A Week in Winter

A Novel

Marcia Willett

- 4.3 • 25 Ratings

- $11.99

- $11.99

Any reader who has ever fallen in love with a house will understand the attraction of Moorgate, a light-and-fresh-air-filled old farmhouse on the edge of the moor in Cornwall. The enchanting house now belongs to seventy-something Maudie Todhunter, the late Lord Todhunter's free-spirited second wife. (The first wife, Hilda, was supposedly a paragon of virtue, and Maudie has always felt second-best.) The light of Maudie's life is her vivacious stepgranddaughter, Posy, who begs Maudie to board a giant English mastiff whom Posy's mean-spirited mother has banned from the house. (The large and ungainly Polonius is an impossibly lovable canine who outshines Lassie by a mile and is destined to become a favorite of readers worldwide.)

When Maudie decides to sell Moorgate, all kinds of old family secrets come to light, and so the saga begins. Along the way, Rob, the contractor of Moorhouse, falls in love with a woman who has a sad secret. Posy's father falls in love with someone kinder than his shrewish wife. Maudie must reevaluate someone she'd fallen in love with years ago. And as the connections intertwine between the past and the present, many unexpected alliances form.

Vivid, lushly written, and entirely unforgettable, this all-absorbing novel provides the kind of abundant reading experience that will leave readers eagerly looking forward to more from this newly discovered and superbly talented author. A Week in Winter achieves a combined richness of character and circumstance that raises it above most modern contemporary fiction, and Marcia Willett is a writer to discover and to celebrate.

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY APR 29, 2002

When a publisher declares that it is attempting to replicate the success of Rosamunde Pilcher, it becomes fair game, requiring readers to assess the accuracy of such a claim. The Shell Seekerswas Pilcher's blockbuster American debut, following the mild success of a string of slight, light romances in her native England. Similar backstory and hopes follow Willett, whose saga revolves around a matriarch and a house. Now in her 70s and widowed, Maudie Todhunter decides to sell Moorgate, the family farmhouse in Cornwall. Opposing her is stepdaughter Selina, who has never forgiven Maudie for marrying her father after the death of her beloved mother 30 years earlier. Two romantic subplots and a few family secrets waiting to come out can't save this thin, treacly fare, in which even the lone antagonist eventually develops a heart. Though Maudie herself is appealing, she simply isn't an intriguing enough heroine to center a novel on, since most of her time is spent obsessing about the past and talking to her dog. Willett is no Pilcher and her American debut is no Shell Seekers, but if the publisher is correct in assuming that "in these troubled times" readers are in the mood to curl up with the literary equivalent of a hot-water bottle, this title should satisfy its target market. Major ad/promo.

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