Customer Reviews

Winterwood

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3 star:		(1)
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Fans of romantic suspense divas like Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart must re-discover Dorothy Eden, especially "Winterwood", a book that I shall never forget. Full of vivid characters, and written in a clear, fast-moving style, it will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you giggle endlessly at times. Excellent reading. I am going to read all of Ms. Eden's books and I am sure I am in for a treat!

WINTERWOOD (Gothic Romance-Lavinia Hurst-Venice/England-Victorian) - Okay
Eden, Dorothy - Standalone
St. Martin's Press, 1967, US Hardcover - ISBN: N/A

First Sentence: From the moment of leaving the hotel the enchantment of the night had grown.

Due to an event in her past, Lavinia Hurst is in Venice as companion to her jealous cousin. On a rare night at the Opera, Lavinia sees a family in the next box with an attractive man, Daniel Meryon, his wife, Charlotte, and their young daughter, Flora, who is crippled. They are there to take Charlotte's wealthy, elderly and infirm great-aunt, Lady Tameson, back Winterwood, their home in England.

With Flora's developing attachment to Lavinia, and her attraction to Daniel, she travels, and stays with them as Flora's companion. Aunt Tameson dies, after changing her will, witnessed by Lavinia and a maid, leaving everything to Flora. Is someone now trying to kill Flora in order to gain the money?

In general, I enjoy gothic/romantic/suspense and this was the first book by Dorothy Eden I've read. The first problem I had was with the attraction between the protagonist and a married man. Fortunately, they did not act on that attraction in a significant way. My greater problem was I felt Daniel let Lavinia down in two significant ways; first, in not supporting her in a couple of instances and, even more importantly, by not letting her know he was aware of her past and it didn't matter to him. I also didn't feel the author did a very good job of explaining why Jonathan was in the story until the very end.

Where the author did excel, in my opinion, was creating a sense of place. Her descriptions of Venice and Winterwood were wonderfully evocative.

There was some suspense and a very good twist at the end but not enough to make me love the book.

Winterwood honestly is one of the best books I've read. All those fans of historical romance and suspense will LOVE this book. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and has an unbelievable twist at the end causing the lovers to finally allow there restrained love to burst and blossom. (contains incredibly hot guy like Mr Darcy) :)

this is a suspense story about a penniless young woman named lavinia hurst. at the start of the novel,lavinia is a hired companion to her wealthy cousin and while in venice,lavinia chances to meet the meryon family who later come to know lavinia and persuade her to leave the cousin's employ and come with them to,"winterwood"(the family home in england) and be a nanny for their wheelchair bound daughter,flora.
life is pleasant at winterwood -for a time-but eveything turns around after the death of lady tameson(mrs meryon's
great aunt). there are questions about the new will aunt tameson wrote leaving everything to flora. what will
happen to all these people? and who is trying to endanger the newly rich flora?...someone wants flora out of the picture,so to speak.
i thought the dialog was good but,i had difficulty with the exact time period in the book. i think it was the 1850s? there are many descriptions of women's clothing but,nothing to indicate(when)? there is a plot twist near the end that is clever. overall it was ok and there is nothing racy or scary in the story. it is nice afternoon reading.