Beyond The Orchard

It's 1993 and Lucy has returned to Melbourne after living in London for the past 5 years. She ran away from her attraction to older family friend Morgan and now she's back in Melbourne for family reasons. Her father is a successful novelist who rewrites fairy tales and she illustrates his books and it is he that requests that she go to the old family home called 'Bitterwood', where her Grandfather has recently passed away to try and find an old photo album.

But there are secrets at 'Bitterwood' and these begin to unravel while she is there. Morgan joins Lucy at Bitterwood as her father has asked him to look out for her and he helps her with her family history while rediscovering their attraction to each other.

I think I did this book a bit of a disservice. There are multiple time lines throughout the book and while they are easy to follow overall, I think I missed a bit in the initial set up due to me picking up and putting the book down frequently in the beginning. This was more to do with life at the time than the story itself but I do think it affected my overall enjoyment as it was a little disjointed.

I also didn't really feel a connection to any of the characters, Lucy was late twenties but she still seemed young compared to Morgan who was only 12 years older. It was Clarice's, Orah's and Edwin's time that I enjoyed best. I liked how the story unfolded and the resolution but I have enjoyed the authors two previous novels more.

I would still recommend this story for good escapism. Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for a copy to read and review.

Wow. What an amazingly rich and mesmerizing novel, I was hooked right from from that start. The story unfolds through two differnt time frames and two different narrators, the shift in time and nartiation is seemless and adds a richness to the unfolding drama that is hard to resist. This is a book about family, promises, secrets and the power of love. I can not recommend this book highly enough.

Beyond the Orchard by Anna Romer
Published November 2016 – Cammeray, NSW

This story follows Lucy Briar who has returned to Australia after a self-imposed exile to London for several years. She is happily engaged or so she says, but the past has been creeping back and now she must face it before she can move on. With her father taken ill it falls to Lucy to unravel the mysteries of the Briar family past and to face the ghosts of the family estate Bitterwood Park.

“Orah shut her eyes. She could feel the sun on her hair, smell the grass and wildflowers, the salty sea”

The vivid imagery and romantic language that Anna Romer creates throughout this tale make it an absolute page turner. The suspense she creates is thrilling, the carefully woven stories are an intricate silken web not unlike that spun by the thousands of silkworms to create a bolt of the softest silk in which you can lose yourself.

A must read for any fans of Australian fiction, I look forward to going back and reading Anna’s other novels – Thornwood House and Lyrebird Hill.

Beyond the Orchard is a beautifully written book alternating between the past (30’s) where secrets and lies were buried deep all in the name of love and the present (90’s) where love begins to slowly blossom and the secrets are uncovered. An enjoyable read. Beyond the Orchard is my first Anna Romer book and it won’t be my last.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster (Australia) and NetGalley for allowing me to read this e-book for an honest opinion.

Beyond the Orchard tells the story of Lucy, who returns to Australia after 2 years in London when her Grandfather, Edwin, sends her a charm from her mother's bracelet and says he will "explain everything".

This is a historical/mystery/romance of the best kind; a novel that will draw you in and keep you guessing right until the very end. Lucy discovers there are people in her past that she didn't know existed, and nobody knows what happened to them. So Lucy sets about finding out the truth.

There are 4 storylines running throughout this novel - 1929, 1977 and two in 1993 (Lucy & Edwin) and the author cleverly intertwines them, posing questions and then unravelling the mystery piece by piece. The writing is complex and evocative, but flows smoothly and there's just enough detail to allow you to immerse yourself in the scenes without getting bogged down in them. The ending was plausible and satisfying.

The ARC I read contained quite a lot of errors and I hope it gets a good going-over by a proof-reader or copyeditor before it's published. People like me care about mistakes and they spoil my enjoyment.

I really enjoyed this novel and will be seeking out the author's previous two books.

A beautifully written Australian story following Lucy who has returned home from London. The story revisits the past unraveling Secrets then brings the reader back to the present day.
I'm a local girl myself and enjoyed the author bringing Melbourne and the surrounding coastline and countryside to life.
A wonderful story that will touch your heart.

Thanks to Simon & Schuster (Australia) and NetGalley for allowing me to read this story for an honest review.

