While I am quite fond of some of this author's earlier works, this one just didn't have the same charm for me. It started out interesting and I had hopes that it would continue on that way, but it just seemed to fall flat after a few chapter. I found myself struggling to pay attention and keep the thread of the story. perhaps it was the way it bounced around from one character to the next, but I just couldn't keep my attention focused on this book.

As usual, the author created beautiful, interesting characters, but this story just wasn't one that I could lose myself in. I encourage others to read it and form their own opinions. There were some truly captivating sentences in this book and there is no doubt that the author is good at her craft. I simply didn't feel a connection with this book.

This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher, provided through Netgalley. All opinions are my own.

A goal of mine in 2017 was to try books that are outside of the genres I typically pick up, which really encouraged me to give this book a try. In The Midst of Winter follows three very different people that are brought together due to unlikely circumstances. It takes place over multiple timelines and the main plot follows Richard Bowmaster, Lucia Maraz, and Evelyn Ortega in present day New York. Richard hits Evelyn's car in the middle of a snowstorm. After realizing thing are more serious than they Eem at first Evelyn shows up at Richard's house. Not knowing what to do Richard enlists the help of his neighbor/colleague Lucia and the story between these characters takes off from there.

My favorite thing about this novel was going into the past and learning about where each character came from and how they got to where they currently are. Each character had such a heart breaking story. I loved being able to follow their stories and see how they were able to overcome so much. I also really loved that I learned some things while reading. I had to take a step back and really think about each event in the character's lives and the consequences of those events. I would like to do some research to learn more of the basis where each character's story came from.

While I did enjoy the story I don't think I read this at the right time in my life. It took a lot out of me to get through but I felt like I wasn't retaining a lot of the information. I ended up switching over to the audiobook and once I did I felt like I was able to become completely immersed in the story and really enjoy it. However, I wasn't able to personally connect with any of the characters. Once again, the background of the characters as well as the mystery/thriller component was the main source of my enjoyment. In The Midst of Winter is a book I would like to revisit in the future! For now, it was an entertaining look on what it means to be human and how that experience is affected by different circumstances and experiences.

Enjoyed the story very much. Allende is a wonderful storyteller. I will recommend this book.

slow starter, but overall very good novel about a group of three people who get thrown together by extraordinary circumsances. Not Allende's best, but an enjoyable read.

This was my first encounter with Isabel Allende, and I don't think it will be the last. I enjoyed the exploration of Latin American politics (in a way that fit into the narrative) and the fleshing out of the three main characters. The story itself seemed a little odd and hard to believe if I sat thinking about it too long, but I didn't do that often. By and large I was pulled into the story and was as eager to know the characters' histories as the outworking of their shared present.

Allende will always tell a good story and she does so here again. All three of the main characters are interesting, unique, and easy to connect to as a reader. Even the secondary characters around the periphery of the story are intriguing. The political circumstances in Latin and South America are fascinating to see from such a personal point-of-view and touch on issues that still plague the Americas today including immigration, human trafficking, gangs, violence, and political upheaval.

The problem for me was the delivery, which is why there are only four stars despite the wealth of what is good about this book. The vast majority of the story has already happened and takes place in flashbacks. By the time we get to the inciting incident that moves the three main characters down a path together (in the present), we've already had multiple chapters of explanation of their individual pasts and personalities. I'm not against flashbacks as a storytelling device, it's just that was the majority of the story in this book. And, by having so many flashbacks, it completely removes the tension from the present circumstances, which I found more interesting and suspenseful.

I also really missed the magical realism that I've come to love from Allende. I thought that by having characters so believing and well versed in the mythical traditions of the Americas would lend itself to more usage of it. Despite all this, I will read the next Allende novel for sure.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Atria Books, and the author Isabel Allende for the opportunity to do so.

I love Isabel Allende. In my mind her books are always a warm hug, keeping the threats of a cold world at bay for a few hours.

In the Midst of Winter takes this analogy of a cold world even further. The book begins in a blizzard in New York City, while the characters keep warm in their own respective homes. Richard is 60 and set in a very strict routine, refusing to acknowledge his attraction to Lucia, a 62 year-old Chilean woman living in his basement apartment.

When a car collision brings young Guatemalan immigrant Evelyn into their world, the two are drawn together in an effort to help Evelyn. Between chapters telling the story of their adventure, Allende also tells their individual stories in their Central American homes, which also gives readers a glance at the histories of those countries (Chile, Guatemala, and Brazil, FYI).

The title In the Midst of Winter works in other ways as well. The story takes place in the midst of the winter season, so there’s that obvious point. But Richard and Lucia are in the winters of their lives, and much of the story focuses on the question of love and a relationship for them. Can they find love?

