The WInters

Author: Lisa Gabriele
Genre: Women's Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Type: Trade Paperback
Pages: 288
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
First Published: October 16, 2018
Opening Lines: "Last night Rebekah tried to murder me again. It had been awhile since I'd had that dream, not since we left Asherley, a place I called home for one winter and the bitterest part of spring, the dream only ever recurring when Max was gone and I'd find myself alone with Dani."

Book Description from GoodReads: A spellbindingly suspenseful new novel set in the moneyed world of the Hamptons, about secrets that refuse to remain buried and consequences that can't be escaped.

After a whirlwind romance, a young woman returns to the opulent, secluded Long Island mansion of her new fiance Max Winter--a wealthy politician and recent widower--and a life of luxury she's never known. But all is not as it appears at the Asherley estate. The house is steeped in the memory of Max's beautiful first wife Rebekah, who haunts the young woman's imagination and feeds her uncertainties, while his very alive teenage daughter Dani makes her life a living hell. She soon realizes there is no clear place for her in this twisted little family: Max and Dani circle each other like cats, a dynamic that both repels and fascinates her, and he harbors political ambitions with which he will allow no woman--alive or dead--to interfere.

As the soon-to-be second Mrs. Winter grows more in love with Max, and more afraid of Dani, she is drawn deeper into the family's dark secrets--the kind of secrets that could kill her, too. The Winters is a riveting story about what happens when a family's ghosts resurface and threaten to upend everything.

My Rating: 2.5 stars

My Review:

Touted as 'spellbindingly suspenseful', The Winters is a retelling of Daphne de Maurier's Gothic suspense novel, Rebecca. I went into this book without previously reading the original book and, from other reviewers' comments, that may have been a good thing.

While this was a quick read, it wasn't a great read. I wanted a suspense story with a creepy Gothic setting, a cast of characters that would provide loads of secrets and some amazing twists. Unfortunately, this book lacks depth to its plot, characters and a great ending (the Unfortunate Bookish Hat Trick).

I found the characters to be superficial and rather dull (I didn't connect with a'one!), the dialogue sophomoric and a plot that too slooooowly brings readers to a rather lackluster and rushed, much-too-peachy-keen ending. I will say that there were a couple of scenes that made me question what exactly was going on at Asherley, but those weren't enough to make me a fan.

Was it a bad read? No. Did it need more tension, complex characters and an infusion of oomph? Yes, most definitely. Oddly enough, I'm now interested in reading de Maurier's original to see what all the fuss was about.