Winter Garden/ Kristin Hannah/ 391 pages

Winter Garden written by Kristin Hannah is a story of a mother who hides all emotion and two daughters trying to break through.  When Meredith and Nina were young, their mother, Anya, told them a fairy tale of peasant Vera, prince Sasha and their great love.  One day Anya refuses to continue to tell the tale.  After the passing of Meredith's and Nina's father, the girls must find a way to convince Anya to finish the tale.  It was their dying father's wish.  Along the way the reader is introduced to Jeff, Meredith's husband and Danny, Nina's boyfriend.  Meredith has stayed close to home, helping her father run the family apple orchard.  Nina has traveled the world often with Danny in search of the perfect photograph.  As more of the fairy tale is told, it becomes evident that the story is true and very much a part of Anya's life.  Over all the book will hold the reader's interest although the characters seem a bit extreme in each of their weaknesses.  The 'fairy tale' gives an insiders recounting of the Siege of Leningrad and the suffering endured.  The ending is just a little too neat, but does reinforce the idea presented through out the book of not waiting to do something.