There is so much heartache and sadness in each character’s history, and how each of them survives the heartache is so human and real. Lucia is the catalyst of this story, the one that brings them all together and pushes them to solve Evelyn’s problem and to live a bit.

I believe the overriding theme of In the Midst of Winter is ‘don’t give up!’ Keep pushing, keep dreaming, keep going even when it seems impossible. Step out your comfort zone and live a bit!

I loved the backstories and the history of their respective tumultuous countries. Lucia grew up in the shadow of facism in Chile in the 1970’s, losing a brother in the ensuing governmental change. Evelyn grew up in Guatemala during the rise of MS-13, and is forced to travel with a mule to the United States, where she became an underage refugee. Richard lived in Brazil for a few years do post-grad work, and ended up with a very sad story that caused him to shrink his life drastically.

The backstories, and the history, all add to the ‘adventure’ during the snow storm. The actions of all three characters are understandable because of their histories.

Underlying the ‘adventure’ is the hope for a romance between Richard and Lucia. Will they? won’t they? Can he overcome his anxiety? Can she cajole him out of his routine? Can Evelyn help bring them together, or will she tear them apart? All of these questions float through the book, and all are answered.

I loved this story. I love the thought of love through the ages, and I loved the intertwining of history throughout. A great read, perfect for cold, winter days!

Another great Allende, although not my favorite. I tend to connect with character-driven plots, and I admit that I did love these characters. Every book its reader. I will be adding this to our library's collection!

Allende returns with her new novel and proves, once again, that she has a knack for good storytelling. This was an enjoyable and heartfelt read about three characters, all with very interesting and diverse backgrounds, whose lives merge together in the middle of a blizzard in Brooklyn. Although the plot was well developed, I did find that the story lagged a bit in places. Overall, it was a lovely read.

*I received an advance reading copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.*

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite writers. She weaves her tale by skillfully drawing the readers deep into her characters' heart, soul, and psyche. In the Midst of Winter tells the life stories of three people -- Lucia, Evelyn, and Richard --- whose lives are irrevocably thrust together on a cold winter day, the impact of which is life altering. Lucia and Evelyn's stories are compelling, and the more you learn about them, the more you love them. Richard is the opposite -- the more you learn of his life story, the less sympathetic you become of him and the traumas buried in his past. However, his contact with these two women, his compassion helping Evelyn, and his evolving friendship with Lucia, thaws the chill of his past, and changes him for the better.

Isabel Allende’s new novel, "In the Midst of Winter," is one of my favorites of the year.

The Chilean-American novelist is a dazzling writer, and her translators serve her brilliantly. As a best-selling writer Allende has straddled a fine line between literary and popular fiction, thrilling readers with her graceful style and riveting stories, and earning the praise of critics. In her famous first novel, "The House of the Spirits," she astutely blended magic realism with history in the breathtaking story of three generations of a prominent family in an unnamed Latin American country.

But not all her books utilize magic realism. Her last novel, "The Japanese Lover," was realistic, and so is her latest novel. In her new gorgeously-written novel, "In the Midst of Winter," translated by Nick Caistor and Amanda Hopkinson, she deftly interweaves the complex narratives of two Latin American women and an American man, shifting back and forth in time between the present and the 1970s.

The book commences during a blizzard that shuts down New York. Sixty-two-year-old Lucia, a visiting lecturer at NYU from Chile, is freezing in the basement apartment of a brownstone in Brooklyn, cuddled up with Marcelo, her Chihuahua, and wondering why the hell Richard, her landlord and boss at NYU, is so miserly? Couldn’t he turn up the heat? To be honest, she had thought that, old friends that they were, they would keep each other warm as lovers.

Lucia is a warm, optimistic woman who still hopes to find love, despite her husband’s desertion of her when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, the recent loss of her mother, and the decades-old anguish over her brother’s disappearance after the 1973 coup in Chile.

There are few older heroines in literature, and Allende captures the imperfections that we women are taught to ignore but must learn to accept. Most important, Lucia knows how to love herself. Allende writes,

" Lucia still entertained the fantasies of a young girl despite the fact that she was almost sixty-two. She had a wrinkled neck, dry skin, and flabby arms; her knees were heavy; and she had become resigned to watching her waist disappear because she did not have the discipline to combat the process in the gym. Although she had youthful breasts, they were not hers. She avoided looking at herself naked, because she felt much better when she was dressed. Aware of which colors and styles favored her, she kept to them rigorously and was able to purchase a complete outfit in twenty minutes, without ever allowing curiosity to distract her. Like photographs, the mirror was an implacable enemy, because both showed her immobile, with her flaws mercilessly exposed. She thought that if she had any attraction, it lay in movement, for she was flexible and had a grace that was unearned, since she had done nothing to foster it. She was as sweet-toothed and lazy as an odalisque…"

Richard, the human rights professor who can’t turn up the thermostat, is a piece of work. He is very handsome and kind, but very uptight, an absent-minded cat owner who does everything on a rigid schedule, because he is afraid of falling back into alcoholism. He does not want to take any emotional risks, because he ruined lives when he did that before. He has a horrendous past, which we learn about later.

