Winter Garden.

 

★★★★★ 

Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family business; the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, these two estranged sisters will find themselves together again, standing alongside their disapproving mother, Anya, who even now offers no comfort to her daughters. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise: Anya will tell her daughters a story; it is one she began years ago and never finished. This time she will tell it all the way to the end. 

The tale their mother tells them is unlike anything they’ve heard before—a captivating, mysterious love story that spans more than sixty years and moves from frozen, war-torn Leningrad to modern-day Alaska. Nina’s obsession to uncover the truth will send them all on an unexpected journey into their mother’s past, where they will discover a secret so shocking, it shakes the foundation of their family and changes who they believe they are. 

Mesmerizing from beginning to end, Winter Garden is that rarest of novels — at once an epic love story and an intimate portrait of women poised at the crossroads of their lives. Evocative, lyrically written, and ultimately uplifting, it will haunt the listener long after the last word is spoken.

🌼 

Since I read Home Front in 2012, I have been a longtime fan of Kristin Hannah ; it was that book that first captured my attention. For a while, I had Winter Garden on my reading list. It was the first of her works that I chose to listen to rather than read. When it comes to audiobooks, I'm usually picky, but Susan Eriksen did an outstanding job and made the book come to life. I felt as if I was being transformed into Nina, Meredith, and Anya’s lives. I'm still thinking about the story even after finishing the book last night. It's one of those novels that I regret not reading sooner. 

Although the story moved a little slowly in the first few pages, it quickly picked up. It eventually got to the point where I had to push myself to stop reading so I could focus on studying. I adored every character, although at first, I wasn't sure about Anya and worried that she was going insane, just like Meredith and Nina assumed. The current story and Anya's story are both wonderful, but Anya's story captivated me more and I couldn't get enough of it. I can't even begin to comprehend going through something like that, there were so many different feelings there. I’m still going through the emotions, hours after reading the book. 

That conclusion... I didn't anticipate that. There is more that I can say but I don’t want to post any spoilers for the readers that haven’t read the book. One of the best books I have read this year is Winter Garden , which I strongly recommend to everyone who loves historical fiction. But get ready for a roller coaster of emotions.