The Winter Rose

November 12, 2007
In late Victorian London, idealistic new medical school graduate India Selwyn Jones goes to work at a clinic in the city’s poorest neighborhood, much to the dismay of her aristocratic mother and ambitious fiancé, political up-and-comer Freddie Lytton. The squalor is
a bit much for India, but she manages to keep her emotions under control until she meets underworld crime boss Sid Malone. Sid begins as India’s nemesis, becomes her patient and ends up something much more than that. What India doesn’t know is that Sid is the brother of tea heiress Fiona Bristow, wife of self-made, highly principled businessman Joseph Bristow. What Sid doesn’t know is that India’s fiancé is as ruthless as Sid’s most ruthless henchman, willing to commit theft, betrayal and even murder to launch his career, force India out of hers and bring down Sid in the process. In typical epic style, Donnelly (The Tea Rose
) alternates India’s story with Sid’s, Freddie’s, Joseph’s and Fiona’s, leading the reader through turn-of-the-century England from the Houses of Parliament to ale houses and whore houses, and from London to Africa and beyond. It’s all familiar stuff, but Donnelly’s passion and energy will keep readers turning the many pages, rooting for India and the gruff underworld boss she loves.

October 15, 2007
The second book in a planned trilogy (after "The Tea Rose"), this story of notorious East London criminal Sid Malone (formerly Charlie Finnegan, believed dead) and crusading woman doctor India Selwyn Jones takes many melodramatic turns between their first antagonistic meeting in 1900 and their final passionate rendezvous in 1907. Fighting their desire for each other, Sid struggles to go straight, and India devotes herself to healing poor women and children. By the time India thinks to break off her engagement to Freddie, the handsome, politically ambitious schemer who only wants her family's money, it's too lateshe's trapped in a loveless marriage, and Sid is on the run. Fiona and Joe, characters from the trilogy's first book, figure prominently, but this book stands on its own. The author includes interesting details related to medical practices of the time, but her main characters have contemporary attitudes, and the history goes down easy. Readers looking for a historical page-turner along the lines of Barbara Taylor Bradford's "A Woman of Substance" won't be disappointed. Recommended for public libraries.Laurie A. Cavanaugh, Brockton P.L., MA

Copyright 2007 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 15, 2007
Characters from Donnellys The Tea Rose (2002) reappear as supporting actors in this fast-paced, sometimes melodramatic but always surprising sequel. India Selwyn Jones and Sid Malone are the fiery pair at the center of this deliciously long historical romance set in late-nineteenth-century London. India graduates at the top of her medical-school class and then throws away any chance for social redemption (in her familys view) by doctoring the poor in Whitechapel. Sid Malone masterminds shady deals and violent gang wars, flexing his muscles as Londons most powerful underworld crime lord. When Sid is horribly injured, the stubborn, outspoken Dr. Jones meets the pugnacious crime lord, and sparks fly. Love blooms. Improbable, perhaps, but the action never lets up, from back-alley beatings and gunrunning to bordellos, society drawing rooms, and the corridors of elitist government. This is a page-turner la Wilbur Smiths Courtney novelsan old-fashioned adventure and an improbable love story. Mix Gangs of New York, Romeo and Juliet, and Oliver Twist, and get a passionate tale propelled by sophisticated plotting, cleverly disguised motives, and intriguingly entangled characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)