First, I want to say that I love REBECCA by Daphne du Maurier. It's a book that I have read several times and I feel like I love it a bit more every time I read it. Second, this book, well we got off on the wrong foot I think. I had a hard time getting into it, found it hard to like the story and the characters. So, I took a break and then I came back to it a couple of month's later and I pick up where I left on, but this time did I choose the audio version. And, now the story felt much more to my liking.

If you have read Rebecca, then the story will have a familiar tone. However, I would say that the author has brilliantly made something new. It's more of a feeling of Rebecca than a retelling and that is a great move. It's an intense story and one thing that Lisa Gabriele has managed to do is to make the main female character, the nameless second Winter (just as with the first book) a bit stronger than the meek character in REBECCA. That has always been my problem when it comes to the story. I just like my female characters a bit gutsier.

So, the verdict. If you haven't read REBECCA or seen any of the movies/mini-series then you will have nothing to compare with, and that can be nice and you will probably be more surprised by the story than if you have read REBECCA. If you have read the book, then I will bet that the wedding scene in this book will make quite apprehensive since you probably know what will happen... ( )

I was hoping for some cold and gloomy vibes off this version like the original. However, the ambiance never quite got there, but it did a few interesting things with the Max and Mrs. DeWinter characters, all while turning Rebecca on her head. Not a regret, but not a showstopper for me either. ( )

The Winters is a page-turning tribute to Rebecca, with a blend of modern and gothic secrets.

Our unnamed protagonist is working as a crew hand in the Cayman Islands, when a handsome, recently widowed banker comes in looking for a boat, and it’s love at first sight. After a speedy courtship, Max Winters asks her to marry him and move back to New York with him.

But the Cinderella story twists on Long Island, where she finds her new home is a monument to her husband’s first wife, and inhabited by their moody, hostile daughter. There’s a contrast between the subtle distance from the household servants (telling her to enjoy her visit, for example) and the open animosity from Dani, but the house is unfriendly and unfamiliar. Max has secrets, too, in case being a New York banker with undisclosed business in the Cayman Islands didn’t tip you off.

This is such a gothic story — the family estate is only accessible by a winding, deserted bridge, part of the house is a locked-off memorial to the first Mrs. Winter, there are loads of dark roses delivered constantly in her memory, there’s the threat of insanity and imprisonment, and there’s a massive greenhouse that no one may ever enter again. This isn’t a historical novel, this is a modern-day Long Island banker and politician, living his best brooding-gothic life.

The narrator is never named, and she doesn’t say her age or at times, even her appearance is vague. I often find this kind of device a bit gimmicky (I want to read a story, not watch a trick), but it works here because for so much of the story, she is passive, mostly acted-on by others and not really a driving force. By the time she develops some agency, I’d forgotten the omission.

I loved the reveals and secrets, even though if you’ve read Rebecca, there are some clues. There are also hints of Jane Eyre here, which adds to the mood. The modern setting makes it harder to accept some of gothic-horror red flags (Surely there’s some rational, everyday reason no one can ever enter the greenhouse? Maybe it’s structurally unsound and Max just wants her to be safe?) which adds another layer of suspense because the narrator’s never quite able to trust what she sees, hears, and discovers in the mansion. ( )

I almost gave up on this book about a third of the way in. The book had slowed down by that point, and I just wasn't finding myself interested any more. I'm happy I gave it more time, and I mostly enjoyed where the book went. This is an updated version of Rebecca, set primarily in New York. The resolution was really satisfying - much more so then in the original - but the unnamed narrator comes across as a much simpler character here. She's a good person, who manages (somehow) to make friends out of everyone else in the book, and who ends up with an appropriately happily ever after ending. The second Mrs de Winter is a more complex character, and her ending is much more gray. I think I would have preferred a little more of that in this book. ( )

I really enjoyed this book so much. It took me by surprise in a great way. Mrs. Winters is the voice of this story. This book had a gothic/psychological thriller vibe. Now, if this does not get your attention; the storyline itself will grab you.

I was trying to figure out what the mystery surrounding the former Mrs. Winter was all about. I will tell you that you should just forget about trying to figure the mystery out and just sit back relax and enjoy reading this book. There was an aire of the gothic vibes felt the whole time I was reading this book. Not to mention the fact that it was like a movie playing in my head.

Speaking of the ending. It did not disappoint. From start to finish, I had a great time reading this book. In fact, it got me out of my reading slump. Author, Lisa Gabriele pens a haunting story that will keep you sitting on the edge of your seat until the very last page! ( )