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Author: Visit Amazon's Jennifer Donnelly Page | Language: English | ISBN: 1401307469 | Format: PDF, EPUB

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From 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 is a 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.)
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Review

"I loved this book. It is truly seductive, hard to put down, and filled with mystery, secret passions, unique locations, and a most engaging heroine. India Selwyn Jones is a new breed of woman in London in 1900, a doctor practicing in the grim East End, and she captivates from the first page to the last." -- --Barbara Taylor Bradford, author of The Ravenscar Dynasty and A Woman of Substance --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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• Paperback: 720 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; Reprint edition (January 6, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401307469
• ISBN-13: 978-1401307462
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

I loved the first novel in this series so much that when I heard the second book had been published in England years ahead of when it was coming out here I ordered it from the U.K. and waited eagerly for it to arrive in the mail. When it finally came I was so happy I did a little dance.

I admit to having very high expectations of this novel, but they were met in spades. "The Winter Rose" did not disappoint. Just like its predecessor, "The Winter Rose" is exciting, romantic, atmospheric and packed full of little historical details that make the words spring to life off the page.

You may not want to read past this point if you haven't read "The Tea Rose."

In "The Winter Rose" we meet up again with Charlie Finnegan, who at the end of "The Tea Rose" was discovered not to be dead, but living under the name of Sid Malone as a crime boss in London. Though his sister Fiona tries to get Charlie to come back to his family, he has lived too long as Sid to feel he can rejoin society.

Enter India Jones a recent graduate of medical school. Though she is from a highly privileged family, India wants to practice medicine in one of London's worst neighborhoods-White Chapel. Here she meets Sid and saves his life. Though she's disgusted by his life of crime, India soon finds herself going to Sid to procure birth control for her poorest patients-something that "modern" doctors will not prescribe or allow patients to have. A bond soon forms between the two that evolves into something more than friendship-despite India's privileged, long time fiancé.

The book started out so well and promising that I couldn't believe the plot elements and drastic character changes that took place long after I got hooked on the story and the characters.

I think it is one thing to change a heroine from a subjugated, humiliated door mat with zero self confidence to a free, unconventional and independent woman with a will of her own but quite another thing if it is the other way around. India starts as a free spirited, extraordinarily strong woman far ahead of her time but is then inexplicably turned into a meek, conventional doormat who prostitutes herself in the worst manner possible (in a figurative sense). She makes -knowingly and with her eyes wide open!!!-such a self destructive choice that I would have found it more consistent had she committed suicide because what she did was a slow sort of suicide anyway.

Not only didn't I recognize the heroine anymore I completely and utterly loathed her. I wished that she would have been eaten away by a sand storm but alas no such luck for me... The worst thing for me was not even that the author basically killed off her main character (again in a figurative sense), the worst thing was that it was so completely unnecessary.

The plot would have been perfectly fine if India had made another much more character-consistent choice. Besides another choice-any other choice!-would have been much more realistic. There were so many possibilities but the author chose the worst alley open to her. She completely dragged an actually lovable, admirable character through the mud. It drove me absolutely nuts.

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