The Winters by Lisa Gabriele

“Last night Rebekah tried to murder me again.” Creepy ass opening line is creepy!

Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Published: 16th October, 2018
Goodreads
Series: N/A
Rating: 3

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.

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I’ve never read Daphne Maurier’s Rebecca, the book that inspired The Winters, so I can’t possibly tell how it compares. I kind of feel like I should read Rebecca, but also… What for now? #bookwormdilemmas

Suggested bookworm drinking game: every time I say ‘pleasant’ with regards to this book, you drink a shot. I’m warning you though. It’s not for lightweights!

The Winters could be best described as pleasant. Quite eerie, with lovely prose and an even pace, this book is the very definition of pleasant. It’s nice. However, as a friend of mine once pointed out, you don’t want someone to describe you as just ‘nice‘. Why not amazing? Brilliant even?

The story unfolds from our unnamed protagonist’s perspective. She’s a pleasant young woman, who lives on a lovely island and works hard because she’s not particularly fortunate in life. When she meets Max, this pleasant, older gentleman, he sweeps her off her feet in a few short weeks.

Away he takes her, all the way to Asherly, this beautiful mansion on a private island. The staff is pleasant enough, the in-laws are friendly, and even Dani, Max’s teenaged daughter is only mildly rebellious. You see, she’s trying to be unpleasant, but her half assed attempts to be defiant and confrontational with the new lady of the house just seem kind of pathetic and not scary or alarming at all. Everyone keeps ignoring her antics anyway. Everyone is so bloody reasonable!

I can’t say the suspense was killing me, but as time went by in the life of our characters, more and more secrets got unearthed, and the resolution was pretty neat.

I thoroughly enjoyed the writing style, and will be on the lookout for more stories by Lisa Gabriele.

Now only one question remains. Should I read Rebecca? What do you think?

I received a copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for my opinion.