A review by michellel123
The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

4.0

Took a while to get going, but I ended up really loving it. Set in 1900, India Selwyn-Jones is a rich, young woman who has just graduated as a doctor. Unlike her family and fiancé, Freddie Lyton, who want her to marry and play a society lady, India is serious about her calling and begins to practice medicine, eventually working to establish a clinic in London's poor area. In her work she comes across known mobster Sid Malone when she treats him, and they fall in love. Unlike her cunning and cold politician fiancé, Sid turns out to be genuine, although they are both stubborn and allow misunderstandings to become bigger than they needed to be. The story is perhaps marked by too much unrealistic characterisation and unlikely coincidence, but I really enjoyed it and how it all came together at the end.