Lisa Gabriele | THE WINTERS

Plot (via Goodreads):

After a whirlwind romance, a young woman returns to the opulent, secluded Long Island mansion of her new fiancé 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.

Review:

It is said there are over one hundred thousand stars in the sky. If each star represented a book on Earth, The Winters would be Sirius A - the brightest star. The Winters is a modern tale of love and obsession clouded in a haunting blanket of fog that is not only enveloping, but sinister and beautiful. Lisa Gabriele's writing features a gothic prose that is both dazzling and compulsive with characters that are stunning and pragmatic. This novel is one that will lure you in, terrify you, and leave you breathless in its wake - and that's only on the surface.

The beginning to this novel is palpitating and alluring, reminding the reader that this is far from the kind of story that leaves everyone happy. The plot to this novel is both picturesque and poignant, yet mystifying and chilling. Gabriele takes her time seducing the reader into unfamiliar territory as we follow an unnamed narrator into her journey of love and desire. I was blown away with the beginning to this novel and I really felt like I was in a hazy dreamland floating along with this character as she meets Max Winters and begins this journey into her own love story. This novel starts off so innocent that I was completely coaxed into the story of these two very distinct characters and how they became to be. As I traveled deeper into the novel, the clouds began to swarm and that hazy dreamland was swept away with a gust of wind and the setting and mood of the novel slowly began to transcend into this gothic story that immediately captivated me. As if I wasn't already hooked, I was awe-inspired by how Gabriele took me from sunshine dreamland into Long Island, where everything was gray, clinical, and drafty. The imagery with this novel is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing? You can feel yourself on the heels of this unnamed narrator as she gets lost into a mystery of the novel. The curse? You're right there with her and it is bone-chilling. The pacing to this novel is downright skillful and effective. While there's this ominous cloud that sort of settles over you as you progress into the story, Gabriele wastes no time bringing her reader to the point of no return. By the time things start to get creepy, you're invested. You crave knowledge, answers, and these characters grasp you and refuse to let go.

Speaking of characters, I was astonished at how realistic these characters were. If you want to be immersed in a novel that has three-dimensional characters that not only rise off the pages, but look you dead in the eye and draw you into this world - this is your book. I was well invested and too far into the novel to even consider putting it down before I realized I was loving a narrator who hasn't even been named. I could feel the personalities of every single ooze off each word and leave a cloud of perfume every time they exited a page. A haunting giggle, a sinister stare, a cold shoulder - it's all there and it is front and center with these characters. Max Winters is brooding and beguiling. Dani Winters is problematic and intimidating. The forces that radiate off from the characters in this novel not only play well with each other but at times totally combust with tension. I couldn't get enough. Not only were they poetically written, but you watch them grow and get a sense of their secrets and flaws as the novel advances. 

If this ravishing and evocative novel were a carriage, the characters would be the horses and Gabriele the coachman - controlling every whip, turn, and plunging her reader into a gothic abyss. Reading this novel was like transcending into a tornado of deceit and harrowing mystery...and I didn't want to touch ground. From the moment I began the first page I was bewitched by writing that is so stunning and a plot that was ethereal, I didn't want to come up for air. Devoured in less than 24 hours, this novel is the one you want on your nightstand to evade your dreams and abduct you completely. Let it. I know I won't be forgetting this one soon and after that final chapter, I won't want to. 

Special thanks to Viking Books for this copy in exchange for my honest review.

Rating: 5/5