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Summary: Get lost in this dream
Review: OK, I admit it, I'll read anything based on "Tam Lin". There are at least four novels I know of that are based on that old story, and each has its good points. Pope's _The Perilous Gard_ is the best-plotted; Wynne-Jones's _Fire and Hemlock_ has the most sympathetic characters; Dean's _Tam Lin_ is the funniest. And this one, McKillip's _Winter Rose_, does the most amazing job of making the faery world real. In this beautifully poetic novel, wild Rois and her quiet sister Laurel both fall in love with a newcomer to town, Corbet Lynn, heir to a ruined castle, his grandfather's curse, and lots of unanswered questions. He longs for the stability he believes Laurel can give him, but at the same time he knows that only Rois will be able to solve the mystery of his past and help him find his future. When Corbet vanishes in the dead of winter, and Laurel pines away for him, Rois journeys deep into the wood, and deep into a gorgeous but frightening dream world, to find out how she can save her sister and her friend. McKillip's prose is magical and poetic, and we are left wondering what is dream and what is real, even as we shut the back cover. Haunting and beautiful.
Rating: 
Summary: Poetic and Spellbinding
Review: The best way to read this book is curled up against an oven, with a nice cup of tea at your side and a torrential storm battering at the windows. This is a beautiful, elegant and lyrical book. It might not have a very original plot(it is actually a very loose retelling of the Tam Lin ballad) and the characters are rather two-dimensional but the beautiful and lyrical language saves the book. McKillip's language is evocative and sensuous; drowning roses and a love beyond time and space. There are many books that bear the label"fantasy". Very few of them convey any of the power, majesty and wonder that is the
true mark of the Sidhe.I have not seen anyone do it as well as Patricia McKillip. Winter Rose: buy it, read it, be spellbound.
Rating:
Summary: Mysterious, but completely compelling and hypnotic
Review: (...) It is a beautifully woven yarn. And though the ending is quite vague about what happens to the characters, is it not perfect for the imagination to then pick up where the writing left off? As for the characters, they are beautifully developed and the story really is best when written in first person. The view is wonderful in the way she expresses herself and finds out more about Corbet's world and herself as the reader does. It would be a shame to put it in third person, for then maybe the reader would figure out part of the story before the appropriate time. Yes, part of the time it is difficult to know if she is awake or not, but in the end all is resolved and part of the reason the book is so complex is because of those times when the reader is not sure of being awake or just seeing a figment of the heart. If you cannot figure out when she is in a dream or not, then maybe you should read it again or take a slower pace to reading it. It is a wonderful story, rich and complex and just right for a fantasy lover and reader.
Rating: 
Summary: Hypnotic but Unsatisfactory
Review: I bought this book because it was recommended to me and I wished to find a new author to read. It was extremely hypnotic, and I couldn't put it down, but I didn't enjoy it. It was hard to know what was reality and what was a dream; this made it hard to understand. It also described too much, I love description but when the author describes not only what happens but what might of happened, then that is too much and it confuses the reader. If you just want a piece of beautifully hypnotic writing then I suggest you read it, but if you want a plot to follow then I would read something else. I still don't get the ending.
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Summary: A beautiful tale of love, loss, and of not belonging
Review: Patricia McKillip brings new meaning to the term "fantasy fiction", by crafting a beautiful, dreamlike novel about love, and a young woman's awakening to the man she loves and her own identity. This book could have been trite and ordinary--instead, it's a masterpiece. Wild Rois, the second daughter of a prosperous farmer, lives with her father and soon-to-be-married sister, Laurel. Rois roams the fields and woods, while Laurel is a sedate homebody. But everything is changed when a young man, Corbet, moves in nearby. Corbet's grandfather was killed in the near area by his father, and reportedly there is a curse on them all. Rois becomes fascinated by Corbet and the reported curse, digging deeper and deeper into realms where mortals aren't meant to go. She investigates into the decrepit manor where Corbet lives, and encounters both the living and the dead, sucked into an otherworld where an icy woman wants Corbet. Neither Rois nor the reader will really be able to rest until Corbet is freed from the curse -- even as we learn what makes Rois so different from the people around her. Rois is a unique character, and her attempts to free Corbet had me cheering, especially as I wanted Perrin and Laurel to get back together. The love triangle is saved from triteness, with Laurel pining after Corbet and Perrin irritated that his ex-fiancee is flinging herself at a cursed, mysterious stranger. Despite this fact (and the fact that we know that brooding Corbet and otherworldly Rois are better suited), Laurel is not annoying, and the reader becomes genuinely concerned when she becomes "ill." The nature of this illness is strange as well, sort of losing one's taste for the real world and slowly drifting out of life. The stories of the curse and what happened those years ago becomes so twined with Rois's investigations on herself and her family. It has the trappings of a very ordinary book, but the dream/reality blurring make it very UNordinary. In fact, at times it's difficult to tell just what's happening. I had to read the end several times over to fully pull in what was going on. The writing is, as always, dreamy and gorgeous. I did feel that this novel wasn't quite as tight as "Song for the Basilisk" where it's dreamy reality, rather than dreamy reality/dreamy dream, which this novel qualifies as. If you are a big fan of sword-and-sorcery fantasy, you probably won't like this book. If you're in the mood for a tale as haunting as the cover, full of subtle magic and mystery, then please rush out to buy.
