Over the years my reading habits have changed and I no longer reach for historical fiction as much since my brain can't seem to follow along with all of the variety of characters. I do no feel like I can give a fair review for this book because of this so I am just going to move it onto my "in the future when life slows down" tbr.

This is a beautiful well written book. It’s a tale of family, love and loss. This book is set in India and is set over two generations.
This is a wonderful and heart wrenching story

Not for me I'm afraid. A strong writing style and an unique plot quickly fell into something that just didn't click with it. It didn't hold my interest and I found myself quite bored at times and struggling to finish which was a shame as it had potential

This was my first book written by this author. I enjoyed her writing style.
The setting is in England and India.
The main characters are Janakus and Alice.
A beautiful story full of love, friendship, regret, abandonment and the ability to be resilient no matter what comes your way.
Overall, a intriguing read but I had a struggle getting through to the end.

Alice Harris grows up in India at the turn of the century, her father Robert is busy with his work, and her mother Caro spends most of her time in bed. Alice is raised by her Ayah, she has a little boy called Raju, he’s a little older than Alice, and they grow up together.

Raju is Alice’s best friend, they sneak off and explore the compound when they can. Alice isn’t prejudice, but her parents are, they wouldn’t be happy with her playing with Raju, and the mischief they get up to. As they get older, Alice parents are worried that’s she’s gotten to close to Raju, they send her away to school in England, and she has no idea what happens to the servants after she leaves.

The Orphan's Gift has a dual time line, it's set in India from 191o to 1986 and spans five decades.

Janaki is a baby when she’s left at St Ursula’s Orphanage, during the independence riots, and she was wrapped in a beautiful hand-knitted cardigan. Janaki and her best friend Arthy dream about having a real family, parents and being loved. The children at the orphanage are looked after, they have a much better life than children living on the streets, and the nun's make sure they receive an education.

Janaki is a good student, it doesn’t matter what she achieves, she always worries that she’s not good enough, worthy, and she builds a wall around her heart to protect herself from being hurt.

I received a copy of The Orphan’s Gift by Renita D'Silva from NetGalley and Bookouture in exchange for an honest review. A historical saga that looks at life in India during colonial times, the huge difference between how the English people lived and the locals. The tension between the Hindus, Muslims, and India wanting to be independent from England. Caught up in this turmoil are two young women, and it's a story about love, loss, tragedy, racism, regret, reconciliation, and four stars from me.

This story missed a wonderful opportunity to really delve into a fascinating period in history. There was so much happening in India at the time, but it was simply glossed over. The level of description was repetitive and became rather irritating by the end. The plot lacked tension and I just couldn't get into this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bookouture for the ARC.

Firstly - Ms D'Silva's writing is beautiful. She can do emotional reads very well, her topics are not shallow and she well recognize and write about the moments that make us and break us. Her families and people are living, nreathing, messy people of more than one dimension. She is worth of your reading time. As is her novel spanning several decades and lives of people connected to and loving India - young, self-centered Alice in love; smart doctor Janaki with her hearts broken more times than she can recover from and Janaki's daughter, the youngest and wisest of them all. These women are connected by life and love and their stories are to teach us some important truths. That love should be cherished and is worth to live in and for, but that love never should be selfish. That fear can protect us, but that fear also binds our wings and lessens our dreams, and also the lives of those we fear for. That you never know what life can gift you.

So why 3 stars? Two reasons - for first, I simply can not stand the young Alice, she is an egotistical cow who, in hunt for her desires, does not even spare a single thought for the others. Luckily, the older Alice learns a lesson or two, but the young Alice is horrible, and quite stupid in her thoughtlessness, too. The white men in her life are quite one-dimensional too, written with faults so Alice can feel less remorseful, I think, of her own sins and silliness. Secondly, while the novel is beautiful, sometimes it feels prolonged. Much time is dedicated to even smallest events of Alice's life, but her catharsion feels rushed and much more attention should be dedicated to her "new" life.
On the other hand, Janaki's story is perfect. I love her pure spirit (even in her brokenness and fears). I love her daughter, so wise, who has mastered the art of tough love in such a young age! And I adore the wise nuns whom have brought Janaki up with such great love.

