I simply cannot get on with Patricia McKillip. I don’t know what it is about her books that displease me. The writing is lovely, her characters are likeable, the plots are interesting – and still, every single time I pick up one of her books, I end up stewing in displeasure and finally asking myself, Jenny, why are you torturing yourself like this? Just put the damn book down and read something else.
Winter Rose is a retelling of Tam Lin. I love that story! As previously mentioned, I am reading a bunch of retellings of that story. And there was nothing wrong with this book. Rois is a clever and inquisitive heroine, trying to find out what kind of a curse Corbet Lynn is under, and whether his father killed his grandfather, and why he’s come back to rebuild his family estate. I was interested in knowing all of these things! I was interested in Rois’s demure sister Laurel, happily engaged yet strangely drawn to Corbet. At least, I was for a while. Then after a while, I didn’t care enough to finish the book, or even to read the end.
Riddle me this: Nobody was boring, but I got bored.