The Orphan House contained all the elements I like in this genre of books. There were strong characters, well defined and vivid, a smooth flowing story line, a mystery and a wonderfully created atmosphere where the story unfolds. The secrets Cedar Hall hold are slowly revealed to keep the plot moving forward and keeps the reader engulfed in the mystery. I couldn't put this one down, I loved it! Sarah's character is strong, yet also vulnerable and relatable. Anna's story is heartbreaking to the core, Ezra is a very complex character with multiple sides and plenty of his own secrets. I story is brilliantly written so that you see both the good and the evil, there is goodness in these characters, and also evil especially with Ezra. The dark foreboding presence of Cedar Hall and the mysterious orphanage just add to the overall feel of this story. Very well done. I can't wait to read more from this author.

"The Orphan House" was a very emotional book. It started off slow for me, but I kept turning the pages and was hooked. I didn't put it down until the end! Filled with lots of secrets and mysteries that slowly come to light when Sarah Jennings buys Cedar Hall. Connie Burroughs has lived her entire life in Cedar Hall with her sister Evie, who has passed. The house is next to the orphanage in Weirfield - on - Thames. Their father Rev. Ezra Burroughs is the superintendent of the orphanage.

"In her mind's eye, they looked exactly like the orphans in "Oliver Twist," dressed in rags and pitiful thin."

Sarah has moved to be with her father, after leaving London and her husband. She has an interest in Cedar Hall and the orphanage, as her father was there as a baby.
What secrets are Connie hiding, either too ashamed or protecting her father?

Thank you to author, Ann Bennett, Bookouture, and NetGalley for the eARC

A Mother Found

This book was fascinating in its vivid description of the village in India, the many sites such as the bazaar, the Baptist church, and the Castle. It was also quite descriptive of the English village where sat Cedar Hall and where the orphanage once stood. It is a story of a mother's heartbreak, a child lost and finally the love between a daughter and her father. There was a lot going on and it kept the pages turning.

I loved the characters, Connie, Sarah, and Anna. The story is rather sad, the ending happy and with a twist toward the end involving Connie. Sara's father's search for his birth mom, and Connie's secret she was finally able to let go of. The story of Anna was very sad.

The story was well written, the book kept my interest to the end, and I would definitely recommend it.

Thanks to Ann Bennett, Bookouture, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an advance copy of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Ms. Bennett has written an outstanding and moving book that wove the stories of the past and present together. The main characters are Connie Burroughs - she's an elderly lady who lived her entire life in Cedar Hall which was next to the Cedar Hall Orphanage in Weirfield-on-Thames because her father the Reverend Ezra Burroughs was the superintendent of the orphanage. She now lives in Fairlawns which is a nursing home. This is her first time away from Cedar Hall in her entire life and the first time she is truly alone as her sister Evie has passed away. Connie has some problems with her memory but when she spots a gentleman in the dining hall that looks a lot like her first and only love Tommy Braithwaite, things start to fall into place for her. She has also been hanging onto a diary for many, many years. The story of Anna Baker and what happened to her in the coach house behind Cedar Hall.

The present weaves in with Sarah Jennings, who is leaving her life and husband Alex who has been having some dodgy money laundering deals going on. She feels drawn to Cedar Hall. The orphanage has long since been torn down and Cedar Hall has seen better days but for reasons even she is not aware of, she finds herself putting in an offer and becoming the proud owner of the house. She learns that her father William Jennings used to be a foundling at the orphanage and as his health is declining, she promises to help him find out who is birth family were and why they didn't want him.

This is a beautifully crafted book and Ms. Bennett did a brilliant job of bringing the characters to life for the reader.

This book is told from the perspectives of three women: Sarah, Connie, and Anna.

Sarah is a London restaurant owner who leaves her husband (after the police start questioning her about his business practices) and returns home to spend more time with her father. She ends up buying an old house to restore, which used to belong to Connie. Connie is the daughter of the former overseer of the old orphanage and has to sell the house after her sister dies and she hurts her leg. She's forced to move into a nursing home and sell her house, but she is still terrified to break the promise she made to her late father to keep all his papers and things private from the world. Anna is a 28-year-old woman sent to live and marry in India after her father goes to jail, and we learn about her life through old journal entries.