And even with my abovementioned stance, I still find the novel being an interesting, enriching works.

Mother Teresa once said that “the most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.” She had firsthand knowledge of this as she helped and dedicated her life to caring for the orphans and the destitute in India.
Orphans can be abandoned emotionally as well as physically but they share one common thought, they are not wanted leading to the feeling of being unloved and in many cases, unable to give love to others.
Renita D’Silva’s book, The Orphan’s Gift, is the story of young Alice in 1909, the daughter of a British Commissioner and his wife, who live on a sprawling estate in India full of wealth and servants. Alice’s cold and distant parents refer to the servants as “coolies” but allowed them to cook, clean and raise Alice.
As a young girl starved for love and attention, Alice quickly forms attachments to her nanny, Ayah, and her son, Raju.
Alice shares everything with these people especially Raju, who she grows to love in a way that her father forbids. Alice is exiled to England in the hopes of keeping them apart.
The Orphan’s Gift is also the story of the beautiful yet sad girl, Janaki. Left at the door steps of an orphanage in 1944. Janaki is raised by the Nuns who run the orphanage and care for her.
Alice and Janaki are orphans who question why they have been abandoned.
The storyline alternates between Alice and Janaki, leading to some initial confusion but then blending into a beautiful storyline.
Renita D’Silva’s story is at times cruel yet tender, it’s also heart wrenching as well as heartwarming. It poses so many questions about forbidden love, tragedy and forgiveness.
Mother Teresa is featured in this historical fiction novel and perhaps she said it best when she said “the hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.” I know that Alice and Janaki in The Orphan’s Gift would second that thought.
An engaging tale that you won’t forget.
I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley. #NetGalley #TheOrphansGift

I loved this book! I felt so much for the characters, the love, the heartbreak, the sense of belonging and even the need to feel loved in a very crazy moment in history.

The Orphan's Gift is an intriguing book by Renita D'Silva. I know this is a good story with good writing. I know this is a great book for some people. I am not one of those people though. The writing style just isn't for me.

I was firstly attracted to The Orpahans Gift by the 1910 time frame is the romantic era of the British Raj of India. A time of huge wealth and privelege for the British folk who call Inida home...sometimes from birth.. Meanwhile, the locals are poor and underprivileged.....working for the well to do British.
A love affair between the two classes is forbidden.
This forbidden love echos down through the generations as a daughter tries to find the parents of her mother Janaki.,
Intelligent and kind Janaki was raised in an orphanage in India. The nuns love to tell the story of Janaki’s arrival at the orphanage, stopping the independence riots outside the gates, as the men on both sides gazed at the starry-eyed little girl left in a beautiful hand-knitted cardigan. Janaki has lost so many loved ones during her life. This has left her afraid to love anyone to deeply, in fair she will lose them.
This beautiful story sweeps between England and India, telling the dual time frame stories of Alice and Janaki. As turmoil erupts in India, the Indians fight (often to the death) for an independent country. I was shocked to read of the way the locals were treated by the British. Sure, they were earning an income, but they could be fired the slightest thing. They could also we killed for getting to close to someone of a different race.
The Orphans Gift has everything I could want in a book, history, romance and a richly painted backdrop of an era I wish I lived in.
Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture and Renita D'Silva for the chance to read.

WoW, Here's an author that writes with Passion, great detail and will take your breath away whilst reading her latest book The Orphan's Gift by Renita D'Silva. Once you've read a few pages you will be hooked and will become apart of this story. Feel that you can touch things that's are in this book, breathe the air around the story.
This book will stay with you for a long time. Like all her other books, they have the same way about them and will last forever in your heart, this will be read again.

