The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

From the Publisher

The Winter Rose begins in London in the summer of 1900. It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel. Time has passed, places and people have changed. And yet, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin. Reformers, moved by the plight of the poor, work to better their conditions. Among them is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones. Newly graduated from medical school, India joins a practice in Whitechapel and tends to its people. With the help of her influential fiance" Freddie Lytton, an up-and-coming Liberal MP" she works to shut down the area's opium dens that destroy both body and soul. Her selfless activities better her patients' lives and bring her immense gratification, but unfortunately, they also bring her into direct conflict with East London's ruling crime lord" Sid Malone. Some of the characters from Donnelly's Booksense pick, The Tea Rose, including Fiona and Joe, appear as minor characters in The Winter Rose, and Malone, as readers of The Tea Rose will remember, is Fiona Finnegan's lost brother. Born Charlie Finnegan, he was separated from his family after his mother was murdered and survived the hard streets of East London by becoming a criminal. India is not good for business and at first, Malone wants her out. But against all odds, India and Sid fall in love. Different in nearly every way, they share one thing in common" they're both wounded souls. Their love is impossible and they know it, yet they cling to itdesperately. Lytton, India's fiance, will stop at nothing to marry India and gain her family's fortune. Fractious criminal underlings and rivals conspire against Sid. When Sid is finally betrayed by one of his own, he must flee London to save his life. Mistakenly thinking him dead, India, pregnant and desperate, marries Freddie to provide a father for hers and Sid's child. India and Sid must each make a terrible sacrifice" a sacrifice that will change them both forever. One that will lead them to other lives, and other places. . . and perhaps" one distant, bittersweet day" back to each other.

The Washington Post - Claudia Deane

If Jennifer Donnelly doesn't watch out, she's going to get a reputation. With publication of The Winter Rose, she proves that her first fast, fat and fun historical romance—2002's The Tea Rose—wasn't a fluke…she's a master of pacing and plot, with enough high points scattered throughout to keep your pulse racing, from a manhunt in a rat-filled London tunnel to a child missing on the African plains (the book's final section takes place in Kenya). I became so consumed with finding out how it would end that I read the last third at near-choking speed. I just had to know: happy or not happy? I imagine you will, too.

Publishers Weekly

In late Victorian London, idealistic new medical school graduate India Selwyn Jones goes to work at a clinic in the city's poorest neighborhood, much to the dismay of her aristocratic mother and ambitious fiancé, political up-and-comer Freddie Lytton. The squalor isa bit much for India, but she manages to keep her emotions under control until she meets underworld crime boss Sid Malone. Sid begins as India's nemesis, becomes her patient and ends up something much more than that. What India doesn't know is that Sid is the brother of tea heiress Fiona Bristow, wife of self-made, highly principled businessman Joseph Bristow. What Sid doesn't know is that India's fiancé is as ruthless as Sid's most ruthless henchman, willing to commit theft, betrayal and even murder to launch his career, force India out of hers and bring down Sid in the process. In typical epic style, Donnelly (The Tea Rose) alternates India's story with Sid's, Freddie's, Joseph's and Fiona's, leading the reader through turn-of-the-century England from the Houses of Parliament to ale houses and whore houses, and from London to Africa and beyond. It's all familiar stuff, but Donnelly's passion and energy will keep readers turning the many pages, rooting for India and the gruff underworld boss she loves. (Jan.)

Laurie A. Cavanaugh - Library Journal

The second book in a planned trilogy (after The Tea Rose), this story of notorious East London criminal Sid Malone (formerly Charlie Finnegan, believed dead) and crusading woman doctor India Selwyn Jones takes many melodramatic turns between their first antagonistic meeting in 1900 and their final passionate rendezvous in 1907. Fighting their desire for each other, Sid struggles to go straight, and India devotes herself to healing poor women and children. By the time India thinks to break off her engagement to Freddie, the handsome, politically ambitious schemer who only wants her family's money, it's too late-she's trapped in a loveless marriage, and Sid is on the run. Fiona and Joe, characters from the trilogy's first book, figure prominently, but this book stands on its own. The author includes interesting details related to medical practices of the time, but her main characters have contemporary attitudes, and the history goes down easy. Readers looking for a historical page-turner along the lines of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substancewon't be disappointed. Recommended for public libraries.

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