In this gripping WWII time-slip novel from the author whose books have been called “propulsive” and a “must-read” (Publishers Weekly), Grace Tonquin is an American Quaker who works tirelessly in Vichy France to rescue Jewish children from the Nazis. After crossing the treacherous Pyrénées, Grace returns home to Oregon with a brother and sister whose parents were lost during the war. Though Grace and her husband love Élias and Marguerite as their own, echoes of Grace’s past and trauma from the Holocaust tear the Tonquin family apart.
More than fifty years after they disappear, Addie Hoult arrives at Tonquin Lake, hoping to find the Tonquin family. For Addie, the mystery is a matter of life and death for her beloved mentor Charlie, who is battling a genetic disease. Though Charlie refuses to discuss his ties to the elusive Tonquins, finding them is the only way to save his life and mend the wounds from his broken past.
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Sexual Content - 1/5
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Violence - 1/5
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Language - 0/5
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Drugs and Alcohol - 1/5
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Summary
From: Rebecca Maney
Book Title: The Winter Rose
Book Author: Melanie Dobson
What do you like about this book:
"A winter rose. . . . . . Simple and strong and radiating beauty . . . . A treasure trove in this rugged place, wild with hope, blossoming through the snow and stone." . . . . "The roses always return."
Grace Tonquin's young life had been filled with the sorts of circumstances and obstacles that could have easily snuffed out her "bloom". Instead, thriving under her Quaker grandparents' tutelage, she placed her future on hold and travelled to southern France in order to join those already working tirelessly to rescue Jewish children. When Grace's final, and most perilous trip across the Pyrenees mountains left her with two beloved children, she could only pray that the man who tenderly called her his hummingbird would find his own way home.
Years later another young woman travels from Tennessee to Oregon, desperate to find the illusive, remaining members of the Tonquin family. Someone very dear to her depends on it, for it has quickly become a matter of life and death. What the trip affords however, is an opportunity for Addie Hoult to realize that although life has clearly bent her in directions she never desired to turn, she does not have to break, she can live and love again.
"Every time someone wrongs us, we have two choices. We can collect them . . . . and carry them around for the rest of our lives" . . . . .or, . . "We can throw them away."
This story will tiptoe, rather than rush, into your understanding. "Shattered. Suffering. Surrender."