A Review of Winter Garden and True Colors by Kristen Hannah (see below for Amazon book information)

Although Winter Garden was published after True Colors, I read it first for my book group. I enjoyed the book quite a bit as the story was very compelling. What I didn’t like as much were the characters. I don’t know that I would have read True Colors on my own, but my 4 year old son picked it out for me as a birthday present because of the pink cover. He thought I’d like it. Turns out, he was right.
What is most interesting here are the similarities between the characters in both books. In WG, there are two daughters, Meredith and Nina, an extremely loving and doting father and a completely emotionally absent mother, Anya. When the father passes away, the two adult girls are forced to deal with their mother, who has been extremely distant and unloving toward them their entire lives. She is cold and refuses to communicate with them almost at all. Subsequently, Nina lives her entire life elsewhere as a photojournalist, while Meredith constantly seeks her mother’s approval or attention as she takes care of everything on the family orchard. Meredith is an exceptionally annoying character; no matter how often faced with the truth of things, she refuses to see it or deal with her emotions. Her marriage is in trouble and she just ignores it while remaining convinced that forging ahead will make everything better. The sections of the story from Meredith’s point of view in the first half of the story were very irritating. WG starts slow, but eventually, once Anya begins to tell her story, and her daughters and the reader get an idea of why she behaves the way she does, the narrative drive of the story makes the reader unable to put it down. The second half of this book was a huge tearjerker. The characters themselves become more compelling and less one-dimensional. Meredith’s obtuseness melts as she becomes a more aware character, which was a relief. She was the main thing I disliked about the story.
True Colors felt very much the same as the author began sketching the characters. Although the plots of these two stories are nothing alike, except for both taking place in the Pacific Northwest, the characters felt very similar. In TC, the mother has passed away at an early age from cancer. The three daughters, Winona, Aurora and Vivi Ann, are left behind with their emotionally absent father. Here, Winona constantly seeks her father’s approval or attention as she tries to keep his ranch from going bankrupt. Her defining characteristic in her own mind is that she’s “fat”. She is very smart, but completely blind to other people’s emotions and unable to gauge what any of the other character’s reactions will be when she constantly intervenes in their lives. She is incapable of saying things that don't alienate her family and there are many emotional rifts between her and her sisters. They are not all caused by her, but each time the story is told from her perspective it is frustrating to the reader. This aspect of the story is very similar to WG. The fact that there is another sister in the middle, Aurora, should somehow change the feel of the story from WG. However, Aurora is a largely undefined character. There are no parts of the story from her perspective, as there are for Winona and Vivi Ann. Winona eventually changes, as Meredith does in WG, and becomes a wholly more likable character.
What is truly redeeming about both of these stories is that both have riveting plots. In reading both stories, the second half is truly more compelling than the first. Both take a while to warm up while getting their characters introduced, which for me was difficult since I was not fond of either Winona or Meredith. In WG, the flashback from Anya’s past in 1940’s Russia was well written, well researched and the best part of the story. In TC, the love story between Vivi Ann and her husband Dallas Raintree was very compelling. The courtroom and legal parts of the story and the small-mindedness of the townspeople make the reader want to keep reading. The second half to this story is also a tearjerker, emotionally fraught and written in haunting detail.
I enjoyed both of these books. I think Kristen Hannah’s talent lays in storytelling. I am not as overjoyed with her characterizations. It’s not that they are badly written; she changes perspective quite a bit, telling the story from different character’s points of view. While I enjoyed the changes, especially in TC when Noah, Dallas and Vivi Ann’s son, was writing in his journal, I think it leaves the other characters a little flat. Both of the dead parents from each story don’t seem nearly as real as the ones who are alive. In TC, the mother who died is barely referenced at all, except to illustrate how messed up the rest of the family is in her absence.
I would recommend reading both of these books. Both take a while to grab you, but when they do, it is quite a story on both counts. Readers who enjoy Jodi Picoult will probably enjoy these stories. Ms. Hannah can keep you reading in the same way, wanting to find out what happens next.