Richard and Lucia become closer under tragic circumstances. Richard calls Lucia for help after his car collides with a Lexus driven by a Guatemalan women, Evelyn Ortega, an undocumented worker/nanny who has borrowed her boss’s car–and she is hysterical because there is a corpse in the trunk! She doesn’t know how it got there. Richard needs a translator, and it is Lucia who pulls everything together. She and Richard devise a plot to save Evelyn and get rid of the car and body, and during a harrowing road trip to upstate New York, the three become friends. Despite the horror of the past and the present, there are many comic moments, and Lucia and Richard finally have no choice but to share a bed.

Allende creates real living, breathing characters, and we care deeply about them. The details of the violence in South America are horrifying and very real, and reading about Evelyn’s grueling journey across the border led by a “coyote” makes you want to protest all over again that terrible idea of building a wall! Allende has devoted a lifetime to telling the stories of Latin American women and helping refugees. She witnessed the violence of the military coup in Chile in 1973, when her cousin Salvador Allende, president of the socialist country, was ousted by Gen. Augusto Pinochet, who instituted his dictatorship. She and her family fled to Venezuela in 1975 . She has been an American citizen since 1993.

Anyway, "In the Midst of Winter" is tragic but also full of joie de vivre. I plan to give it to various women friends of different tastes, because everyone will love it. My only criticism? The ending works out a tad too well, like Barbara Kingsolver’s early books. But I was spellbound by this brilliant, moving novel.

My view

What attracted me to this novel.

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors. I would never hesitate buying her new novels, which I have done over many years. Her novels brim with historical facts, and wonderful characters.

In the midst of winter we find again a blend of history within a story which Isabel Allende creates so well.
Richard rents a basement apartment to Lucia, both are professors at a nearby university in New York, both have reached the age of sixty, which I found refreshing.

Enter a third protagonist, Evelyn with troubles a plenty.
The story moves from this point forward, perhaps on the slow side. I found to many references to the wars, gangs, general troubles taking place in Guatemala and Chile.
Having loved many novels by Isabel Allende___ her great talent to entertain the reader, in my opinion, did not happen___ with In the midst of winter. The reading was slow going, which is not to say someone else might not enjoy this novel.

If you enjoy a romance novel by any means, I recommend this read.

I am awaiting Isabel Allende's next novel, hoping to find what I so like about her novels

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for this arc






My view

What attracted me to this novel.

Isabel Allende is one of my favorite authors. I would never hesitate buying her new novels, which I have done over many years. Her novels brim with historical facts, and wonderful characters.

In the midst of winter we find again a blend of history within a story which Isabel Allende creates so well.
Richard rents a basement apartment to Lucia, both are professors at a nearby university in New York, both have reached the age of sixty, which I found refreshing.

Enter a third protagonist, Evelyn with troubles a plenty.
The story moves from this point forward, perhaps on the slow side. I found to many references to the wars, gangs, general troubles taking place in Guatemala and Chile.
Having loved many novels by Isabel Allende___ her great talent to entertain the reader, in my opinion, did not happen___ with In the midst of winter. The reading was slow going, which is not to say someone else might not enjoy this novel.

If you enjoy a romance novel by any means, I recommend this read.

I am awaiting Isabel Allende's next novel, hoping to find what I so like about her novels

Thank you NetGalley and Atria for this arc

I would rate this a 3.5. This is not one of my favorite Isabel Allende novels. I really enjoyed her most recent novel, The Japanese Lover, but I found this one lacking in cohesion and engagement. The focus of the novel is an incredibly interesting tale of three very different people but with a common thread of roots to South America or Central America, each having lost a brother, and the challenges of immigration (legal and illegal), love, torture and murder, and forgiveness. Richard Bowmaster is a professor in his 60s NYU who experienced a heartrending tragedy in Brazil; Lucia Maraz is a survivor of the murderous rampages in Chile after the 1973 military overthrow of Salvador Allende, and now teaching at NYU with Richard; and Evelyn Ortega, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who as a young child saw firsthand the terrors of gang violence and government inaction and how it affected her and her immediate family. A snowy night in Brooklyn brings them all together and out of their comfort zones. I really got into it at the beginning but then found it disjointed and had trouble maintaining my interest. It does go back and forth in time, a literary tool that has often worked in other novels but not for me in this one. I did find the historical aspects very interesting, the gruesome times in Chile and Guatemala and which are topics that are indeed very current in today’s world. this story legal and illegal. However, although I did not enjoy this book as much as some of her other novels, one cannot underestimate Isabel Allende’s incredible prose and writing style.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free digital ARC of this book. This book is true to its title description. The reader won't be disappointed when reading this book.