I Highly Recommend all of Renita D'Silva's books especially this one.

WoW................Just Beautiful throughout. Looking forward to her next book.

If i could give this book 10 stars I would......

Big Thank you NetGalley, Bookouture the publisher and especially Renita D'Silva for giving me the chance to read The Orphan's Gift and I really loved reading this book.

The Orphan’s Gift
My thanks to #NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review. With the Orphan’s Gift Renita D’Silva takes the reader through four decades of love and loss, passion and pain. Written with such deep, vivid descriptions, the reader is taken deep into the world of 1909 India where two young children grow together to find the fruits of forbidden love.
A beautifully written historical fiction, spanning 1906 to 1986, The Orphan’s Gift shows the turmoil of racism in the fight for India’s self-rule. D’Silva’s characters are full of emotion. The love and hate and regret drip off the page, falling into the lap of the reader. The smell, the heat, the dust, all surround the reader in a multidimensional reading experience. The Orphan’s Gift is a reader’s gift : highly recommended.

This was a beautifully written book with a captivating story of love, loss, race and war! The primary setting is India and Mrs. D'Silva writes in such a descriptive way that I could smell the spices, taste the food, and feel the heat. I always enjoy the historical fiction books published by Bookouture and look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you, Bookouture and NetGalley, for a digital ARC!

The Orphan's Gift is a wonderful saga that explores a mother's love and how lives were affected by war. This emotional story also explores lasting effects of how the division of race affected more than one life.

Alice and Janaki have tragic stories at different times in history, but their lives eventually converged. The story starts with Alice in India 1909. While Alice did not want for much in a material sense as her father was in the British Royal Army and she had her mother, her life was not ideal. This was in large part due to the fact that her mother spent most of her life in bed, Alice was raised by her nanny, Ayah, and she formed a great bond with Ayah's son Raju. As children they were blind to the incredible race divisions that would plague them as they grew up.

The story begins to go back and forth between Alice's life and that of Janaki, with Janaki’s story in 1944 with her being raised in an orphanage. Janaki did manage to get adopted by loving parents, but things did not stay in her favor, as she was forced to deal with terrible tragedies.

With the story being told in alternating points of view and time spans between both Alice and Janaki, there were many tragedies and thus was often heartbreaking. There was terrible hatred at that time and this eventually destroyed the incredible bond Alice had with Raju. Later, when Janaki was born she was taken to an orphanage by her mother. It takes decades of tragedies before a glimmer of hope is offered to either Alice or Janaki.

It was disconcerting to read of the violence and hatred that existed during those years towards the Hindus and this broke my heart. The rapid switch between stories gave me a chance to breathe through my tears, but I could not put the book down because I so hoped for some type of happiness to occur for both Alice and Janaki. I was very pleased to have followed this story until the end and was rewarded with a heartwarming conclusion.

Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

Such a fascinating read. A dual timeline novel, set in India. A fascinating story.


Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

Oh what a marvellous book! What an emotional, tear-jerking story full of love, passion, colour, but also pain, heartache and loss. Brilliant Renita D'Silva knows exactly how to concoct the perfect recipe using all the above ingredients and more at the right doses and come out with such brilliant results. This book is simply magnificent!

As per the author's other books, I found myself immersed in the story, touched by the lives of the central characters (Alice and Janaki) as they go through life's ups and downs during a very difficult time in the history of India, when it was torn apart by conflicts as it sought independence. Historical characters like Gandhi and Mother Theresa are also mentioned in this book.

Reading Renita's books, it's fairly impossible not to be enthralled by the author's colourful, almost poetic writing. Her knack of using colour in all types of situations whether they're sad or happy is unbelievable. Reading one of Renita's books I always find myself noting down uncountable beautiful quotes for me to easily find whenever I want to dream again with my eyes open. Because that's what Renita D'Silva does to her readers, she makes them dream of a beautiful, colourful land on the other side of the world, burning with the unrelenting sun but also with passion and desire, in another time. Thanks to the author's vivid description, I could almost smell, hear, feel and see all that's happening inside the book's pages.

