I don’t know why, but I’ve been seeing Kristin Hannah pop up a fair bit on bookstagram, which made me want to reread her books. Happily, I found out that I own Winter Garden, and happily dove into this.

Winter Garden is the story of Meredith, Nina, and their distant mother. After their father, who functioned as the heart of the family, dies, the careful balance he created is upset. Nina, who spent her lives seeking the perfect photo, is back and determined to get her mother to finish the story. Meredith is losing herself in work. And Anya, their mother, is acting stranger than usual.

I cannot remember the last time I read this novel, but I found myself tearing up by the end of the book. It’s pretty amazing how compelling this story is – I thought that because I remembered how the story went, I would be unaffected by Anya’s tale, but nope, that does not happen. Honestly, Kristin Hannah does such a great job of setting the scene and showing how badly Meredith and Nina need to know their mother that I was captured by the story all over again.

Dual-narrative stories tend to have one strong story and one that acts as a framing device, but I thought that both storylines were pulled off very well in this. I felt equally invested in Meredith, Nina, and Anya getting to know one another as I was in Vera’s story of her prince and their increasingly difficult lives.

[Spoiler Alert!!] The only thing that I didn’t quite like this round was the ending where it seemed like Vera passes away. I get that she had her great love in Russia, but she did seem to love her second husband and she says she loves her daughters, so it’s rather sad that only her first husband comes to take her away. She did mention she loves her daughters, but it felt like her second husband was her anchor for most of her life and he should get more credit in her heart.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and I’m glad I own it. If you’re looking for a novel focusing on the bonds of family, this might be the book for you.