Book Blurb

A haunting story of yearning, love and betrayal from the bestselling author of Thornwood House.
Lucy Briar has arrived home in turmoil after years overseas. She’s met her fiancé in London and has her life mapped out, but something is holding her back.
Hoping to ground herself and find answers, Lucy settles into once familiar routines. But old tortured feelings flood Lucy’s existence when her beloved father, Ron, is hospitalised and Morgan – the man who drove her away all those years ago – seeks her out.
Worse, Ron implores Lucy to visit Bitterwood Estate, the crumbling historic family guesthouse now left to him. He needs Lucy to find something– an old photograph album, the very thing that drove Ron and his father apart.
Lucy has her own painful memories of Bitterwood, darkness that has plagued her dreams since she was young. But as Lucy searches for the album, the house begins to give up its ghosts and she is driven to put them to rest.
And there, held tightly between the house, the orchard and the soaring cliffs, Lucy uncovers a long-hidden secret that shattered a family’s bond and kept a frightened young girl in its thrall ... and Lucy discovers just how fierce the lonely heart can be.


My thoughts:
Where to begin! This is such a sprawling story of secrets and mystery. I have red and loved Anna Romer’s two previous novels and this one will garner the same high praise from her followers, like me.

Beyond The Orchard has a slightly different feel to it. It is a big book (around 450 pages) and a complex plot taking it from a light read to one that requires reader concentration, especially as the story timeline jumps around a bit. But the structure is very well handled and as usual, Anna’s beautiful prose and sublime imagery sets her apart from her contemporaries. The fairytale thread was intriguing, adding a Kate Forsyth edge.

This story is based on love and betrayal of lucy briar.. it is a very moving story. Lucy uncovers a hidden secret from the familys dark past. It is a story of romance, mystery. I recommend people read the book and find out what happens. The author did a great job. The story is well written and a great plot to go with it. Overall i give it 5 out of 5.

4.5★s

When Lucy Briar received the letter from her grandfather she knew she needed to return home to find answers. Alex, her fiancé remained in London and when Lucy saw how happy her father was on her return, she was sorry it had been five years since she’d been home. Melbourne was where her heart was; it was where she’d grown up and where her friends were. But the event of five years previously which had caused her to flee to London hadn’t been resolved…

The sudden shock of her grandfather’s passing then her father’s bad fall where he was hospitalised had her heart in her throat. But when her dad asked Lucy to go to Bitterwood, the home of her grandfather, the place where her father was born and also a place of bad memories for her, Lucy wanted to refuse. But she couldn’t. The bitterness and anger that had stood between her grandfather Edwin, and her father Ron all those years needed resolution. And though Edwin was gone, Lucy wanted to find the answers to her dad’s estrangement of his father.

With her cat Basil by her side, and Morgan wanting to help, Lucy began to sort out Edwin’s life. But what she found was more confusion – the mystery surrounding the early family life in 1931 was deep. Photographs from that long ago time of faces Lucy didn’t recognise made her more determined to discover the truth. But would there be peace and resolution at the end of her search? The secrets which had surrounded Edwin’s life were there to be found…

Beyond the Orchard is another atmospheric and emotional read by Aussie author Anna Romer. The tragedy of the past; the heartbreak and fragility of a love built on secrets and betrayal – this novel has amazing depth and character. I’ve loved this author’s past work and this one didn’t disappoint. I have no hesitation in recommending Beyond the Orchard highly.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this copy to read in exchange for my honest review.

Love this novel. Will write a more detailed review soon!

Every family has secrets but Lucy is about to find out so much more than she thought possible. Lucy has come to see her grandfather after he wrote to her, she gets there too late but she needs to find out what he wanted to tell her. She runs into her first big crush and she is still hurt by what happened before she ran away, can she forgive Morgan and move on with her life with her husband to be or will she fall under his spell again? She is about to find out what kind of man her grandfather was and how things become so awful within her family. This book is really sad, shows us about love, sorrow and forgiveness. A great storyline.

‘If you could have anything at all, what would it be?’

Lucy Briar returns home to Melbourne, Australia after receiving a letter from her grandfather, Edwin. Lucy’s made a life in London, has a fiancé (Adam) there, but has unfinished business in Australia. And, very quickly after Lucy lands in Melbourne, her life becomes complicated.

‘I realised that the past was never completely gone.’

