Read This!: Winter Garden

By Kristin Hannah

I have seen Kristin Hannah books around for awhile and on me and Mr.'s Borders spree, I picked this one up. The description seemed promising.

Winter Garden focuses on the story of Anya and her two daughters, Meredith and Nina. Anya is a Russian immigrant. Cold and unloving when the girls were little, they grew up believing that their mother didn't care for them. However, once they start to understand their mother's past, they begin to understand why she is the way she is.

Now, I have to say, I did not like the first 100 pages of this book. They annoyed the living daylights out of me. I am not hard to please when it comes to books and recommend almost everything I read. This had the potential to become the second Don't Read This! on this blog. But, alas the story picked up after the first 100 pages. Why did I hate it? Well, let me see. The author felt the need to describe everyone in detail focusing on their clothing.


"He stood up in his jeans and Pearl Jam t-shirt".


"She ran down the street wearing her back track pants, white t-shirt, and black hoodie".


It got on my last nerve. These are not actual quotes from the book but convey the idea.

Moreover, I didn't feel the need to spend 100 pages setting up this story.

Anya is cold and distant. Nina does not want to let anyone get close to her but is determined to hear her mother's story. Meredith is constantly caring for her parents and everyone else, not letting anyone, including her husband, in. Their dad is the only thing holding these women together. I managed this in 4 sentences. Why she had to keep reiterating this over 100 pages to the point I was getting annoyed, I don't know. It was definitely beating a dead horse as was the dying of one of the characters. It took so long, it got to the point where I was like "SERIOUSLY???!!!"

Reading the first 100 pages, I felt the writing was amateurish and almost like a romance novel.

That being said, once Anya starts telling her story, I thought the book was really interesting. Her story was extremely engrossing and didn't have the heaviness and awkwardness of the earlier part of the book.

I will add also that it is interesting that of the books I have read recently, this is the third one where the life of a character is depicted via a fairy tale. This was not intentional on my behalf. None of the three books would have let you known from their descriptions that this was the case. Just a fun fact.

My only other comment is that I did feel Evan got cheated in the end. If you read the book, you will know what I mean. I kind of felt bad for him for all he did for Anya with how the book ended.