Rating:
Summary: a great book
Review: This book is a haunting story which is very good. It's one that when you finish you'll want to read again. After reading the other reviews, I don't want to add too many details since it's been a while since I read it. I really enjoyed this book and the pictures that McKillip's writing envoked. So if you're looking for a great book - this is it. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: Solid Fantasy
Review: This was the first novel that I've read by Patricia McKillip. I will certainly be returning to her. Winter Rose is a thrilling and complex fantasy told in an amazingly original and fresh style. The story of Rois fighting her way through a frozen world she doesn't really understand is captivating. The complex relationships between the well developed characters are fascinating. I most enjoyed McKillip's poetic prose style. Winter Rose is a quick, thought provoking, and satisfying read, and I do hope McKillip's other works are as good.
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Summary: A Haunting Tale of Unrequited Love & The Spell of the Past
Review: This haunting tale, both literally and figuratively, marks another wonderful entry into Patricia McKillip's world of Faerie. In this tale the Otherworld wears a darker mask, casting a spell that lures the participants away from their own world and into a realm that despite its beauty hides a cold and indifferent heart. The key to this realm is a curse, a spectre of the past that threatens the characters to reenact an earlier tragedy. As much a story about ghosts as fantasy, unrequited love as magic, this tale is woven with all the marvelous skill and wonder found in earlier McKillip works, and with an emotional intensity that perhaps sets it apart, and with a tone and mystery reminiscent of works such as "Wuthering Heights" or "The Turn of the Screw, though placed in a faerie tale setting. McKillip's style of writing also sets her apart from most other fantasists, a prose at once both direct and elegant, with an ability to recast the natural and personal world into a realm vibrating with an urgency of beauty unseen, spirits barely glimpsed, recalling the sense of wonder we once had looking at the world as a child. Something is always stirring just beyond our sight, and in McKillip's stories it is not only the magical worlds of imagination, but hidden insights as well into human nature and the world we create around us in our minds. While these stories can be read simply for their narrative power and imagination, there are elements throughout the text that if glimpsed will provoke thought and reconsideration of what we accept as truth. These themes and metaphoric insights are guised in a manner similar to the author's etheric spirits, a face peering out of the leaves, a figure briefly seen, then gone, though barely glimpsed, haunting and not forgotten. If you are not provoked into thought, then you need a closer reading. While I enjoyed this work, and will read it again, I did not find it as tightly focused or resolved as some of her other work, such as "The Book of Atrix Wolfe." At times the author stretched for similes or understandings that for me remained only partly conveyed. Perhaps I myself need to take a closer look. It was for this reason I only awarded it four stars. However, this qualification is meant only to refer to McKillip's other work--compared to other authors this book qualifies as a solid five stars. Those of you who haven't read the author's books don't know what you are missing.
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Summary: The Best Book Ever Written!!
Review: I thought this book was the best book ever written( that I've read),!! It was great because of the way McKillip described the rose vines and everything else in it. This book is for anyone who loves fantasy or who is just able to sit down and read all day. If you loved this book you would also love, " The Book of Atrix Wolfe" because that was an extraordinary book as well.
Rating: 
Summary: confusing and lacking info
Review: I thought that Winter Rose was just a piece of confusing mumbo jumbo. It's hard to recognize whether Rois is dreaming or in reality because sometimes the author doesn't state the fact that Rois is conscious or not. There are other reasons that made the plot hard to follow. The characters didn't give enough information on this "other world" that Corbet came from. How did it form? Is Nial, Corbet, and the "witch" the only inhabitants? Also, the ending leaves too much questions. Does Corbet still love Laurel? What does Rois feel? How did Corbet escape from the other world? Finally, the narrator, Rois, was too mysterious. The point of view should have been in third person, not the wild wood-child. Some of the discriptions by Rois was skimpy and perplexing. Though I love fantasy (and this book is definitely fantasy), Winter Rose was just too weird and puzzling for me to really like and understand the book.
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