The Winthrop Agreement

The Winthrop Agreement by Alice Sherman Simpson begins with young Jewish immigrant Rivkha Milmanovitch arriving in New York City to begin a new life with her husband Jacob. Only that idea of a fairytale beginning and ending is dashed when Jacob doesn’t show up. Alone and pregnant Rivkha goes to her family friend Lottie and gives birth to a girl Miriam. Rivkha works in a sweatshop to support her and Miriam. Miriam almost repeats her mother’s mistakes when she meets a rich man whose part of the Winthrop family. He loves her and leaves her alone but Miriam doesn’t fall apart. Miriam has her son and works hard and becomes an international designer, though she has to be careful of the dangerous man who fathered her child who has more secrets of his own.

Character & Storyline  

I like Miriam as a main character and the important part of the story is that while life can throw us curveballs and we make mistakes that we choose never to give up on our dreams for a better life.  The Winthrop Agreement is definitely for those who enjoy historical fiction books. If you’re a fan of The Gilded Age on HBO you will probably enjoy this book.

Flow of the Writing

The writing was descriptive as I can picture myself being here in the different time periods. I will say the story dragged and sometimes took forever for things to get exciting, and the book seemed too long. The climax wasn’t as exciting as it could have been in my opinion and the ending seemed very rushed. I thought to myself, “What that’s it?” It seemed as though the author was tired of the story and rushed to get it done.

Overall

Overall I think if the ending wasn’t rushed and the book was condensed a bit, I think it would have been better. It wasn’t the worst book I’ve ever read but it wasn’t the best either. If you don’t have an early copy of The Winthrop Agreement pre-order it now so you can get it on November 21^st. Thank you Heather Drucker for an early copy!