2011 book 199

Jennifer Donnelly's The Winter Rose
The sequel to The Tea Rose picks up a few years after the last one left off--it's now 1900 in London and we're back in the thick of things with Fiona Finnegan and her family (though a likable lady doctor and a Jewish nurse and her relatives have been added to the mix). At times, these books are frustrating to read--Donnelly keeps adding all these artificial obstacles to various people getting together and dragging it out--it's like a bad romantic comedy half the time with everyone falling in love at first sight but then beset by miscommunications and bad timing. I mean, this book is 720 pages long, and it's a lot to slog through to get to the inevitable happy ending. Still, I loved the characters (except for the ones who were assholes) and really did want to know what would happen to them--and Donnelly threw in a few surprises toward the end (as a reward for her diligent readers?). I'm off to read the third one now, b/c dammit, I need to see how things end up. B/B+.