It’s been a while since I legitimately sat up all night reading a book and had a “book hangover” the next day. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele is a retelling of the classic Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
- Genre: Romantic Suspense and Mystery
- Heat Level: ❤️❤️
- Overall Rating: 5/6 Glass Slippers
We open with our heroine, a woman without a name. She has one, or course, but doesn’t share it with us. She works in the Cayman Islands at a boat charting business, which is where she first meets the older, richer, handsome, widowed Max Winters.
She knows it’s not allowed, and she knows she shouldn’t, but she falls in love with Max. When it comes time for him to return home to Long Island, he offers her a plane ticket and a ring. She’s warned against it, but for once in her life, someone cares about her, so she packs a bag and leaves her life behind to live at the opulent, secluded, Asherly house.
Max’s teenage daughter, the spoiled, rebellious Dani is seemingly the biggest obstacle. Winning her over is an uphill battle and the teen is hell bent on seeing “the second Mrs. Winters” gone. Then there is the figurative ghost of the first Mrs. Winters, the lovely Rebekah. She’s everywhere in the mansion and she’s left a pair of impossibly expensive designer shoes to fill. But as our narrator settles into life at Asherly, she realizes the Winters women are not the only thing out to get her.
Where to start? Well, I always enjoyed the original Rebecca and I also love a good retelling. I liked the choice to keep the narrators name hidden. It added another layer of mystery as I read and I was hoping to learn what it was with every flip of the page. It was interesting how the author managed to keep her nameless, yet a real person.
This book is a slow build, but Gabriele’s prose is lovely. I wish the ending was more drawn out, but only because it was so good. A lot of things were revealed in the final act, yet I still have one big, glaring question that I’ll never have answers to. Still, I recommend this book to those wanting a mysterious, romantic suspense that makes you think.