Book Review: The Winters

THE WINTERS | Lisa Gabriele
10.16.2018 | Viking
Rating: 5/5 stars

A young woman has been swept up in a whirlwind romance that transports her from desolate island life to a secluded mansion in Long Island known as the Asherly Estate. Max Winters is the man that every little girl dreams of as their future husband. He is charming and sweet. He is also a wealthy politician that can provide a life of luxury few are familiar with. The house is steeped in the memory of Max’s stunning first wife, Rebekah, who tragically met her end in a car accident. Haunting the estate through her memory and their teenage daughter, Dani, the presence of Rebekah starts to make the new soon-to-be Mrs. Winters grow paranoid.

The Winters family isn’t what they seem to be on the surface. Dani is a troubled child. She is hellbent on making her father’s future bride’s life miserable. As the tensions grow it becomes clear that there are buried secrets in this family’s past. The trouble is that the truth is hard to tell apart from fiction.

I’ve never read Daphne du Maurier’s REBECCA, despite it being one of those classics I swear I’m going to read some day soon. When I heard that Lisa Gabriele was putting out a retelling I knew I wanted to take the time to read both. Well fast forward almost a year after being gifted my copy and several bookworms telling me not worry about reading the classic first and here I am wanting to yell from the rooftops how much I loved THE WINTERS!

This book is so different from the mysteries I typically pick up. The mystery isn’t front and center the minute the book picks up. In fact, the reader is dropped into the story of how Max Winters meets his fiance in their epic Carribean love fest. Everything moves so fast and you want to tell them to slow down and get to know each other. How can this woman want to move to another country with a man she just met? As someone who doesn’t read romance I was a bit worried I would groan and dread these parts of the book, but I found myself needing to know more with the mindset that I knew trouble in paradise was coming.

Once we arrive as Asherly Estate things start to get wild! There is Dani, the teenage daughter of Max and his former wife, who has a reputation for being wild, unfiltered, and a bit unhinged. She, rightfully so, is opposed to this quickie marriage. The tension surrounding Dani and her interactions with her father and his future wife are captivating and unsettling. These interactions, along with the house itself combine to form a very tense setting that made me unable to stop reading this book.

One of my absolute favorite parts about THE WINTERS is the reader never learns the first name of the future Mrs. Winters. It’s something that took me a bit of time to realize and then when I did catch on I thought I must have simply missed her name somewhere. Nope!

Final thoughts…regardless of if you’ve read the classic or not, this one deserves a slot on your TBR! This is the perfect moody, tense, family drama filled read for anyone!

This book is available to buy from: Amazon | Book Depository

Disclosure: What Jess Reads is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This in no way influences my opinion of the above book.