Blackberry Winter: A Novel

by Sarah Jio Narrated by Tara Sands

Overview

***THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER***

From the New York Times bestselling author of Always and The Violets of March comes an emotional story of a dreadful storm, a missing child cold case, and a determined reporter who just may have a stronger connection with the past than she realizes.

Seattle, 1933. Single mother Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son goodnight and departs to work the night shift at a local hotel. She emerges to discover that a May Day snow has blanketed the city, and that her son has vanished. Outside, she finds his beloved teddy bear lying facedown on an icy street, the snow covering up any trace of his tracks-or the perpetrator's.

Seattle, 2010. Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge, assigned to cover the May 1 "blackberry winter" storm and its twin, learns of the unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth. In the process, she finds that she and Vera may be linked in unexpected ways.

Sarah Jio burst onto the fiction scene with two sensational novels-The Violets of MarchandThe Bungalow. WithBlackberry Winter-taking its title from a late-season, cold-weather phenomenon-Jio continues her rich exploration of the ways personal connections can transcend the boundaries of time.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2012 - AudioFile

Tara Sands’s moving performance smoothly and emotionally weaves the stories of two women in different time periods. Sands’s mournful tones evoke the heartbreaking plight of the poverty-stricken Vera, who leaves her 3-year-old son at home to go to work, only to discover when she returns that Daniel is missing in a snowstorm. Sands takes on a steadier tone for Claire, a present-day journalist who discovers the story about Daniel’s 1930 disappearance. Having just lost her baby at birth, Claire is moved by the story and investigates further, discovering her personal connections with Vera. Sands’s dramatic narration captures the intensity of maternal love and the pain brought by the loss of a child, as well as the hope that comes with resolution. M.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Publishers Weekly

Claire Aldridge is a reporter for the Seattle Herald coping with an emotionally detached husband and the grief of a recent miscarriage. When she awakes one May morning to find Seattle blanketed in snow, she begins to write a piece about the weather phenomenon known as a blackberry winter. Claire soon unearths the story of Vera Ray, a woman whose three-year-old son went missing in a similar snowstorm on the same day nearly 80 years before, in 1933. As Claire digs deeper, she discovers that she and Vera share ties to the wealthy Kensington family, who may be pulling strings and obfuscating Claire’s research in an effort to stop her from uncovering the dark secrets that bind her to Vera. Jio’s newest (after The Bungalow) is a fascinating exploration of love, loss, scandal, and redemption. While astute readers will likely surmise the nature of Claire and Vera’s connection long before the big reveal, the proceedings are nevertheless engaging, with Claire and Vera enticing protagonists. Agent: Elisabeth Weed, Weed Literary. (Nov.)

From the Publisher

Praise for Blackberry Water

“Terrific...compelling...an intoxicating blend of mystery, history and romance.”—Real Simple 

"A fascinating exploration of love, loss, scandal, and redemption."—Publishers Weekly


Praise for Sarah Jio and her novels:
 
“Jio has become one of the most-read women in America.”—Woman’s World (on Morning Glory)
 
“Delightful and uplifting.”—Historical Novel Society (on Goodnight June)
 
“Linger[s] long after the last page.”—Romantic Times (on The Last Camellia)

“Eminently readable...a tribute to family and forgiveness.”—Booklist (on Goodnight June)

DECEMBER 2012 - AudioFile

Tara Sands’s moving performance smoothly and emotionally weaves the stories of two women in different time periods. Sands’s mournful tones evoke the heartbreaking plight of the poverty-stricken Vera, who leaves her 3-year-old son at home to go to work, only to discover when she returns that Daniel is missing in a snowstorm. Sands takes on a steadier tone for Claire, a present-day journalist who discovers the story about Daniel’s 1930 disappearance. Having just lost her baby at birth, Claire is moved by the story and investigates further, discovering her personal connections with Vera. Sands’s dramatic narration captures the intensity of maternal love and the pain brought by the loss of a child, as well as the hope that comes with resolution. M.F. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Jio's third book combines flashbacks with a contemporary romance and mystery set against a freak late-spring snowstorm in Seattle. Newspaper reporter Claire Aldridge's recovery from a personal setback has not gone well. She's struggling at work, and her marriage to the love of her life, Ethan, is crumbling. As the couple appears to be heading for a breakup, Claire is given an assignment to write a feature story about a sudden snowstorm that blankets Seattle in May 2010. The story's angle is to compare and contrast it to an identical storm that took place on the same day in 1933. While Claire works to find something interesting about the twin storms, she stumbles across the tale of a woman named Vera Ray, whose 3-year-old son, Daniel, disappeared during that 1933 storm. Vera, a decent and beautiful single mother, works at a ritzy hotel cleaning rooms, while trying to feed and clothe her little boy on pennies a day. Down to her last cent and unable to pay her rent, with no one to watch Daniel while she works, Vera leaves him alone in the apartment, but returns only to find him gone. The only clue to his disappearance is Daniel's beloved teddy bear, found in the snow outside her apartment building. Kicked out of her apartment, she reports him missing to police, who dismiss the child as a runaway. The parallel stories of Claire, whose husband's wealthy family owns the paper where they both work, and Vera, a down-on-her-luck beauty who stops at nothing while trying to find her child, are told in a compelling, but ultimately implausible method by former journalist Jio, who incorporates an overabundance of coincidence in this tale, all of which serve only to stretch the novel's believability to the breaking point. Competently written, but the prose runs from saccharin to syrupy. Those willing to overlook a series of implausible coincidences and wade through spoonfuls of sugar to get to the fairy-tale ending will be rewarded. This novel will enchant Jio's fans and make them clamor for her next offering.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172379956
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	09/25/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged

Videos