Charming, great characters, cozy clean reading

Sometimes you really need a book to take you away from reality and your present situation. Thank you, Marcia Willett, for doing that, even if it was only temporary.

Such a wonderful book. It included everything I love; beautiful scenery, lovely flowers, handsome men on horses, and of course, a great dog. Polonius the mastiff was hilarious and probably my favorite character. The other characters were wonderfully fleshed out. Some were endearing, others infuriating, and most of them charming. The plot was interesting with a few anticipated twists and turns. Running throughout were two of my favorite themes: personal growth while adapting to the inevitably of change. A feel good book that’s a true treasure.

War es kitschig? Schon... Ein bissle altmodisch? Auch... Hat es mir trotzdem gefallen? Ja! Es ist relativ vorhersehbar, es gibt eine unglaublich tragische Liebesgeschichte, die vielleicht - nein, die SICHER etwas drüber ist. Es gibt eine ziemlich eindimensionale, zickig-"böse" Figur und andere, die hauptsächlich grundgut sind.

Aber das Buch war genau das, was ich jetzt gerade lesen wollte und ein Marcia Willett Fan bin ich außerdem. Vom Cover her könnte man vermuten, dass es hauptsächlich im Sommer spielt, was ich auch gehofft hatte - Sommer in Dartmoor und so. Hauptsächlich spielt es aber eher im Winter und vielleicht noch ein bissle im Frühling - war aber auch ok, hat sich trotzdem gut lesen lassen.

Ich habe also genau das bekommen, was ich erwartet habe und vergebe solide 4 von 5 Sternen. Jetzt hätte ich noch Lust auf das erwähnte "Sommer in Cornwall"-Buch - hat jemand Tipps?

This book had so many different kinds of characters that evoked many different emotions. A self-centered nag of a wife made me furious. Her poor kindly husband made me sympathetic. A dying young woman made me sad. Her fiance, brother, and nephew left behind made me cry. A funny older woman made me smile. A huge friendly dog made me laugh. I loved the ending!

I was almost 200 pages into the book before I was interested to know how it would end.

#BlameItOnBookstagram read. Not quite a Full 4 Stars but more than 3. Rosamunde Pilcher vibes (with a lot less pages) of old houses, country villages, English moors, and lots of family drama. Enjoyable seasonal read before moving from Winter to Spring. I would definitely try more of her books. As a gardener The Garden House cover appeals to me.

"The old house was being renovated. Even from this distance he could see the evidence of it in the yard: piles of timber, a small bonfire still smoking, ladders and scaffolding.... The house, built at the moor gate, in the shadow of the hills, always reminded him of a poem he'd known from childhood....
'From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends...'" ~Marcia Willett, A Week in Winter

I was curious to read a book by Marcia Willett, because she is often compared to Rosamunde Pilcher, my favorite British author of "comfort literature." When you're feeling angry, scared, and depressed (or all three in my case, when violent, white supremacist mobs stormed the US capitol last week) one thing you can do to regain your equilibrium is to read a "comfort novel" about interesting people dealing with ordinary life dilemmas that all get worked out by the end. Though reviewers sometimes remark that Willett's novels are not as good as Pilcher's, I found A Week in Winter immensely satisfying, calming, cozy and heartwarming. But I suggest reading Pilcher's Winter Solstice too, as they are both wonderful authors whose older adult characters are filled with wisdom, love and a bit of magic. There are wise and wonderful matriarchs, manor houses that reluctantly have to be sold, spoiled, ungrateful and money-grubbing step-children, happy loving children making true connections, untimely deaths, unsolved mysteries and secrets revealed, unfaithful spouses, second chances at love, and through it all, faithful dogs. Just what I needed to lift my spirits and renew my optimism.

Paperback 512 pages @headlinebooks, Audiobook 6 hours 34 minutes @macmillan.audio and beautifully narrated by Josephine Bailey
⭐⭐⭐⭐/5


Winter Solstice hardcover 454 pages @stmartinspress, Audiobook 17 hours 52 minutes @macmillan.audio ⭐⭐⭐⭐/5 Narrated slowly and juicily by Jilly Bond

It always seems that a book from a English Author takes me forever to read. This one was worth it!

This book left me very disappointed. The reviews compared the author to Binchey and Pilcher, but there is no comparison. I kept rolling my eyes over the plot and the characters.

This book had been lying on my shelf since so long, I don't remember how it got there. I never bothered thinking about reading it, till I decided to start trying to read at least some books that I already own. Maybe it's because the author is not very well known.

How I wish I'd have read it earlier! It's cosy, oh so cosy. Everytime you read it, you feel like you're in cottage in rural, beautiful village, with a toasty fire burning in the fireplace, autumn or snow outside, a book and a mug of hot chocolate and marshmallows in your hand.

Everything about this book is so good. It's beautiful, the set up is beautiful, the story is beautiful, the characters are beautiful.

Every character has been written so realistically, every emotion so raw and human. We talk about Fredrick Backman and Sally Rooney, but Marcia Willett deserves a spot right there herself.

I didn't want this book to end, but it did. And I can't wait to get my hands on the rest of her books.

Must read.

Its okay to be enthralled and mesmerised by the locale of a story, and I usually adore such stories that make me love the settings. but not this tale in spite of the romance of the moor. mostly I did not admire or empathise too well with any of the characters, and also I know a fictional account must have a certain amount of contrivance to work, but I felt too pinned in by too many serendipitous moments. Well meant plottings that did not hold my interest sadly