When the man who Addie considers a father needs a transplant to save his life, she finds herself at Tonquin Lake. There, she finds secrets and mysteries that tie to the past.
In 1943 France, Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker who finds herself with the dangerous task of secreting twelve Jewish children to safety.
My Review of The Winter Rose
The Winter Rose is a split-time novel that tells the story of Addie and Grace and the characters who are intertwined in both time periods. Sometimes, the timelines in split-time novels can get confusing but this book flowed well and the characters were sufficiently distinct that you didn’t get them confused in your head.
The Characters in The Winter Rose
It was interesting to watch the two stories play out until the two timelines merged into one. The Winter Rose will remind readers that sometimes our memories aren’t as accurate as we would like them to be. Also, our experiences can change us for good or for evil.
Readers will be reminded that regardless of the circumstances of our lives, God has not left us alone. He is capable of redeeming the broken mess of our lives to create a miracle. There was also a strong theme of being a light and reflecting our Creator.
I received an advanced reader’s copy from the publisher through NetGalley; a positive review was not required.
About The Winter Rose
In this gripping WWII time-slip novel from the author whose books have been called “propulsive” and a “must-read” (Publishers Weekly), Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker who works tirelessly in Vichy France to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. After crossing the treacherous Pyrénées, Grace returns home to Oregon with a brother and sister whose parents were lost during the war. Though Grace and her husband love Élias and Marguerite as their own, echoes of Grace’s past and trauma from the Holocaust tear the Tonquin family apart.
More than fifty years after they disappear, Addie Hoult arrives at Tonquin Lake, hoping to find the Tonquin family. For Addie, the mystery is a matter of life and death for her beloved mentor Charlie, who is battling a genetic disease. Though Charlie refuses to discuss his ties to the elusive Tonquins, finding them is the only way to save his life and mend the wounds from his broken past.
Purchase The Winter Rose on Amazon | Tyndale
About Melanie Dobson
Writing fiction is Melanie Dobson’s excuse to explore abandoned houses, travel to unique places, and spend hours reading old books and journals. The award-winning author of almost thirty books, Melanie enjoys stitching together both time-slip and historical stories including The Curator’s Daughter, Memories of Glass, and the Legacy of Love novels (legacyofloveseries.com). Five of her novels have received a Carol Award for historical fiction, Catching the Wind’s audiobook won the 2018 Audie for Inspirational Novel, and The Black Cloister was ForeWord’s Book of the Year for Religious Fiction. Her next time-slip novel, The Winter Rose, comes out in January 2022.
Melanie and her husband, Jon, have two daughters. After moving numerous times with Jon’s work, the Dobson family has finally settled near Portland, Oregon, and they love to travel and hike in both the mountains and the cliffs above the Pacific. When Melanie isn’t writing, she enjoys exploring ghost towns and dusty back roads, dancing, and reading stories with her girls.
More information about Melanie and her books is available at her website (melaniedobson.com) or at the following social media platforms:
Facebook.com/MelanieDobsonFiction
Instagram/MelBDobson