Winter Rose by Patricia A. McKillip

“I walked through a storm and fell asleep in an empty house; when I woke there was a dead man beside me…”

Two sisters are preparing for harvest to end and winter to arrive, one is engaged to a farmer, and one is as wild as the autumn winds and her namesake, Rois (Rose). Their lives are changed when a blond stranger named Corbet appears to reclaim his family’s old house, now in great disrepair. His father had abandoned it many years ago, as most in the village believe, after killing his own father, Corbet’s grandfather.

Corbet enlists the help of some men of the village to repair only a few of the rooms, before he disappears as well, but not after he has enjoyed many nights at dinner with the two sisters, leaving with both their hearts, trapped between worlds only one girl can find.

Rois will face an ancient, powerful magic, “the dead of winter”, that few have seen and lived, to save the one she truly sees and knows, as no other can.

For anyone who has ever pined over love lost, or searched for magic in the snow or autumn winds or in a deep well, The Winter Rose is a poetically-written, tragic, romantic fantasy that will enthrall and warm you through the long winter.

Perfect for fans of:

• fantasy fiction
• period dramas
• the woods/countryside
• magic fiction
• family mysteries
• creepy old houses
• romantic drama
• tragedy
• winter tales
• unsolved mysteries
• sister stories
• love triangles
• hidden world/magic places
• snow queen

The Recipe:

To combine these elements, I created a recipe for:

Apple Blackberry Pie Bites

Apple Blackberry Pie Bites Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup blackberry jam
• 1 large Gala or Fuji apple, peeled and diced very small
• 6 tbsp cold butter
• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, preferably unbleached
• 2 tbsp granulated sugar, divided in half
• 1/3 cup ice water

Instructions:

1. In a medium bowl, combine the flour with one tablespoon of sugar. Place the butter on top and use a pastry cutter to mix the butter in for a couple minutes until it resembles small crumbs. Then add the ice water, drizzling in a couple tablespoons at a time, and fold the water into the flour mix by hand. You may need a bit more or less water than listed depending on humidity (you want just enough water for all the flour in the dough to come together, but not to be soggy). Make sure the water you add is icy cold. When the flour is fully combined into a dough, roll into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.
2. In a small sauce pot on medium-high heat, cook the diced apples, the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar, and the blackberry jam for 3-4 minutes until the apples are soft and the mixture is boiling. Boil for one minute. Allow to cool ten to fifteen minutes at least before using.
3. Preheat the oven to 400° F. Spray a mini cupcake tin liberally with nonstick cooking spray. Roll out the dough onto a heavily floured flat surface (I used 3/4 cup) to about 1/16 inch thick or the height of a thin cookie (see picture below). Cut the dough into small circles just slightly larger than the holes of the tin, using a small cup. Then place each round in each hole of the tin and press down gently, floured side down.
4. Repeat the rolling and cutting out process until the dough is all used up. Fill each pressed dough round with about a teaspoon of raspberry filling. Don’t fill them above the line of the tin or they will boil over. Bake for 20 minutes, then allow to cool 5-10 minutes before devouring. Top with a little whipped cream if you’d like. Makes 14 pie bites.

Discussion Questions

1. What might it have been like to live in a village where each person had their own trade, passed down for generations, such as an apothecary, a smithy, a baker, a weaver, and a chandler? What other job did the apothecary have that sent people back to him with questions about a body?
2. What did Rois see that made her run from Crispin’s wedding into the wood, even abandoning her shoes in a corn crib?
3. What was the connection between all the forms of the curse the villagers had heard, and Corbet’s statement “Truth is a simple place reached by many different roads”?
4. Why was it that in “that huge, beautiful house,” and all Leta and her friends saw was two rooms? What was their significance?
5. Why did Anis, Shave Turl’s great-aunt, hear one curse, and practically all the other oldest villagers each heard their own? Why did young Tearle sometimes go to her house and play with or watch her children, even though he was older than they were? What finally stopped him?
6. Where did Corbet go when no one else wanted him as a child? Who wanted him now?
7. When Rois drank wine out of the silver cup Corbet gave her, she “saw the world out of Corbet’s eyes.” What did that mean?
8. What did Rois’s mother and Corbet’s mother as well die of? What other mortal maids might this have happened to? 
9. Why was Corbet “only a daydream. Nothing solid, nothing real, to start a life with”? If so, why was Laurel so caught up in it? 

Similar Books:

Other books by Patricia McKillip most similar to this one are The Changeling Sea, The Bell at Sealey Head, In the Forests of Serre, and Solstice Wood. Another of my favorites of hers is Alphabet of Thorn. She wrote twenty-four award-winning fantasy and sci-fi novels, and many short stories as well.

Another wood with an enchantment is Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley. This story is much like the tale of Briar Rose, or Sleeping Beauty.

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones is also a tragic love story about a girl, a boy who has magic abilities, and the impending cold, lonely winter.

Wildwood Dancing is another wonderful fantasy story about love, nature, choices, and even includes a few renovations of old fairy tales combined into one new adventure.

© 2026 Amanda Lorenzo Block