Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

Under the "New York Times Bestsellers" heading- still striking out on finding one in this category to recommend to my kidlets.
This is a good book. I cried, I stressed, and in the end, it came out okay. I do like a happy ending! And, really, "as compared to" it is not an unthinkable choice for my older teen. The book is about adults so the main characters are in relationships. One is in a marriage that is losing traction, one is in a relationship that mostly seems to be about sex- but the sex scenes aren't very graphic. The book is about relationships though- between parents, between parents and their children, between siblings, between lovers, and how all these relationships are shaped. The cold and distant elderly mother of the story holds the turning point, and her revelation of what she suffered in WW2 changes the perceptions of all the characters. The story of her suffering in Leningrad is heart wrenching, but is not The Diary of Anne Frank also a story about love amongst horror? And Anne Frank is on many "Required Reading" lists (another group I find interesting and sometimes exasperating) for teens. So, I may have struck out on finding a book appropriate for the preteen/tweens but, I think this might be a real stunner for the older teens- and their moms&dads!Just beware there is sex, and drinking (the family bonds a bit over shots of Russian Vodka) suffering of war (real) as well as love, forgiveness and a bit of a far-fetched fairy tale ending (much needed after starving babies)!