This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

I love wartime saga stories and this was great. I have never read this author's books before but I definitely will again.

The Winter Baby is a beautifully written wartime story of family and friendship. It is an easy read with a charming storyline and excellent characters. Heartbreaking in places, but a satisfying heartwarming read with a lovely ending.

Such a delight! I can't wait to read more from Sheila Newberry.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Unsure about this book. Although I enjoyed it for the most part, it was a bit farfetched and predictable. It was an ok read, but I wouldn't rush to recommend it

Review: When I read the blurb to this book the first sentences was very like an idea I had for the start of a story I wrote a while back however the plot was very different. I enjoyed this book a great warm historical read were family support one another. Its well written and reminds me of Katie Flynn's books.

Wonderful story. I was not sure if I would like but so glad that I read this books. Thank you .

As the story begins, in 1903, seventeen year old Kathleen, pregnant and homeless, stumbles through the snow and is found and rescued by a kind family that has two brothers who both fall in love with her. The story follows the family through World War I and afterwards. The historical part of the story is interesting and informative.

I had a bit of a hard time getting into this book, but once I did I couldn't put it down. It was not a light and fluffy book as I had been expecting, but the family drama was well written. A few shocking moments but overall a good read.

I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book which I received through Netgalley.
It is a well written story and I liked it.

I enjoyed the book and thought it was written well.

The Winter Baby by Sheila Newberry is a historical novel that sweeps readers back to Kent in 1903. Kathleen Clancy is pregnant, confused and lost. Kathleen ends up being rescued by the Mason family. She suffered blows to the head which has caused memory loss. Jessie Mason takes in Kathleen and treats her like one of her own. Danny and Sam Mason are Jessie’s two sons who are each smitten with Kathleen. Danny has been courting Marion and feels he needs to honor his commitment to her. Kathleen has a little girl that she names Heather Mary and finds a home on the farm. But someone is searching for Kathleen. Where did Kathleen come from and what happened to her? The road to happiness and love is full of bumps and twists, but it is always worth the journey. To find out what happens to Kathleen, read The Winter Baby.

The Winter Baby is nicely written and well researched. I felt that Ms. Newberry captured the era in The Winter Baby. I did not feel any emotion associated with the characters or their story. I wish she had provided more feeling and depth. The pace of the story is slow which made the story drag for me. The Winter Baby had potential that was not fully realized. I did appreciate the epilogue. It is easy to predict how the story will finish after reading a few chapters. While I do not feel The Winter Baby is Sheila Newberry’s best work, it will not stop me from picking up her future novels.

I received an arc copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion of it and this book did not have anything to get me past 20% of it.

Soon after dawn the young woman left Pilgrim’s Way and the Downs. But she got lost again. It was late afternoon by the time she came to the junction of five roads. The young woman took one of the unmade roads and saw a farmhouse in the distance- home- she was almost home. Then she realized she was being followed by a man she tried to run and fell.The young woman was so weary she didn’t try to get up or cry out. She had reached her journey’s end. Then the man takes his cap off. The young woman wonders if it is an angel. He offered to help then picks her up and starts toward the farmhouse then he yells to his mother they had a visitor. The woman introduced herself as Jessie Mason. Then Jessie said the man who helped her was Jessie's youngest son Danny. The young woman said her name was Kit then said Kathleen The woman was going to clean Kathleen up and put salve on and bandage her feet. When Jessie removed the young woman's long skirt her legs were bruised as were her arms as if someone had restrained her. There were also raised red welts on Kathleen’s back. Jessie also knew Kathleen was very pregnant Jessie’s daughter Mary had died about this young woman's age but now she had another young woman to look after and maybe she would stay. Kathleen was now in England. A vet had come to look at the animals. But they asked him to look at Kathleen as he had once been a human doctor before he had ran from his country and ended up in England, the man was Jewish. The doctor said Kathleen was between seventeen and eighteen. The doctor felt Kathleen was eight months pregnant. Also Kathleen had suffered blows to her head and they seemed to have affected her memory. Kathleen found a pile of clothes on the chair that Jessie had left her- that had been Mary’s. Also there was some baby clothes as Mary had a late miscarriage when Mary was about six years old. Then Kathleen went to the bundle she had been carrying and looked through it. There was: a framed picture of Kathleen’s parents, a prayer book, a rosary, her birth certificate and her parents marriage certificate in a brown envelope. She also found her mother’s wedding ring from her first marriage on a silver chain. A small package of love letters with a red silk rose, the letters had been written by her father when her parents were courting.Then there was a ragdoll Kathleen had dearly loved when she was a child. Last there was a leather pouch with her mother’s brush and comb. When Jessie asked Kathleen about her parents, Kathleen teared up so Jessie dropped the subject and helped Kathleen downstairs. Jessie offered to let Kathleen stay until after the baby was born if not longer. Then Kathleen went into labor and clung to Danny. Kathleen had a baby girl and named her Heather Mary- after her mom and Jessie’s daughter. Danny told the midwife he was the father but Danny already had Marion and they had grown up together and the last year they had been talking of a future together. Danny and Sam are both attracted to Kathleen.
I enjoyed this book a lot. . I loved how Jessie took in a stranger who had been misused and was pregnant and couldn’t remember a lot. I was glad when Marion and Danny married as they had already talked about it. I also loved how Jessie considered Heather her grandchild right away and continued to let Kathleen stay. This was very realistic of the time as far as I am concerned. It drag for me at times. But this was a very good historical novel. I did like the plot also. I liked the characters and the ins and outs of this book and I recommend.

