Winter Rose [Paperback]

Patricia Mckillip (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2002

'They said later that he rode into the village on a horse the colour of buttermilk. But I saw him first - as a fall of light. And then as something shaping out of the light. So it seemed. There was a blur of gold: his hair. And then I blinked and saw his face more clearly.' From that moment, Rois is obsessed with Corbett Lynn. His pale green eyes fill her thoughts and her dreams are consumed by tales of his family's dark past. Of son's murdering fathers, of homes fallen to ruin, and of a curse that, as winter draws in, is crawling from the frozen forest to engulf them all.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Winter Rose begins as the seemingly simple story of Rois and Laurel Melior and their understandable fascination with young Corbet Lynn, returned to rebuild his abandoned ancestral home, Lynn Hall. Laurel is drawn to Corbet's beauty, Rois to the mystery of his past. But the past holds more than one mystery, and as Rois fights her way into the wood around Lynn Hall, seeking answers for herself, Laurel, and Corbet, she risks losing everything, for all of them, forever.

Traces of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market, of Tam Lin, and of a dozen other legends and tales color Rois's story. Patricia McKillip's consummate mastery of language means that every word counts in a complex, sweetly painful story of human love and timeless, indifferent power. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Woods-wise and free-spirited, Rois Melior is the opposite of her sensible sister, Laurel. But both Rois, who narrates, and Laurel fall under the spell of the stranger who enters their world. Decades ago, according to village gossip, Tearle Lynn murdered his father and mysteriously disappeared. Now Tearle's son, Corbet, has come home to rebuild crumbling Lynn Hall. Despite her attraction to Corbet, Rois is warned by her otherworldly senses that he is not what he seems. As Laurel falls hard for Corbet, Rois searches for the truth about the Lynns, but the answers she finds lead only to more questions. When Corbet disappears, Laurel begins to sicken and fade. To save her sister as well as Corbet, Rois will have to come to terms with the secret of her own changeling identity. The pace here is deliberate and sure, with no false steps; the writing is richly textured and evocative. McKillip (The Book of Atrix Wolf, and winner in 1975 of a World Fantasy Award for her novel The Forgotten Beasts of Eld) weaves a dense web of desire and longing, human love and inhuman need.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Little Brown Childrens Books (November 7, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904233074
• ISBN-13: 978-1904233077
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,033,804 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A poem, a riddle, a dream, August 17, 2000

By 

"sarasarah" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Rose (Paperback)

Ms. McKillip has woven magic into this book. A tale of falling sunlight, drowning roses, shadowy green eyes, sweet perfumed water, cold winter days, half-seen images: of fey and the ordinary, of a hidden secret, a hidden sorrow in the Lynn legends. This is the story of Rois, the untamed, witch-like daughter of a farmer, and how, by loving the fey Corbet Lynn and ferreting out his secrets, following him through dreams and reality, she finally becomes human. A poignant tale, I cried at times, swept away by the emotional power of Ms. McKillip's poetic prose. I have never read anything so beautiful. So sad. I love this book very much. Not only was it amazing trying to follow Rois and Corbet through realms beyond, but trying to distinguish what was dream and what was reality. The imagery used, the symbolism, was so otherworldly in its significance, in its beauty, that I was awed as well as moved much of the time. I wish Patricia McKillip's other books were as this one. By making it a first-person-narrative you never lose focus of the character while becoming adrift in the world. Again, this really was very beautiful (there is no other word; it's like a melody that stirs the soul) and I was spell-bound.

30 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Vision of a Tale, February 14, 2003

By 

Brittney Hinson "garnet17" (Ashford, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Rose (Paperback)

How can two sisters be so different? Laurel is beautiful, proper, thoughtful, and utterly sensible. She calmly cares for her widowed father and plans her wedding to her childhood sweetheart. Rois is a wild freespirit who roams the woods by day and sometimes by night searching for something even she could not name. But they soon discover that they have one thing in common...his name is Corbet Lynn...

Corbet returns to his father's childhood home and begins restoration work amid a storm of rumors and gossip. Corbet's grandfather was murdered in that house and most believe that Corbet's father was the guilty party. But all know, whether his son murdered him or not, that the old man used his last breath to place a dreadful curse on his son...and his son's descendents.

Almost as soon as Rois sets eyes upon the young man, she is determined to unravel the mysteries of his past. But her fascination with his unusual history is soon replaced by feelings that are much stronger. She never expected that she would give her heart so easily...or that her feelings would not be returned when she did. It would seem that Corbet has taken a fancy to Laurel...who returns his feelings whole heartedly, fiancee or no.

But Rois can not back out of the picture as easily as she got into it. As the curse begins to bear fruit, Rois finds herself tangled in its web. She realizes that it is up to her to save the man she loves...even if she saves him so that he can freely love another...her own sister. What Rois didn't count on was the truths she would learn about her own past...and her surprising destiny...

Reading this book was like looking at a beautiful painting. The word pictures are marvelous and the emotions are almost too real. Readers are swept away in a tide of romance, jealousy, hatred, and mystery. Fantasy readers will love it!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The quest for erotic and personal truth, May 1, 2005

By 

Avant-Captain_Nemo (Aboard my black outlaw submarine cruising through the sewers in a city near you.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Winter Rose (Paperback)

Patricia McKillip is one of America's best writers and in this book she returns to a theme dear to her heart - the quest for personal identity. The quest is carried on through language that is so profound and developed one feels like one is hallucinating while reading the story. Wrapped in clouds of glory, beauty, and mystery one follows the narrator Rois who knows that truth is at the bottom of a well. Others fall for the mysterious stranger Corbet Lynn in the most superficial way but Rois seeks to penetrate the glamor to the secret within Corbet's courtesy and personal beauty. This story tells us that the erotic quest is fulfilled in being true to ourselves despite the gnawing logic of the temptations that would seek to mislead us from our chosen path.
Patricia Mckillip began writing of these themes with her epic fantasy classic "The Riddle Master" trilogy. Over time she has transformed herself into a magician of words as good as her contemporaries like Catherynne Valente (The Labyrinth) and Greer Ilene Gilman (Moonwise). These three crowned ladies are the greatest prose stylists since Vladimir Nabokov.
Five stars for Ms. McKillip - each one made of the purest silver!