Book review: The Rose of Winslow Street

THE ROSE OF WINSLOW STREET by ELIZABETH CAMDEN

From the back cover:

In the small town of Colden, Massachusetts, Libby Sawyer leads a quiet, predictable life. Yet beneath the surface, she is haunted by a secret.

Newly arrived on American shores, Michael Dobrescu is far from predictable, and his arrival in Colden is anything but quiet. Michael's shocking claim to be the rightful owner of Libby's father's house immediately alienates him from the appalled citizens of Colden.

Despite her own outrage, Libby is unwittingly fascinated by this enigmatic man who seems equally intrigued by her. As the court's decision about the house looms, and the layers of mystery surrounding Michael's past are unveiled, Libby's loyalties are tested in ways she never imagined.

My thoughts:

This is the first novel I have read by Elizabeth Camden. There are many unique and interesting plot lines in the book that allowed me to stay engaged in the story line. I felt that the first part of the plot could have been written in a clearer way, however once I got past the first few chapters things fell into place and I was able to understand what was going on and how the pieces fit together. That being said, the plot at times moved rather slowly and although seemingly important left the reader to wander what was going on and where this all was leading. Towards the middle of the book, the plot began to move much quicker and allowed the reader to see the ending mark. Personally I felt that there was a lack of balance between the first half of the book and the second half of the book, where there was a greater Christian influence in the story line that seemed to appear out of nowhere, especially in particular with one character. I felt that there should have been a better balance.

This was also the case with the character development. In the first few chapters there are so many secrets and oddities surrounding most of the characters that you really did not get a chance to embrace or even feel like you knew the characters. However, once some of the secrets and oddities were explained you felt like you had a kinship with some of the characters. I did not feel this kinship with all the characters, even though  some of them seemed to have a big part in the plot later in the story. There was a definite dividing line between the character development of the characters of Libby, Michael, and to some extent Mirela. However the other characters, such as Professor Sawyer, Regina and Jasper lacked development that I felt was missing in the story.

Although there was a lack of balance in both plot and character development, as a whole The Rose of Winslow Street was a good read. It turned out to be a good story with romance, intrigue and mystery in a time gone by. Personally I would rate it 4 stars out of 5.

Disclaimer: I received this book from Bethany House Publishers in exchange for a review. I was under no obligation to write a positive or a negative review.