Review: A Winter Dream by Richard Paul Evans

A Winter Dream by Richard Paule Evans, AF, 2012, hardcover, 266p, Rating=2.5

Source: library

Joseph Jacobson is the twelfth of thirteen siblings, all of whom are employed by their father’s successful Colorado advertising company. But underneath the success runs a poisonous undercurrent of jealousy; Joseph is his father’s favorite and the focus of his brothers’ envy and hatred. When the father seems ready to anoint Joseph as his heir, the brothers make their move, forcing Joseph from the company and his Denver home, severing his ties to his parents and ending his relationship with his soon-to-be fianceé. Alone and lonely, Joseph must start a new life.

Richard Paul Evans is one of my favorite authors and I turn to his books for a good feel read.  This book had a lot of potential given it aligned with the biblical story of Joseph who was sold into slavery by his brothers.  But this Joseph, Joseph Jacobson, was disappointingly passive.  He was quick to accept the extortion from his brothers without a fight or question or depth of feeling.  Yes, he did it so that his younger brother, Ben, would not face potential jail time but going along with it actually was a selfish move.  How about his parents?  His girlfriend he was planning to propose to?  The condition was to drop everything and move to another state immediately without any notice.  So okay, that was unbelievable but I continue to read and see what happens.  Of course, all the ducks came in a row.  He meets another woman (who by the way had an outrageous background; my favorite character in this book), had the winning advertising pitch, and comes in full circle in a powerful position.  It all came too easy.  The conflicts were there but he really didn't do much to get there.  I felt that Mr. Evans might have thought that the analogy would speak for itself.  Yes, the reunion with his dad did make me cry but for the shear fact that generally a reunion between a parent and child would be moving. 

One might say, well Joseph did a good deed and so karma would have it that things work well for him.  Fantastic!  But that's not the problem in this book.  It was the lack of depth in Joseph's character.  For instance, what happened to the grieving process?  Holy smokes, all his brothers (I'm counting Ben since he let it happen) banished him, where was the passion for any feelings about that?

I still love Mr. Evans and will continue to read his books.  This one just didn't rank with the zeal in the story that I've come to expect from his books.