This book gets a slow start. I had to get past the first one-third of the book before I actually started to care what happened. But I try to finish every book I start, so I kept going, and I'm glad I did because it was a sweet story in the end. I especially liked the character of Anna, perhaps because she seemed slightly more developed as a full character compared to the other two women, and without giving anything away, the ending was sweet and sentimental, which in this case made the book worth reading.

I will note that I didn't find the "mystery" parts very mysterious -- I had already figured out all the sudden revelations a lot earlier in the book. And, some room for improvement is the way Sarah ended her marriage, which was slightly unbelievable -- usually after a long marriage and business relationship, without any abuse, you'd have to talk to the person at some point to get a divorce. Also, Connie seemed to be a firecracker as a child, so her cowering and being so completely afraid of her (dead) father as an adult seems out of place.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review. It has not influenced my opinion.

What an amazing read!!! I didn't expect this to be a roller coaster of Emotions, Suspense, and Mystery but it was everything!!

I really enjoy The Orphan House, it was a very emotional book, with a lot of secrets and back agendas that slowly we will get to discover as the story moves forward. whatever you think will happen it won't. This story will keep surprising you and taking you to new scenarios that will make the story and the secrets more complicated, some rodes will close but the light will show at the end, bringing peace and happiness to Sarah and all the Characters that were involved seeking the truth.

Sarah is helping her father to find out a secret that has been bugging him for a long time, she didn't know she was going to embark in a journey that will open not just the secrets of Her father's roots but also will bring out secrets that are very hard to hear.

Connie was very misunderstood, she was very fragile and live with a lot of fear, her past kept holding her back to move forward and finally release all that fear, She was only trying to protect her family but with time we will understand her better.

Two different lives, Two different stories connected by a terrible past that have been hidden for a long time.

The Orphan House It's about faith, about seeking the truth. It's about family and getting to know your story, about secrets that are eager to be spoken and come out of their hidden place.. It's about
keep going until you finally get the peace you've been seeking and needing in your mind.

Overall it was a great read, The characters were amazing, the story will keep you wanting more and more until the end.. I'm looking forward to reading more book By Ann Bennet this was my first book by her and I love her writing so much.

I Recommend this book so much!!!

This was quite a slow book. We have 3 female characters and each has chapters written from their perspective. Sarah is in the present, Constance is present and past and Anna appears through diary entries.

While the story was entertaining enough, I didn’t feel any of the characters were given the option to properly explore their situation, leaving us readers wanting more, but not in a good way! The whole thing just seemed unfinished and a bit clumsy. The ending was quite rushed and it felt as if we were tying up loose ends and nothing more.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for my copy of this book.

I have previously read this book under its previous name but was worth reading again. Love how the book takes you back to when the child was born and the heartache of the mum having to give it up

Amazing! The Orphan House by Ann Bennett delivers. This was such a fresh read, that I almost read in one setting. I gave this book a 5/5 star rating because I was hooked only a few pages in to the story.
The characters are definitely the focus of this most haunting tale. Connie the older of the two characters has been covering secrets for years. Sara a recently divorced woman who buys a house from Connie. It is not hard to feel for both characters in this story.
The appeal for me this book is the title The Orphan House. Anything that is written about things like this always appeal to me. Although, I did not see the story at first. As the book went along the different pieces started fitting together.
The Orphan House is a pleasant read that can be a refreshing change to your current genre. I can not say enough about this book and I hope you will love it too.

I'm not really sure what to make of this one if I'm honest. The synopsis sounded great, exactly the sort of book I normally love, but on this occasion it just didn't work for me. The plot is exactly as described, but it just felt a bit lacklustre.