There are two stories in this novel: Lucy’s story and a story from the 1930s set in her grandfather’s home, Bitterwood Park. The novel shifts between present and past, and I found myself caught up in both looking for connections between the two. Lucy’s father Ron asks her to visit Bitterwood Park, to find an old photograph album. Ron and Edwin were estranged, and while Lucy has her own painful memories of Bitterwood Park, she’s keen to find the album for her father.

Once Lucy gets to Bitterwood Estate, with her newly adopted cat Basil, she finds mystery and confusion. But Lucy is determined to uncover the truth about the past, and while she’s searching for answers in Bitterwood Park she’s also conscious that her own future isn’t as settled as she though it was.

While I enjoyed this novel, it was the mystery of the past rather than Lucy’s contemporary story that particularly held my attention. Slowly, layer by layer, the truth about the past emerges. Just as slowly (or so it seems) Lucy finds her place in the present. Ms Romer has created an engaging page turning read, full of suspense, and as soon as I finished it I looked for her earlier work. I’d not read Ms Romer’s previous two novels (an omission since rectified) and I’ve added her to my ‘must read’ list.

‘A man doesn’t know, does he – what the future will bring. He thinks only of the moment.’

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I really loved this book. The various elements of the story came together so fantastically that I basically sat down and read until I reached the end. Anna Romer is an amazing author who has the ability to shape a story for several directions holding all the pieces together beautifully.

It is the early 1990's in Melbourne, Australia and Lucy Briar has returned home from London where she has been living for the last five years. She has returned because of a letter from her grandfather, a man she has not seen in many years, which requested her presence so that he can explain to her something he feels she needs to know. Lucy also has come back to try to put some ghosts from her past to rest - her difficult relationship with her father, her grief over losing her mother at a young age and her unrequited love for a man old enough to be her father. She needs to do this because she is engaged to the perfect man in London. Adam is the man with whom she can shape a solid and happy if not passionate marriage.

Within days of returning home nothing is going to plan, her grandfather has died without meeting up with her, her father has broken a hip after breaking his longstanding sobriety and Lucy has realised that her love for Morgan has just been slumbering in the background waiting to reawaken. She embarks on a journey back to the family home, Bitterwood Estate, to try to find some answers for questions she didn't even know she had, to discover perhaps peace for her father and to work through what she really wants from her life.

This book uses a number of different voices to to tell the story moving between the early 1900's to the 1990's as various characters reveal the events that connect them all to each others' paths through life in Australia. There is even parts of a fairy tale (constructed supposedly by Lucy's father) that helps create a sense of the story that is unfolding. I was mesmerized by this author's ability to draw a reader into the story - I had to know what was going to happen. At first I thought I would be annoyed to have to leave Lucy for a moment as another character picked up the story 60 years earlier but I quickly became attached to this character as well. I loved how well shaped all the characters were and the fact you became invested in how their lives would end up.

I can't wait to go out and discover Anna's other two books - I'm sure that they will be just as appealing as this one.

Why is there not more of a buzz about this book? Why is Anna Romer not being lauded as the Next Big Thing by the Australian writing community? Because even though this is Romer’s third book, I can’t say I was familiar with her name and I readily admit to choosing this book because of the pretty cover. What a surprisingly enjoyable read Beyond the Orchard turned out to be, however, and I plan on seeking out Romer’s other two novels.

Leaving her fiance behind in London our heroine, Lucy, returns to her home in Australia. She plans on visiting her grandfather, Edwin, at Bitterwood, his home which was once a guest house on the Great Ocean Road. Unfortunately he passes away before she can, meaning that all her questions about the past and her childhood memories remain locked away in Edwin's creepy icehouse.

Lucy needs to learn Bitterwood’s secrets still though, to find closure over her mother’s death at the very least. The book’s mysteries (there are more than one) are slowly revealed to the reader as Lucy unravels their various threads. Romer’s atmospheric way of writing made it feel almost like a gothic thriller at times.

The book is written mostly in Lucy’s first point of view, but it does swap to third person scenes in the past featuring Lucy’s various family members. Lucy’s time setting is 1993, meaning there is the opportunity for her grandfather’s story to be set during and just after WW2, and her mother’s in the 70s.

The Great Ocean Road's rugged shoreline and treacherous seas are utilised effectively along with historical settings such as the war and the gold rush. There is also some other interesting details in the book which were unique and obviously well researched, such as breeding silkworms.

