Guest Review: The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

Ames’ review of The Wild Rose by Jennifer Donnelly.

The vast multi-generational epic that began with The Tea Rose and continued with The Winter Rose now reaches its dramatic conclusion in The Wild Rose.

London, 1914. World War I is looming on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and global explorers are pushing the limits of endurance at the Poles and in the deserts. Into this volatile time, Jennifer Donnelly places her vivid and memorable characters:

– Willa Alden, a passionate mountain climber who lost her leg while climbing Kilimanjaro with Seamus Finnegan, and who will never forgive him for saving her life.

– Seamus Finnegan, a polar explorer who tries to forget Willa as he marries a beautiful young woman back home in England.

– Max von Brandt, a handsome sophisticate who courts high society women, but who has a secret agenda as a German spy;

– and many others.

The Wild Rose is the engrossing conclusion to Jennifer Donnelly’s Rose Trilogy. I had the pleasure of reading The Winter Rose a few years ago and I absolutely loved it. The time period was different and the characters and writing were superb. The Wild Rose continues on with the same intricate layers of connectivity between engaging characters.

First the setting. The Wild Rose takes us from the foothills of the Himalayas to England and the deserts of Arabia. It starts right before World War I and takes us through to the end of that war. I am the first to admit that I don’t really care for books that take place during this time period. But it’s the mark of a truly gifted writer that still makes me pick up the book and read it as fast as I could. I had to know what happened to everyone. The time period is also a rich one – there’s not just the war. You also have the changing face of politics and women’s rights. The aristocracy doesn’t hold all the power anymore and now women from all walks of life want their voice to be heard. It’s all very interesting. There was one scene where one of the suffragettes was undergoing a force-feeding while in prison. If you’ve seen the movie Iron Jawed Angels, you’ll understand how grotesque a practice it truly was. *shudder*

Second are the characters. A few of the main characters are introduced in the previous two books but I feel that The Wild Rose could be read as a stand-alone if you didn’t have easy access to the previous two books. You’ll just end up getting the first two books anyway. LOL

So our main character is Willa Alden. Here is someone who has a lot going on. She’s in love with Seamie Finnegan, a man she grew up with. Seamie and Willa had gone climbing on Mount Kilimanjaro and hours after they revealed their love to each other, Willa fell and Seamie saved her life. Unfortunately, Seamie couldn’t save Willa’s leg and as soon as she could Willa ran away from him. Really though, she was running away from the fact that she could no longer climb. That was 8 years ago, now she’s in Tibet, roaming the foothills of Everest and taking pictures of that famous mountain. She also acts as the occasional guide, and that’s how she meets Max von Brandt, a german. Max falls for Willa, but he knows she loves someone else.

Meanwhile, Seamie has gone to the South Pole is something of an adventurer with a little bit of fame back in England. He is still in love with Willa as well but figures he’s never going to see her again. So when he’s back in England and crosses the path of Jennie, a suffragette with a heart of gold, he doesn’t fight his attraction to her. He is going to love her as much as he is able. And for a little while it is enough and they get married.

Unfortunately, Willa’s father is ill and she arrives back in England in time for the funeral. And a newly married Seamie cannot deny that he still loves her. And with the political climate in Germany so volatile, Max is also in town, and he’s not there for the reasons he says he is.

Ok, I’m going to admit it, I was shocked that Donnelly took the characters where she did – and here I’m referring to a married Seamie and Willa. I thought these two would painfully pine for each other from a safe distance but nope, the author totally went there. And that’s just the spark that set off a bomb. When the archduke of Austria is assassinated and world war I begins, our story really kicks off at that point. Willa is kind of forced to leave England by her brother and she sets off to France and from there ends up with freaking Lawrence of Arabia in the desert and doing her part in the war effort. Disguised as a man of course.

The Wild Rose was an engrossing, thrilling and thoroughly enjoyable conclusion to the Rose Trilogy. India and Sid from The Winter Rose make an appearance as well. Although I didn’t love this book as much as I love the Winter Rose, I still really enjoyed it. Fans of historical fiction definitely need to pick this one up if they enjoy excellent writing, intense drama and complicated characters. The Wild Rose gets a 5 out of 5 from me.

This book is available from Hyperion. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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