Isabel Allende is a gifted author with a special talent for riveting stories that plumb the depths of the human condition. Unfortunately, she misses the mark in the novel. Three strangers meet during a snow bound weekend after a fender bender. While she works hard to develop the 3 main characters in this novel, the plot is far fetched and the protagonists fail to capture my interest. The two women and one man take turns telling their personal history chapter by chapter and every so often the narration returns to the happenstance plot line that brings them together. The whole novel never really gelled for me and feel that the author lost an opportunity to build a better novel around the two strong female characters.

Ordinarily I’m not a fan of books that jump around in time and are told in different voices but that’s what made this one so effective. The stories reveal circumstances from the past lives of Richard, Lucia and Evelyn that were so wrenching that I couldn’t have endured reading them without the pull from the crazy contemporary situation that bound the three of them together together, literally a page turner every bit as compelling as a thriller.

Lucia grew up in middle-class Chile during the Allende era and Evelyn grew up in Guatemala in poverty during the purges. The circumstances weren’t all that different and each woman had lost a brother. I had to stop and read those two stories again for clarification and it mattered later. In spite of the knuckle-biting adventure in the snow, Allende has some very serious modern issues that she leaves for her readers to think about, including immigration, human trafficking and LGBT which is also thrown in the mix, all without a heavy hand. A surprise ending was the frosting on the cake. As always when I read a book that I’ve enjoyed as much as this one, I’m left with the question - what on earth am I going to read next?!

This is my third book by Isabella Allende and each one has been uniquely different from the other. I know she has a large body of work and I’m happy to know there are so many books waiting for me to discover.

Isabel Allende's gift for powerful character who will haunt the reader is unmatched. A superb read.

I’m finding the plot of this book rather difficult to summarize, likely because there were several stories playing out in the past and present of each character’s life. So here is my best attempt:

Three people who are indirectly connected by their previous lives in Central and South America find themselves in a tricky situation, the resolution to which is blurred by their previous experiences and the irreparable harm that would come to one of them if they came forward.

This is my first novel by the famous and well-regarded Isabel Allende, and while it didn’t wow me, I found it to be smartly written, and the premise piqued my interest from the onset.

Historical fiction is definitely one of my preferred genres, particularly if the subject matter or time period draws me into a culture, time or place of which I know very little. Then I get to enjoy the fictional bits and feel like I’m getting something educational out of it as well. Having read this book, I feel like my perspective on immigration has been widened, and my interest in Central and South America has increased ten-fold.

What made this a 3.5 star rather than a 4 star is the developing romance between two of the main characters. While I appreciate the theme of finding love later in life, the connection between Lucia and Richard simply wasn’t there. It didn’t feel believable to me. A friendship and mutual respect? Definitely. Romantic feelings? Absent. It felt like I was being told when I prefer being shown.

What made it a 3.5 star rather than a 3 star is the exceptional writing, the degree to which I loved Lucia and the need to know how it all turned out in the end. While the romantic aspect of the book didn’t suit me, everything else about it did.

If you like literary and/or historical fiction, this is a great read. If you want a different perspective on immigration and the myriad reasons why people risk their lives to cross the border rather than wait for the wheels of bureaucracy to turn, this is a great read.

Isabel Allende doesn’t disappoint in this fascinating and heartbreaking story.

A blizzard in New York? A fender bender? An unlikely...but yet likely, trio of characters. What a great combination for another amazing story by Isabel Allende. Once again, she takes each character's past and weaves it into an adventure shared, that is not only believable...but again, somehow likely. Perhaps laws are broken, but which ones? And does it matter?
For over 30 years, Allende has had the ability to completely transport this reader into each of her stories. This book is no different! The past experiences of each character is rich with color, feelings, and wisdom. Their lives are brought together by a series of upheavals, but written so smoothly that each time you close the book, it all (somehow) makes sense. In the Midst of Winter makes ‘willing suspension of disbelief’ easy, and quite entertaining!