There’s an engaging romantic subplot included. Romer writes the UST between Lucy and her friend’s father, Morgan, beautifully. Lucy’s forbidden passion for the older man adds to her heartbreak and I really enjoyed this aspect of the book. I thought there was just the right balance between the mystery and the romance too.

If I had to write a negative, it would probably be about the parallel fairytale supposedly written by Lucy’s father. It was a little contrived for my liking and really, in the end, had little to do with the big reveals. I found myself skimming it on occasion.

It’s a minor gripe though, and I highly recommend this book.

5 out of 5

Beyond The Orchard has a rather ethereal quality to it. It floats gently between flashbacks and present day in a manner which at first I found part appealing and part annoying. The writing is beautiful, yet it was at times difficult to follow because there are so many scenes from different points in time. As I settled into the novel, however, the shifts in time began to make sense and I found the story truly captivating.
This novel comprises layers of story, each complete within itself, yet all adding to the whole. The characters are well developed and I found that the more I got to know them the more I felt for them, Edwin particularly.
I did find this a slow read, but it became more and more compelling. It is an unusual story, and for that reason alone very much worth reading. I enjoyed it.

Beyond the Orchard is a sweeping saga of dark secrets, shameful lies, forgotten letters, undying love and devastating despair. Romer’s writing is rich and lyrical, her characters compelling.

I love stories told in dual timelines each linking up as the mysteries unfold. Romer’s execution is perfect; never giving away too little or too much, holding the reader captive until the very end.
The subtle introduction of the aboriginal teens was well implemented and Orah’s love for Warra felt real and not over exaggerated.

I never really warmed to the character of Lucy. She seemed bent on her own purpose never really considering other people’s feelings. Her relationship with Morgan was alien to me (not only the 16 year age gap but Morgan being a friend of Lucy’s father and knowing her since she was a young child) so I found it hard to want more from them, although I liked their closeness.

Edwin was intense and complex; everything he did was with great passion. You either loved him or hated him. I don’t think there was any middle ground.

The story within the story, a fairytale reworking with a foreboding atmosphere, pulled me in just as much as the main story.

If you enjoy family sagas with deep secrets that span time and generations you will not want to miss “Beyond the Orchard”.

A great Australian Gothic tale of fear, brokenness, lies and letters. Everything that’s been hidden in the guesthouse must be faced. It’s why some loves never die.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

Lucy Briar has arrived home in turmoil after years overseas. She’s met her fiancé in London and has her life mapped out, but something is holding her back.
Hoping to ground herself and find answers, Lucy settles into once familiar routines. But old tortured feelings flood Lucy’s existence when her beloved father, Ron, is hospitalised and Morgan – the man who drove her away all those years ago – seeks her out.
Worse, Ron implores Lucy to visit Bitterwood Estate, the crumbling historic family guesthouse now left to him. He needs Lucy to find something– an old photograph album, the very thing that drove Ron and his father apart.
Lucy has her own painful memories of Bitterwood, darkness that has plagued her dreams since she was young. But as Lucy searches for the album, the house begins to give up its ghosts and she is driven to put them to rest.
And there, held tightly between the house, the orchard and the soaring cliffs, Lucy uncovers a long-hidden secret that shattered a family’s bond and kept a frightened young girl in its thrall...and Lucy discovers just how fierce the lonely heart can be.

This is one of those novels that started so well that, I guess, was always going to end badly for me. I get my expectations so high in the first part of the book, that the ending is somewhat of an anti-climax.

The story starts so well - Lucy is called home to Victoria at the request of her grandfather, who basically promises to tell her something that will explain everything about the family. Scandals, secrets and shame, all together. The family is filled with a fascinating range of characters, filled with mystery and intrigue, it is hard not to get caught up in it all.

And then the dual timelines start to kick in and it kinda loses me from thereon in. We end up drowning in characters and mini sub-plots that the original mystery, the original story, seems to get lost. I really do think that a more linear story of Lucy unravelling her family's secrets would have been a little clearer for me (and others, judging by some reviews). I think the author did try very hard to go down the Kate Morton path instead of treading her own path instead.

Would I recommend this? Sure - there is a huge market for this dual-narrative/timeline style book and I know they are hugely popular in my store. Even more popular if they are set in Australia. So, for sure, I can recommend this book.


Paul
ARH