Some quotes I noted down from this book are:
"Most ignore her: their jaded gazes the blind blue of indifference, the icy green of disdain."

"... a sliver of excitement, bright pulsing red, is nudging for space alongside purple guilt."

"Her granddaughter laughs, a kaleidoscopic cascade of flowers, a choir of voices raised in song."

A huge well done to the author for writing such a brilliant, mesmerising story and thanks to Bookouture for an ARC of this book which I voluntarily accepted to read and review. Highly, highly recommended!!

This author always delivers an emotional story. The lyrical writing style is pleasurable to read. The vivid characters and imagery are evocative of the setting. Told from Alice and Janaki's viewpoints the story set in India and England encompasses a turbulent time in the two country's histories. Loss, love, manipulation and prejudice form the intricate embroidery of this story. The characters draw you into their worlds the ripple of effect resonates from carelessly made decisions.

If you are looking for a book that is vibrant yet poignant and full of sensory imagery, this is for you.

I received a copy of this book from Bookouture via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

‘The Orphan’s Gift’ by Renita D’Silva tells the stories of two women, Alice and Janaki, and moves across four decades between India and England. It is a deceptive tale of love and loss and the mystery of how these two young women are connected at a time when certain love was forbidden. It is an unforgiving world where broken rules may be punished by death, isolation and poverty and where the sanctions may come from those closest to you.
We first meet Alice, aged four, living a privileged life in the house of her parents, surrounded by beauty, warmth, and servants. But there are shadows too. Alice’s parents are distant and she finds love and companionship with her Ayah and Ayah’s son, Raju. Alice’s mother is delicate and spends all her time in a shadowed bedroom, her father is Deputy Commissioner of the British Government in India. Alice’s story starts in 1909 when the first agitations of Indian independence begin.
Janaki’s story begins in 1944 when she is raised by nuns in an Indian orphanage, she was left there as a tiny baby, wrapped in a hand-made green cardigan. Desperate for love, Janaki learns a difficult lesson; that even when love is found, there is no insurance against future pain.
The lives of both women are coloured by their early years and their differing experiences of love. Each story on its own is fascinating, but the fascination comes from how the two women are linked. Occasionally we see a tantalising glimpse of the elderly Alice in India in 1986, as an unknown visitor arrives. Hints are given in the Prologue which of course I read then forgot about as I became enthralled in the world of the book. Only as the book approaches its end does the significance of the Prologue become clear. D’Silva’s theme is how life turns on a sixpence. ‘It takes so little to change a life.’
I particularly enjoyed Janaki’s life at the orphanage, her friendship with Arthy, the pact the two girls make to study as doctors after meeting Mother Theresa and seeing one of their friends die because of the orphanage’s inability to pay for a doctor. Janaki’s story jumps forwards to the 1960s when she is a trailblazing doctor of gynaecology, at a time when female doctors are rare and given many column inches, but when she feels at her loneliest.
Love, and its subsequent loss, is not always fair; it hurts and can be unjust. This is a story of the ripple of consequences, it is also about the strength and truth of unselfish love which transcends prejudice, poverty and status. This book is full of the colours and scents of India but at its heart is a darkness and sadness which jabs an emotional punch. D’Silva is my go-to author for novels about India; she creates a sensory world which never fails to delight but into this setting she weaves stories tackling moral and heart-breaking themes.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

Set in India and spanning different eras this book tell the tale of likeable and believable characters in difficult situations. Beautifully descriptive writing and an amazing story of love and hope spanning years, the writing draws you in and transports you to their world. Heartbreaking yet I found it full of hope.
This was my first read from this author and I will be reading more of her works.

Thanks to netgalley