teapartyprincess's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Have you ever sat on a Sunday afternoon and put on the Drama channel and spent the whole afternoon caught up in a Catherine Cookson drama, drinking endless cups of tea? It's a fantastic act of self-care ,but sometimes you've seen The Rag Nymph a few too many times and you need something different. That's where The Winter Promise comes in.
It was raining outside when I first picked up this book.
I had a fresh cup of tea, a virtual fireplace crackling away in the background, a blanket across my lap. The big light was off, the lamps were lit, and I turned the first page.
I was glad of the hot drink and the blanket because I got chills from the vivid descriptions. I could feel the snow, the unforgiving wind, the chill of a draught. I almost sighed when I read about Opal making that first pot of tea, taking a sip myself. And I was hooked. So much happens in just the first fifty pages that I was pretty breathless reading them.
The story evolves slowly, and yet the pace is incredible. So much happens to every character, and their story arcs seem so different. As a family, Opal, Charlie, and Susie are so similar, and yet as the story dips in and out of their lives they have very distinct voices and personalities.
Opal is absolutely the main character, and my heart broke for her over and over again. She's so lovely and nice and she cares so much, and what she goes through would break most. She's resilient and determined and I loved her for it. She is the perfect main character for a saga, and I could happily read about her forever. All she wants is her family back together, and she does what she thinks is best. She is manipulated at her lowest point and my heart aches for her.
Charlie is... Well, he tries his best. But he's a bit flighty and he's not the type to stop and think properly before he acts. Despite all he's been through he's still a bit of a dreamer. And it was frustrating.
Susie kind of falls on her feet, and it's difficult not to like her. She's warm and fed for the most part, and her hardships are generally glossed over. She doesn't truly understand the horror of what surrounds her at times, and she's always focused on finding her way back to Opal.
There are times that the story had me gorgeously frustrated: when they were so close and yet so far, when I wanted to shake Charlie, when I wanted to wrap Opal up and keep her safe.
This book spans sixteen fraught years, and it is a Journey. I was hooked, I couldn't stop turning the pages. It's almost 500 pages long and yet I read it in a single day, switching from tea to red wine as the story progressed. I felt a little bit broken in the best of ways when it ended.
The Winter Promise felt a bit like the very best of Catherine Cookson, like the best bits of The Dwelling Place crossed with The Glass Virgin. It was outstanding, and you can easily see why Rosie Goodwin was the first author to be allowed to follow on from some Catherine Cookson stories. I couldn't recommend this book, and this author, more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, and Sexual assault
leighannsherwin's review against another edition
4.0
After the mixed bag of the days of the week series, it's onto a new series, similar to days of the week in that each story stands on it's own and I'm sure there will be a few overlapping characters. Reverend Lockett from the last series made a brief appearance. The story begins as the four orphaned Sharp children are literally thrown out in the cold following the death of their parents. The two youngest, two year old Jack and six year old Susie are already I'll with the fever that took their parents. They trudge through a raging blizzard until they find shelter in a run down cottage. The two older children Opal who is either 16 or 17 and Charlie 14 or 15, try to make a life in the old cottage, but Opal becomes ill too. Desperate Charlie drops the two youngest at the workhouse. When Opal recovers and they go to get them back they are told Jack has died and Susie adopted. Trying to make ends meet Charlie turns to stealing, which troubles him. Then he is caught not stealing but trying to return a wallet and shipped off to Australia. Opal is devastated, the magistrate who charged Charlie, Henry sets his sights on Opal as his next wife and gets his mother to take her on as a companion. From here the story branches out into three narratives told from each of the surviving Sharp children's perspective. Susie treated as a live doll by her spoiled air head mother, lives in fear of her cruel nanny and longs to find her siblings again. Charlie brutally abused on the convict ship lands on his feet when the ship's captain intervenes after a harsh punishment and soon finds himself working for the governor in charge of prisoner. Opal has it the toughest it seems, for while at first she enjoys her life with the spunky Mrs. King, her son the lying, creepy and well basically evil Henry has taken a shine to her and uses every manipulation tactic he can to get her to marry him. While they each face hardship Opal's story was tough to read at times. The triple narrative kept the pages turning as you had to find out what happens next and it was sometimes two or three chapters before you did. I wish it had been written that way throughout, one chapter Opal, the next Charlie, then Susie all the way through it does sometimes but not always and frankly I needed a break from Opal and the constant troubles and was a little disappointed that we couldn't see Susie tending to her mother while she was sick despite the way she treated her. In the end though it all works out for them. I cried a little at the ending, but I am feeling super emotional these days. It was a great start to the series, different from the days of the week, having all three Sharp children as main characters made it easier to read and harder to put down. It did drag a bit toward the end, but not too much. Hopefully this series will continue to be as good or get even better and not have that rotten ending that days of the week did.
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