There is nothing light and fluffy about this book. This could read like a nonfiction book of someone's life. Very realistic times here. A beautiful heartwarming Christmas saga of young 17 year old Kathleen heavily pregnant and on the run from a bad living situation. She just wants a warm place to rest for a bit from the frigid cold. Just when she can't go on and collapses in the arms of a young man. Set up on the farm owned by Jessie and her two sons Danny and Sam in the beautiful Kent countryside. Both sons fall for her but one already has a girlfriend that he ends up marrying. Full of good times and hardships. I really enjoy these true to life historicals.
Thank you to NetGalley And Bonnier Zaffre for a review copy in exchange for my honest review.

I am not sure if is only me, but i found the writing very abrupt.This is the first book that I have picked up and not completed; infact I didn't even get halfway.Very disappointing read for me.

Like all Sheila's stories,the winter baby too is warm, comforting and nostalgic.

I absolutely fell in love with the cover of this book, but upon reading it, I felt something was missing, which I can't put my finger on what it is, the characters fell in love far too easy which I thought living in that generation was a bit far fetched, the idea of the story was good it just lacked something.

This book didn't really hold my interest. When I requested it I didn't realize it was a historical romance which is not really my genre.

The Winter Baby – Sheila Newberry

“Inside the house, Kathleen took a batch of scones from the oven, and wondered whether to make tea or coffee.”

As I was reading this book, I was thinking that if the hardest decision one of its characters has to make is which hot drink to make, then it’s not going to be much of a plot or story… I was right to some degree but there are some major, significant things that do happen but they are dealt with with such a light touch that you don’t feel shocked or affected by them greatly. I have mixed feelings about this because as a reader, I do want to be shocked and get angry and emotional over events and characters. However, I do also think that the charm of this nostalgic, historical genre is it’s gentleness, lack of conflict and ease of reading.

Life is pretty simple for Jessie and her family who live at Home Farm in the Kent countryside in the early 1900’s. They go about their daily business and nothing exciting happens until one snowy winter’s night when a young, heavily pregnant girl turns up at their doorstep asking for help. Jessie welcomes her in with open arms and that first Christmas, the Winter baby is born. Kathleen and her newborn soon become a permanent fixture at the farm and Jessie’s two sons both fall in love with her and want to be a father to the baby. You expect there to be much jealously, friction and fighting but none of that happens and Kathleen and Sam fall into an easy relationship.

Over the years, Jessie’s family grows and the reader is made to feel like part of the family too. The writing is a style that I don’t usually read and I found that I wanted much more detail and dialogue between characters. As I mentioned earlier, I feel that the author is trying to protect her readers from any harrowing details. For example, when one of the characters dies during the War, it almost reads as a throwaway scene and the whole thing is done in one small paragraph. It wasn’t cold or callously written but it was just a bit too ‘meh’ for me and didn't have that powerful emotional punch that you would expect when you lose a character that you’ve spent a few hundred pages with.

On a positive note, a big chunk of the book is set during one of my favourite times of the year – Christmas! I love to read about other people’s Christmases, real or imagined and the more traditional, the better.

‘The Christmas pudding rocked merrily on the stove. There would be custard to make later and Jessie had already whipped up the cream and put the jug on the marble slab in the pantry to cool.”

Although in those days, Christmas pudding was considered too rich for a nursing mother and poor Kathleen wasn’t offered any. (I love a spot of Christmas pud and I’d have been pretty ticked off if someone had stopped me from eating some, baby or no baby!) Throughout the book, you learn not only about factual things that happened in that era but also about their superstitions and beliefs, like with the Christmas pudding and nursing mothers. This style of writing didn’t make you think that you were reading a historical document and it gave the reader a real sense of place and time. A very nostalgic read indeed.

“Ankles were a familiar sight, as fashion declared shorter skirts. The more daring woman wore bloomers when they went out on bicycles, a mode of transport that was becoming a more familiar sight than riders on horseback these days, thought there was still excitement at the sight of a motorcar on these back roads.”

Thank you to Netgalley and Zaffre Pubishing for the advance copy of this book
for me to read and enjoy.

Loved this story emotional journey to their happy ending will be looking for more books from this author