Winter Flower by Charles Sheehan-Miles –> Review

Posted May 20, 2019 by FMA in Ratings

Winter Flower by Charles Sheehan-Miles –> Reviewwinter flower by Charles Sheehan-Miles
Published by Cincinnatus Press
on June 22, 2019
Pages: 600
Genres: Contemporary
Review Copy Provided By: Author
four-stars

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From the bestselling author of Just Remember to Breathe and The Last Hour, a shocking and poignant story of a family on the brink of destruction and the transformational events that could bring them back together—or tear them apart. 

Every day, Cole Roberts reminds himself that life wasn’t always this bleak. He was once passionately in love with Erin. Sam used to be an artistic and lively kid. They hadn’t always lived in a shabby two-room house in rural Alabama, where he runs a mediocre restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

That was before Brenna disappeared. It was before Cole lost his job and they lost their home.

Every day it gets worse. Erin drinks wine out of the bottle and spends her days with a tormented expression, searching the web for signs of their daughter. Sam hides in his room and rarely speaks. And Cole works himself to a stupor for a paycheck a fraction of the size of his old salary. 

Until one day a phone call changes everything.

winter flower is at once a tragic tale of the disappearance of a child; struggling with gender identity; of the dark world of sex-trafficking and the transformation and healing of a family. Sheehan-Miles’s longest novel delves into the depths of family life—and how, sometimes, we can heal and find restoration.


I was provided a review copy; this did not influence my opinion of the book.


❝I attracted cruelty instead of love, brutality rather than care, scorn instead of respect. And I didn’t know why.❞

I’m not really sure how to review this book because if I say too much, I will spoil the story for you. There are multiple storylines and multiple character POVs, with each character’s story having a beginning, middle and somewhat of an ending. At times it felt like I was reading a screenplay for a tv family drama series. The one thing I do need to make clear to my romance-loving friends is this is NOT a romance novel. It is a story about family and all the tragedy, trouble, and exhilaration that go along with being in one and surviving one.

Sheehan-Miles’s writing, as always, is brilliant. I love this author’s voice and writing style. There’s an honesty to his storytelling which I think is why he is so good at conveying emotions and is why, with every book he’s written, including this one, I find myself crying while reading his words. This book is long, 600 pages, long. It probably could have been broken into two or even made into multiple books with each character having their own, but I appreciate the authors choice to allow the reader to experience each character in a continued timeline and experience the way each character’s POV enriched each other’s arc.

Winter Flower is an exploration of family dynamics; the push and pull, the power and lack thereof. It explores how tragedy affects the family as a whole and dives deeper into how it affects each family member.

four-stars

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