My Review of Waterbury Winter by Linda Stewart Henley

It’s been such a rainy spring that even at the start of June we’re still seeing clouds and rain in the forecast in Portland, Oregon. I’m thankful! After last year’s heatwave, we could use the break. I recently finished Waterbury WInter by Linda Stewart Henley and it was such a charming book.

First, here’s a bit about it:

Barnaby Brown has had enough of freezing winters, insurmountable debt, a dead-end job, and his solitary life as a young widower with no one but his beloved parrot Popsicle. He yearns to move to California and reawaken his long-lost early life as an artist. But new troubles come in threes. His ancient car crashes into a snowbank. Popsicle escapes through a window carelessly left open. 

A New York gallery owner offers to represent Barnaby’s paintings—but is he on the up-and-up? All of it serves to shock Barnaby into confronting how low he has sunk, and he vows—again and again—to change. He has a few obstacles, starting with his heavy drinking and long-term neglect of his ancestral home. As he takes steps toward a better life, he re-discovers the value of old friendships and latent talents seen in new light, and finds the courage to consider a second chance at love. Rejoining the mainstream of life presents several startling mysteries he must unravel, with a few mortifying but enlightening stumbles.

A heart-warming novel about ordinary people reclaiming their dormant potential, Waterbury Winter celebrates the restorative value of art and the joy to be found in keeping promises.

My Review

I love books sent in the winter setting. It’s one of my favorite times of the year and I love it when a book is set in the snow. Barnaby turned out to be such a relatable character. His life is going as planned and things seem to go from bad to worse when his bird goes missing. Ever so slowly, it all starts to turn around. I rooted for him the whole time and I loved being in that little town with him. The setting was rich and the characters were charming.

I’d absolutely recommend it if you are looking for an uplifting read this summer!

Find out more about Waterbury Winter by visiting GoodReads or the author’s website. You can also purchase it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org.

About the Author:

Linda Stewart Henley is the author of Estelle: A Novel. Among other honors, it won Silver in the Independent Publisher Book Awards for Historical Fiction and was a finalist for The Eric Hoffer Book Awards as well as for the 2021 Nancy Pearl Award. She lives in Anacortes, Washington, with her husband. Waterbury Winter is her second novel.

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