Blackberry Winter

A Novel

By: Sarah Jio

Narrated by: Tara Sands

Seattle, 1933: Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, good night and reluctantly leaves for work. She hates the night shift, but it’s the only way she can earn enough to keep destitution at bay. In the morning - even though it’s the second of May - a heavy snow is falling. Vera rushes to wake Daniel, but his bed is empty. His teddy bear lies outside in the snow.

Seattle, present day: On the second of May, Seattle Herald reporter Claire Aldridge awakens to another late-season snowstorm. Assigned to cover this "blackberry winter" and its predecessor decades earlier, Claire learns of Daniel’s unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth - only to discover that she and Vera are linked in unexpected ways.

©2012 Sarah Jio (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Wanna get lost in a great book?....

I love Sarah Jio. Her writing captivates me. You will find a bit or more of yourself in anyone of her amazing books. I've read almost all her books and they are all really good, but I think Blackberry Winter is my favorite.

My kind of book

If you could sum up Blackberry Winter in three words, what would they be?

Clever, determined effort

What did you like best about this story?

The tenacity of the journalist

Have you listened to any of Tara Sands’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I don't think so.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Would have been nice

Any additional comments?

Of interest to many readers

Historical Fiction of Depression Era and Now

This is a beautifully written story, very personal . . . which I easily related to . . . if you have had the privilege to have grown up with or known family members who went through the Great Depression, you will appreciate this audio book. My mother-in-law grew up during the depression. She was the most unassuming, gentle, giving person I have ever known. She never went past third grade, because she had to leave her family, her mother, father and seven siblings to go to the city and keep house . . . cook and clean for a wealthy family. And she was never, ever bitter. Family was everything to her. This book tells about a young single mother who has to leave her three year old son in bed asleep at night, while she goes to work cleaning motel rooms. The poverty during the 1930's is absolutely unimaginable to our society today. But I assure you, it was real. This is a complex story of the haves and the have nots . . . of those who abuse their power . . . and those, who by the grace of God, USE their power and money for good. It was then . . . and is now . . . a choice. The story goes back and forth between the '30s and today, and weaves a beautiful tale of love, sadness, mistakes, forgiveness and hope.

Sweet, Emotional Story about Motherhoo & Loss

What made the experience of listening to Blackberry Winter the most enjoyable?

Although this story is a bot predictable and doesn't make you think or learn, it is emotional, and sweet and made me cry more than once. It explores motherhood & loss and because I am a mom it touched my heart. When it ended I was left wanting more. I wanted to go into the story and meet the heroines of the story and become their friends.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I am not sure I can pick a favorite character. However I liked Dominic a great deal. He was a more minor character, but I felt that he was an honorable and loyal friend. He was a person I trusted and I felt he allowed the main characters to flourish and grow.

Which character – as performed by Tara Sands – was your favorite?

I loved the voice she used for Daniel - the grandfather. Some of the other characters sounded much alike but Daniel was easily distinguishable and he actually sounded aged, I heard weakness, kindness and surprise in his voice at the appropriate times.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, and I did. I finished it in a 24 hour period.

Any additional comments?

This is my first review ... if I didn't explore parts of the story or narration or there is something I could do to make my reviews more helpful please leave me comments.

Formulaic, Irritating Narration - but Still Worthy

The over-enunciating, over emphatic narrator practically ruined this story for me. Add that to the rather predictable, formula-driven plot and this became an average if not less than average read at best. Still, there was something captivating about the plot. . . pitting poor against wealthy and overcoming the ravages of time to open old memories and uncover new evidence. So I'll give it a weak, wavering one-thumbs-up.

Very interesting concept

This was as unique a plot as I've seen in a long time, and I liked the shifts from present to past, but the it would have been much stronger without the ungainly coincidences. Good character development and good sense of the lives of the poor in the 1930s. Worth the time.

Pretty good story buried under turgid narration

The story has a creative and interesting plot surrounding a modern-day love story and a long-ago mystery and the way they become woven together by two freak spring snow storms. It's not great literature, but it would be a good read. I use "read" deliberately because listening to this story is a terrific disappointment.

I realize, as I am nearing the end, that I am so distracted by the narrator, that I find myself wondering, "How would that sound in my head if I were just reading it - would I give that phrase that emphasis? Would I feel differently about this character, this decision, this coincidence if I didn't have that voice in my head making every character sound as if they have a huge stick up their... er ... you know." When the focus of your listening experience becomes the narrator and not the story, something isn't working well.

I'm not sure what Ms. Sands was trying to do with this story, but her slow, deliberate, pronounce-every-syllable pacing becomes very distracting. Her tone is usually "emphatic" sounding and everyone (all her characters) speak with the same level of intensity about everything. Vera is exactly as intense about the hole in her shoe as she is about her missing child - like that.

I listened to samples from some of her other works, and she clearly doesn't narrate like this in all of them, and that leads me to wonder if this might have been the result of bad direction.

Blackberry Winter a family puzzle

This is a story of family, lost an found. Masterfully woven to keep you guessing, until the end. The rich and poor have a profound effect on each other.
The performance was wonderful.

Wow just Wow! Excellent book!

Heart wrenching and heart warming at the same time. Keeps you intrigued and turning the pages.

Cleverly Constructed

From the cover design and the book's title, at first glance I thought this might be a romance novel, and had a moment of regret after purchase. However, I was pleasantly surprised, as the story evolves as relatively original and the author weaves the present and past in a very believable and relatable way, with past-to-present story lines that are somewhat similar or at least parallel.

Though romantic love is a theme, it's not the primary one, as the novel deals with larger issues like personal growth, motivation, the definition of true "success", and how we handle life's curve balls; how we play the hand we're given.

I appreciated the main character's perspective from an in-law attached to a high-profile and wealthy family, as many on the outside can think that once you marry into wealth and influence your life is solved. But that's not always the case, and there are downsides.The protagonist struggles to find her own way, establish herself independently of her husband's powerful and prestigious family. She does manage to succeed at this and in the end becomes more than just another appendage to a family with far-reaching power and influence.

I think the plot trajectory is clever, well-conceived and somewhat original. I am sure there are other novels with a similar story but I haven't encountered them, so to me this narrative has legs beyond what at first seems to be simply about a reporter just trying to find a story. And it's all deftly mixed in with the specter of a recent personal tragedy that adds color and depth.

I am only giving this book 4 out of 5, however, because the ending was resolved for me way before the last few chapters, and those sections, seeming like filler, just dragged annoyingly on and on. This part didn't seem to fit - perhaps added as a recommendation from an editor, because the primary reveal was accomplished well in advance of the final chapters.

Still, well worth the purchase and highly deserving of a credit.