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Megan rated it:

I can see why some people love this book. It's engaging, easy to read, interesting, mysterious, and emotional. It touches women in an integral place by causing us to examine our own relationships with our mothers (and on a lesser level, husbands and sisters) and how those important women have helped to shape us. Our book club had a good discussion over its themes, including the way people respond to trauma, the importance of communication, the absolutely bleak situation in Leningrad during th More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 14, 2011

Kerri rated it:

3 ½ stars - The Winter Garden

This novel really has two distinct stories whose tales are interwoven between and within the chapters. I really enjoyed this tactic as each of the stories offered their own unique characters and problems. In reality, each story is a tale about our roles and relationships in family. In the first story, two daughters remember a childhood with a warm and loving father and a cold and loveless mother. In the second story, Vera, a young girl experiences love, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2011

Tiffany rated it:

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah is an amazing book. It truly changed me as a woman and mother.
By living through the Siege of Leningrad as a young wife and mother, Vera is forced to make decisions that no woman should ever have to make. She faces devastating losses and manages to keep living because that is what the women in her life have taught her to do. Guilt and heartbreak close her heart to a relationship with her daughters. Her husband's dying wish is for her to tell the More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 10, 2011

loretta rated it:

It's been a while since I read a Kristin Hannah book and this one had an interesting premise. While it takes place in America and is the story of a family comprised of loving father, cold and aloof mother and 2 daughters, it really has deep ties in Stalin's Russia and the brutal siege of Leningrad. The adult daughters have long given up trying to understand their mother. Everything comes to a head when the father, who is the glue who holds the family together, dies of a heart attack. The rem More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 23, 2011

Erin rated it:

Dysfunctional families are always a good basis for a storyline; Winter Garden takes advantage of a strange mother-daughters dynamic to develop its plot around. At an apple farm in the Pacific Northwest, sisters Meredith and Nina struggle to grow closer to their mother after the death of their father. Meredith, the 40-year-old manager of the family business, watches her marriage fall apart as she tries to carry out her father's dying wish that she take care of her mother. Nina, the younger sis More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 17, 2011

Kay rated it:

When I first picked up Winter Garden (which was actually a gift from my husband, deemed by the nice cashier at the Chapters he bought it at as 'Something that will make your wife cry') I was skeptical. Normally, I enjoy my over-sized paper backs as much as the next person, but something about the premise smacked of cliche, to me. Two adult sisters with Mother issues, trying to lead their lives without thinking about it; I figured I knew the ending right off the bat. Most of these books are all t More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 11, 2011

Jenny rated it:

Wow, what a surprise this book turned out to be! I have been a fan of Kristin Hannah's work ever since a couple years ago when I alternated reading Angel Falls with writing a research paper for an entire Saturday. I finished the book that day as well as my research paper. Since then I've read 5 other books by her and loved most of them. Including that first one, Winter Garden was the 7th book I've read by Ms. Hannah.

I was initially disappointed. In fact, for the first half of the book More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 20, 2011

Denise rated it:

I am so thankful my neighbor brought this book to me. We are in a book club and this was an in between book...and now we hope to get the rest of the club to read it!

A story that is hard to put into words here in a review, a family that holds history to a depth that has left holes in the here and now is what comes to mind. Two daughters that are treated with more than a normal cold shoulder from thier mom, find peace and love with thier father. When the father dies he makes them al More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 28, 2011

Diane rated it:

Meredith and Nina are two sisters who spend their life trying to gain their mother's love. Anya, their mom, is a cold, distant woman with a past that she manages to keep to herself for most of the girls' life. When, as children, the sisters try to act out the fairy tale that their mother tells them at night, her response is one that sets up the background for the rest of the novel. Ethan is the father who is the only one who knows the truth behind the fairy tale and on his deathbed asks that his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 18, 2011

Laura rated it:

Anya Whitson is a cold woman. She has never loved her daughters, or so they believe. Meredith and Nina are devastated when their beloved father dies, leaving them with the unwelcome task of caring for their aged, withdrawn and disapproving mother. Yet one thing intrigues Nina: their father's deathbed plea for Anya to continue the fairy tale story she began to tell her daughters long ago, the story of a peasant girl who loves a prince, long ago in the magical Snow Kingdom where a Dark Knight thre More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 11, 2011

Jennefer rated it:

Kristin Hannah is such a great storyteller and I know I say this every time I write a review but the more novels I read from her the more I really like her. This book turned out to be very good despite a rather slow beginning. So if you have not made it through this book due to the slow start (first 100-150 pages) pick it back up immediately and continue on I promise you it is absolutely worth it!

The main story revolves around sisters, Meredith and Nina, who grew up with a caring f More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)