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Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - Winter Solstice
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List Price: $7.99
Our Price: $7.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780312978389
ISBN: 0312978383
Label: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 504
Publication Date: 2001-05-15
Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks
Release Date: 2001-05-01
Studio: St. Martin's Paperbacks
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Editorial Reviews:
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In Winter Solstice Rosamunde Pilcher brings her readers into the lives of five very different people....
Elfrida Phipps, once of London's stage, moved to the English village of Dibton in hopes of making a new life for herself. Gradually she settled into the comfortable familiarity of village life -- shopkeepers knowing her tastes, neighbors calling her by name -- still she finds herself lonely.
Oscar Blundell gave up his life as a musician in order to marry Gloria. They have a beautiful daughter, Francesca, and it is only because of their little girl that Oscar views his sacrificed career as worthwhile.
Carrie returns from Australia at the end of an ill-fated affair with a married man to find her mother and aunt sharing a home and squabbling endlessly. With Christmas approaching, Carrie agrees to look after her aunt's awkward and quiet teenage daughter, Lucy, so that her mother might enjoy a romantic fling in America.
Sam Howard is trying to pull his life back together after his wife has left him for another. He is without home and without roots, all he has is his job. Business takes him to northern Scotland, where he falls in love with the lush, craggy landscape and set his sights on a house.
It is the strange rippling effects of a tragedy that will bring these five characters together in a large, neglected estate house near the Scottish fishing town of Creagan.
It is in this house, on the shortest day of the year, that the lives of five people will come together and be forever changed. Rosamunde Pilcher's long-awaited return to the page will warm the hearts of readers both old and new. Winter Solstice is a novel of love, loyalty and rebirth.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Even better than "The Shell Seekers"
Comment: Yeah, it's chick-lit but not overly so and is simply a great read. Think Maeve Binchy but way better.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not her best...
Comment: On a bad day, Rosamunde Pilcher is still a really good writer. But I have to say, it wasn't such a great day when she was writing this one. While books like this are all about happy endings, the twists and turns of the plot in this one are so obvious that halfway through, I could pretty much have told you the entire rest of the story. That might be ok if the characters themselves had any depth or complexity, but they're all pretty much stock characters... the one with the broken heart, the child with uncaring parents, and so on. You could take them out of any other novel, mix them up, and there you are. Not that I didn't enjoy the book... I did, but it's probably the worst of her full length novels. Start with something else; read this when you've run out of other ones.
Customer Rating:
Summary: All time favorite
Comment: I have read all of Rosemunde Pilcher's books and this one is my most favorite. Mostly because the title character and I are of the same age and life situation. My little cottage resembles hers and I felt so closely related to her. I loved the story, and hope there will be more. I wonder if I moved to SW England if my life would be as hers. Such a memorable story.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Scottish Christmas for the reader, with love
Comment: I was completely captivated by Winter Solstice, so much so that I immediately started it all over again and enjoyed it the second time around as well. Winter Solstice tells the story of three loosely connected pairs of people, from three different generations who are thrown together over a snowbound Scottish Christmas. It has elements of romance, but the only couple who gets a happily ever after is the geriatric pair, so it's not a traditional romance. Oscar, the older man, has just suffered the tragic loss of his wife and young daughter. Elfrida, a retired actress, impulsively offers to help him relocate to a small town in Scotland, so far north that the sun rises at 8:45 AM, and by noon people plan their activities to be home before dark. Somehow, Pilcher makes this grim environment seem enchanting and magical. Elfrida's younger cousin and her niece invite themselves for Christmas, having no better option, and the stage is set for an unexpectedly festive holiday for Elfrida and Oscar.
Pilcher has a restrained British narrative that picks out little details of the setting like curtains and appliances and makes each one stand for a way of life. Her description of the Scottish landscape is clearly firsthand and done with tremendous affection. Similarly, her touch with Elfrida's dog Horace is light and the most realistic dog in fiction that I can recall. He's a character of his own without being anthropomorphized.
This is a great book to read in the month of December. If you enjoy Maeve Binchy or Mary Wesley, you'll like this one too. The only negative about Winter Solstice is that it's Pilcher's last book, as she retired after writing it. I may have read other books recently that were more literary, but few that were more pleasing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of those rare books I've read twice
Comment: This book is a perfect cozy, gentle read, and I greatly enjoyed it. The characters are charming and easy to empathize with, the plot is interesting, the pace steady without being too fast or slow, and the ending is very satisfying. Pilcher has always had a wonderful talent for description, and creating characters that are easy to identify with. In this case, the romance between the older couple is touching as well as the one between the younger couple. The little girl is charming without being too treacly. All in all, a great book, especially around Christmas time.
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