Lawson’s review of A Rose in Winter by Kathleen E. Woodiwiss
Released by Avon December 1982

This has to be a periennal top contender for my favorite romance ever. One of the best things about this book is it’s so richly drawn, fully textured and written so well the 567 pages fly by. They really do. Or at least they did for me. Normally I get rather annoyed by plots based on massive amounts of deception, but it works in this one as well. If you haven’t read it either, yes, there are SPOILERS.

Erienne is, of course, the most beautiful girl in her town, but she’s not selfish or spoiled. Her father is the mayor, which at that time in England is more a ceremonial position rather than an elected office. And since he’s so in debt he thinks the answer to his problems is his beautiful daughter marrying someone with money so that he can pay off his debts. When he’s accused of cheating at cards by Christopher Seton, his son fights a duel in his honor and gets wounded. But Christopher is a good, upstanding guy and still checks in on the young man and wants to get the money he was cheated.

Erienne and Christopher have an instant attraction, but when she finds out who he really is, she turns him away because of what he did to her brother. She in fact tells him she would rather marry a scarred, crippled, hunchbacked monster than marry him. Her father keeps bringing his idea of eligible men into her life, but she continually refuses them as she falls for Christopher, even though she doesn’t want to.

As Erienne turns down more suitors her father brings around he gets desperate and finally auctions her off in town to the highest bidder. Though embarrassed, Erienne relishes the chance to escape from her cowardly father, even if it is to someone she doesn’t know. The winner of the auction is Lord Saxton, the lone survivor of a house fire many years before on one of the many estates. Lord Saxton has returned to right things with his home and restart his family.

Erienne is horrified by her groom, but she marries him anyway and moves into his half charred estate outside of the town. She slowly learns more about her husband, and sees he’s not a monster, but she’s still scared of him. And it doesn’t help that Christopher Seton returns and escorts her different places. And continues to kiss her and the attraction grows. She knows that even if she may have made a bad choice, Erienne lives with her actions and instead of giving herself to her handsome suitor, she gives herself to her scarred husband.

All the while the enemies of Lord Saxton return and want to finish the job they thought they’d done many years before, Erienne falls in love with both her husband and the man who won’t leave her alone, even though she’s married. But of course it all works out in the end.

Erienne is one of the best heroines I have ever read. She’s smart, she’s honorable (though a handsome man wants her, she’s a married woman and she stays faithful) and she never acts out of her time period. Not once. Nothing she does is ever TSTL. And her love for her husband, a man scarred by fire and probably deserving of her pity, she gives her love. She truly cares for him.

Christopher is something different. He is definitely an honorable man, though he attempts to seduce a married woman and continually appears in her life and wants her to stray, could make him an ass of epic proportions. Except – SPOILER- she’s his wife. Yep, Christopher dons the disguise of the disfigured Lord Saxton to take what he wants: Erienne. She gave him the idea, and he won her. Again, I don’t generally go with deception, but the way Christopher handles this one, and his reasons, the disguise works.

And, oh, my heart still does a happy little flip when I read the scene where Christopher reveals all to Erienne. Because he never realizes she loves him, since she thinks she’s married to another man, as Christopher she continually rejects him. He never knew she loved him until she whispers his name, and not her husbands (as her husband he uses his middle name) and thus the ruse is over, and he knows he has to tell her the truth. Though she’s hurt by the truth, she realizes perhaps she always knew (she mixed them up in her head after awhile) and they face the enemies together.

At the end of the book, it’s spring and there’s a new beginning with the enemies gone and a happily ever after. I wish I had more space (’cause I know people don’t want to read something overly long). But the characters are so real, both the good and the bad characters, and the whole story has always sucked me in and not let me go until the last page.

Oh, happy, happy sighs.