The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnely
Aug. 1st, 2011 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieI am currently in the middle of a book I want to recommend to flisties - The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnely.
The book follows India Selwyn Jones, an upper-class Englishwoman disowned by her family for daring to graduate from medical school (it is 1900, after all). India starts her practice in the slums of East End as the book opens, and the story follows her efforts to introduce better medical care, to cope with prejudices (both against her and her innate ones) and her complicated, almost-certainly-doomed affair with a notorious East End gangster Sid Malone who is one of the sponsors of her clinic.
I adore this book to bits. India is a great heroine - pragmatic, smart, occasionally wrong-headed, always strong. I love reading about the details of medicine and slum life and criminal gangs back in 1900 (note to self - be glad you were not born back then). In fact, I find the milieu and the protagonist so interesting I wouldn't even even care if there was no love story, but there is and I really got drawn into it and can't help that somehow, improbably, India and Sid will make it work long-term.
So, excellent book. I peeked in the end btw and while I won't spoil it, I will say that I was satisfied with the conclusion.
The book follows India Selwyn Jones, an upper-class Englishwoman disowned by her family for daring to graduate from medical school (it is 1900, after all). India starts her practice in the slums of East End as the book opens, and the story follows her efforts to introduce better medical care, to cope with prejudices (both against her and her innate ones) and her complicated, almost-certainly-doomed affair with a notorious East End gangster Sid Malone who is one of the sponsors of her clinic.
I adore this book to bits. India is a great heroine - pragmatic, smart, occasionally wrong-headed, always strong. I love reading about the details of medicine and slum life and criminal gangs back in 1900 (note to self - be glad you were not born back then). In fact, I find the milieu and the protagonist so interesting I wouldn't even even care if there was no love story, but there is and I really got drawn into it and can't help that somehow, improbably, India and Sid will make it work long-term.
So, excellent book. I peeked in the end btw and while I won't spoil it, I will say that I was satisfied with the conclusion.
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Date: 2011-08-02 04:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 02:06 am (UTC)This isn't as good but is a solid read.
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Date: 2011-08-03 02:16 am (UTC)What can I say? Epic love is epic.
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Date: 2011-08-02 09:23 am (UTC)But this is the sequel to "The Tea Rose"... and I consider The Tea Rose sooooooooo much better! Have you read it?
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Date: 2011-08-03 02:07 am (UTC)Must check out Tea Rose now.
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Date: 2011-08-02 04:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-08-03 02:07 am (UTC)