A review by leighannsherwin
The Winter Promise by Rosie Goodwin

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.