I think part of my issue is that I just didn't like Sarah. I found her approach of literally running from her problems quite immature, and personally thought it was unbelievable. I also didn't think the writing was that strong - there's a lot of telling not showing, and also a lot of repetition. It felt like the actual plot could be summed up in just a few short sentences, but the resulting book had far too much filler for me.

I did enjoy Anna's diary entries, but that really was the only bit of the book I engaged with. And even then, her storyline ended in a very rushed and unsatisfactory manner. It also ended up being one of those books where everything was wrapped up a bit too easily for me. I don't know, it was just quite underwhelming and anticlimactic, and sadly not one I'd recommend.

Oh this book gave me all the feelings at once. Hearing the tale of the elderly woman takes me to working with my nursing home residents and all of their stories I've had the privilege of hearing over the years. The idea that you can find peace so late in life is touching, and this story keeps you hooked through the whole book.

If there were ever to be a perfect bookclub book, it would be The Orphan House.

Beautifully portrayed charecters, who were so vivid reading The Orphan House almost felt like watching it on the big screen, every place, person, and circumstance came to live and felt almost tangible. From growing up in an orphanage, to leaving a deceiptful marriage, overcoming family illnesses and secrets, to re-finding old love, and traveling to far off lands, The Orphan House will surely touch your soul.

The interweaving of timelines and families through hardships and triumphs over generations and across oceans came together to be all tied up in a bow by the last page.

Highly recommend for a light yet fulfilling read.

I really enjoyed this historical fiction. The two time lines worked well together and married up nicely at the end. I think it’s one of those booked that the reader needs to keep in mind the timeline it was written from, back when family shame was massive and you would never turn your back on your family. With this in mind this helped me to understand the old lady and why she struggled so much to tell her family story. I loved the diary parts, Anna describe India with such passion. Over all a beautiful and poignant read.

It must be a new trend to write books in chapters via different perspectives, and this book is one. I will admit this was not my favorite book I have read. I was hoping for something else, but it just wasn't there. It was interesting to see the dynamic between the different time periods and how the 2 main characters accepted the things going on in the lives and the secrets that were kept. The author did tie up some loose ends that I didn't necessarily see coming, but hindsight there were some clues offered.

I read this book quickly, but it was not one that I would categorize as 'one I could not put down". I was never bored, but still wanted a little more from the book.

I would give it 2.5 stars. The book moved very slow and at times it felt like dialog and story lines were repeated over and over. Not a fan of any of the characters. Sarah ups and leaves her husband and never talks with him about what is going on. Maybe she would have stayed with him if she knew the truth. Connie was my least favorite character. She knew the truth about her father but chose to keep everything a secret and sealed everything away. Ezra Burroughs had quite the hold over his daughters, even after he died. They would even go through his desk. There could have been more about Ezra, especially his time in India. How did Connie and Evie manage to live at their house for so long when neither of them had any type of income coming in? The most interesting part of the book was Anna's diary. I would have liked to read more about Sarah and her husband. All the police investigation stuff just got brushed away. I'm pretty sure she would be part of the investigation since she was an owner in the restaurant. I wished there was more than the short letter she received from her husband. Finding out what happened to Anna was pretty much anticlimactic. I have so many questions. What happened to Donald? How did he explain what happened?

I loved the cover of the book.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Bookouture through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

When I started reading The Orphan House by Ann Bennett I thought I was going to be reading about orphans during WWll because it takes place in 1934 in a village on the River Thames in England. I did not read anything about it before I started. I was not at all correct. Instead this is a gripping story about a Baptist Reverend that runs an orphanage and three women who are haunted by him. The Orphan House will keep you saying one more chapter, one more chapter until you realize it’s 3:00 a.m. and you need to get to sleep because you have to be up at 7:00 a.m.

The story is told by three different women. Connie Burroughs is in her 90’s and the daughter of Baptist Reverend Ezra Burroughs the man who ran the orphanage. She has kept her fathers secrets for her entire life and realizes it is time to break her silence. Sarah Jennings is the daughter of William King. William was a foundling at the orphanage; he was adopted at six months and wants to find out who his real mother is before he dies. Anna Foster lived in India and her story is told through a diary.

