The Winter Rose [Kindle Edition] Author: Jennifer Donnelly | Language: English | ISBN:
B0012095E4 | Format: PDF, EPUB
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Download electronic versions of selected books Download The Winter Rose from 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link It has been twelve years since a dark, murderous figure stalked the alleys and courts of Whitechapel. And yet, in the summer of 1900, East London is still poor, still brutal, still a shadow city to its western twin. Among the reformers is an idealistic young woman named India Selwyn-Jones, recently graduated from medical school. With the help of her influential fiancé--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. 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 it desperately. Lytton, India's fiancé, 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. Direct download links available for Download The Winter Rose
- File Size: 1244 KB
- Print Length: 720 pages
- Publisher: Hyperion (January 8, 2008)
- Sold by: Hachette Book Group
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0012095E4
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #35,528 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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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