A review by debtat2
The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

5.0

“Last night Rebekah tried to murder me again.”

How to start a book that insures interest is piqued from the get go! 🤩

I don’t know what has been up with me just lately but I just haven’t been able to get my teeth stuck into any books which was weird and downright worrying, and then I started this one and my readers block was instantly lifted. (Thank You Lisa Gabriele!) So much so that I tore through it in one sitting. Now I’m just suffering sleep deprivation instead 😂

This might be sacrilege to say being an avid reader but …. I have never read Rebecca 😱 But now I think maybe I should remedy that faux pas if this book was anything to go by. So I can’t pass comment to the inspiration or homage to Rebecca just yet but in some respects I think reading The Winters with no comparisons worked to my advantage. Reading it with a fresh pair of eyes and preconceptions there was no expectations and I just thoroughly enjoyed it on its own merit.

The storyline was fascinating as are the characters, even if not all are completely likeable. Told from the main protagonist’s narration, (who remains nameless!) from her life working in the Cayman’s where she meets the handsomely charming Max Winters, their whirlwind romance and her move to his ancestral home, Asherley, in the wealthy Hampton’s to become the new Mrs Winters. Her very own Cinderella, rags to riches fairytale. Or so it would seem!

Max lost his first wife in a tragic accident leaving him to raise his daughter Dani alone and being as normal as a privileged teenager can be she is less than enthusiastic about her fathers new wife to be. But is it as simple as not liking her new stepmum? Not wanting her mother to be replaced and another woman walking in her mothers shoes so to speak?

At every turn around the opulent Asherley she is faced with the previous Mrs Winters, Rebekah’s presence. From the hundreds of photos of Rebekah that Dani keeps on display of her mother and their happy family to Rebekah’s room which is still untouched our heroine feels almost compelled to compare herself to the stunning woman who came before her. Even the wedding is planned into being the opposite to Max’s first one.

As the wedding draws ever nearer the tensions between Dani, Max and the new stepmother ratchets up even further bringing with it a few twists and turns along the way. Will the wedding proceed or will Dani’s behaviour call a halt to the proceedings and frighten her new stepmum into leaving Asherley for good?

I absolutely loved this book and thoroughly enjoyed it start to finish and could quite happily read it all over again 😀

Whether you have read Rebecca or not this is a great read and I can see it hitting the top ten when it’s published on 31 Oct 2018 on kindle and 15 Nov 2018 in hardback as it really is that good!