There are so many secrets, there are loving relationships between fathers and daughters and hateful relationships between fathers and daughters. There are twists and turns and every chapter leaves you hanging, wanting to read more. I loved many of the little side relationships and stories that were unexpected. Great story telling by Ann Bennett, a new author for me. Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for an ARC of The Orphan House by Ann Bennett in exchange for an honest review. I will definitely be checking out more books by this author.

"One day, everything changed."

Home. Everybody has a reason for going home.
Secrets. Everybody has secrets. Sometimes the secrets are not our secrets we are keeping.

In The Orphan House, Ann Bennett takes us into the lives of Connie and Sarah. The Orphan House, is dual perspective. Well, it is actually triple, if you consider the mysterious diary that was given to Connie by Anna.

We start off in 1934, with Connie walking to the door of Cedar Hall Orphanage, and seeing the housekeeper holding a tiny baby...another abandoned baby. Connie's dad is in charge of the orphanage, and as always, he will take care of the paperwork.

Then, we jump to present day and Sarah Jennings has left her husband and is headed back home to tell her dad. She's not sure she will ever be able to go back to Alex. After what he has done, how can she?

These two women have a lot of questions they need to find the answers to. How will the lives of these two women intersect?

What lengths will Connie go to in order to protect her dad's secrets?
What lengths will Sarah go to in order to find the answers to her dad's past?

Daughters usually put their dads on a pedestal, but what happens when that pedestal gets shattered by the truth?

In The Orphan House, Ann Bennett takes us down a path that ultimately leads to healing. The twists and turns of how we get there, will sometimes find you breathless.

Reasons to read The Orphan House:
If you like drama.
If you like father/daughter relationships.
If you like secrets.
If you like full circle moments.


Thank you Bookouture and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Orphan House.
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For me, this book was a bit slow to start, but turned out to be quite a good book I couldn’t put down, Two stories and two timelines converge as Sarah attempts to help her father find his birth mother. He knows he was placed in the orphan home and adopted at six months, The mansion she buys is the home of the former superintendent of that orphan home next door. After Sarah finds several well hidden items in the mansion she attempts to get answers from Connie, the superintendent’s daughter. At first Connie is reluctant to talk about her father. Now in her 90s, she decides his secrets can no longer be kept. Through her recollections, letters and a diary, they are able to solve the parentage mystery. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All opinions expressed are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and Bookouture for this digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

Description
Baby born September 5th 1934 approximately. Place of birth, unknown; father, unknown; mother unknown.
Present day.

Sarah Jennings knows there’s one place she can go to find some peace and quiet during her difficult divorce. But arriving at her beloved father’s home in the countryside, she finds him unwell and hunched over boxes of files, studying the records from Cedar Hall, the crumbling orphanage in town. He says that hidden behind the wrought iron gates and overgrown ivy are secrets about their family, and he asks for her help.


Sarah goes to speak to Connie Burroughs, the only person left alive who lived at Cedar Hall. Her questions take Connie from the comfort of her nursing home right back to a chilly night in 1934, when as a little girl she saw her own father carrying a newborn baby, bundled in rags, that he said he’d found near the broken front gate. The day Connie began to protect his secrets.


But just as Sarah begins to convince Connie that the truth can set her free, she realises that unlocking the past might have heartbreaking consequences…
.

An emotional and uplifting reminder that incredible acts of courage can change the course of history, Ann Bennett’s powerful tale is inspired by the lives of the children who lived at her great-grandfather’s orphanage. Fans of Before We Were Yours, The Orphan’s Tale and The Orphan Train will be hooked.

It was hard for me to follow, but a gripping tale for sure - for those who enjoy the dual POV

The story is told mainly in two different time periods, part historical and part up to date. It is quite a complex story with three narratives that eventually intertwine. It took me a while to get into but once I did I absolutely loved reading about the three very different but courageous women.