Tonight, just for those few hours, he’d felt he belonged. Never mind that he was a stray among strays, a disparate ragbag of people collected together from the four corners of the earth, through unknown tragedy. He had not been a captain in the army or a hereditary peer of the British realm with a vast estate to inherit. He had been nothing more than a pianist, and his talent had entertained and brought pleasure to others.
He had loved it because he had simply been himself.
(from The Orchid House, page 248)
The Orchid House is set in England and Thailand and tells two tales, one in the present and one during the years just before and just after World War II. In the present, Julia Forrester is mourning the death of her husband and young son, withdrawing from her caring older sister and basically the entire world. Julia is a famous concert pianist, but overwhelming sadness and guilt prevent her from playing. She crawls out of her shell long enough to attend an estate sale at Wharton Park, where her grandfather worked in the hothouse tending and cross-breeding orchids and where Julia spent much of her time as a child and felt at home.
She meets up with Kit Crawford, the new lord of the manor, whom she hasn’t seen since she was a young girl. Kit is in the process of selling Wharton Park and discovers a diary in the cottage that once belonged to Julia’s grandparents. They assume the diary was written by her grandfather when he was a POW in Singapore during World War II. Rather than read it, Julia brings it to her grandmother, Elsie, who believes it is finally time to reveal the secrets of Wharton Park.
Elsie’s revelations transport readers back in time to when Wharton Park was in its prime. She tells the story of the estate’s former heir, Harry, and his bride, Olivia, to whom Elsie was a personal maid. Olivia blossomed at Wharton Park, but the estate was a noose around Harry’s neck. Harry didn’t want to go to war and didn’t want the burden of one day becoming Lord Crawford, but as with most people in his position, duty had to come before dreams.
In The Orchid House, Lucinda Riley paints a portrait of people in pain, hurt by betrayals, crippled by loss, and stifled by lives they did not choose. Despite their flaws, I found that I could empathize with all of them, even when I hated their decisions or who they would become. Riley made them seem so real, so utterly human, that I was drawn to them and didn’t want to let them go. I think she did a great job merging the past and the present, even though the connections were quite predictable, and it’s one of the few books that I’ve encountered in which I was fascinated by both the historical and present-day stories.
However, toward the end, the book took a turn that I hadn’t expected and didn’t like. I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say that this event raised more questions than it answered and made me want to throw the book across the train. I will admit that by the time I finished the book, I understood why the author felt it was necessary, but it was just too over the top for my tastes. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the book and didn’t let this event ruin it for me.
The Orchid House alternates between present-day and World War II-era England and Thailand. Not only does Riley do a great job with her characters, but she also has a talent for setting the scene. I could almost feel the bitterly cold English winters as well as the oppressive heat of Bangkok, and I could almost see and smell the vibrant flowers. I especially liked how real the story felt, how some of the characters would heal and grow and how others were not destined to have a happy ending. The writing was beautiful, the story flowed perfectly from present to past, and I never once felt that the book dragged. I highly recommend The Orchid House for readers who love historical novels with a little bit of everything — war, romance, secrets, and redemption.
Disclosure: I received The Orchid House from Atria for review.
© 2012 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.
I like the sound of this one
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I think it’s one you’d enjoy.
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The Orchid House sounds like a good read, even if that one thing towards the end was a bit much.
Great review 🙂
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Thanks, Naida! There was just so much going on already that I don’t think the author needed to go there. But at least I was still able to love the book anyway.
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Love the sound of this. You always make the books you’ve read sound like must-reads. Thanks for the great review.
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Thanks, Diane. I appreciate that. Hope you give this one a try.
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I have this one and I forgot about it. I’ll need to add this to the top of my tbr list.
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I can’t wait to read your thoughts!
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Now I’m curious about that turn. I can’t picture you wanting to throw anything! lol
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I think it’s because right before I got to the twist I said to myself, wouldn’t it be funny if she went that route? And then she did. I couldn’t decide if I was mad at myself for predicting it when there really weren’t any signs that the story would go that way or if I was miffed that the author actually went through with it. LOL
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I’ve got this one to read — but your wanting-to-throw-the-book-ness has me nervous — I bet I’ll feel the same way and sometimes that’s a maddening feeling!!
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Please don’t be nervous about it! It didn’t stop me from loving the book even if I felt it wasn’t necessary. Can’t wait for your thoughts!
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I enjoyed this book too even with the twist. It was a bit over the top but I was hooked on the story at that point.
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Exactly! It was enough for me to shake my head but not enough for me to stop loving the book.
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Your review was excellent. After reading so many glowing reviews on blogland with this book, I could not figure out why I didn’t LOVE it. I did enjoy it but I think she could have slimmed down several of the plotlines.
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I think I still lean more toward love than just like, especially the further I distance myself from the book. Despite that twist that I didn’t like, the author does a great job with the characters and the atmosphere so that I could overlook that one thing. There was a whole lot going on in this book, though.
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I think I read one review that compared this book to a Kate Morton novel (whom I really enjoy). I’m curious about what the author did to irritate you! Hey it happens. I’ve been known to throw a book.
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Glad to know I’m not alone! I’ll have to check out Kate Morton. I’ve never read her books.
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Dunno about the end then if it raises too many questions. I do want my answers at the end
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Well, you get your answers for the most part. You don’t finish the book feeling like there’s unresolved plot lines.
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This so sounds like a book i would enjoy. I almost accepted a review copy of this one but I had to make myself turn it down!
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I think you really would enjoy this one.
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It’s interesting how many stories revolve around this conceit of finding a long-hidden diary and then using that as a way to reveal a lot of family secrets. It makes me wonder just how many secrets *my* family has and is keeping from me…
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I know there are some secrets in my family, but I haven’t done a good job at uncovering them. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to family sagas.
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This book is also on my watch list. Now I want to know what the surprising turn is.
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Well, since I’ve loaned you my copy, you can find out. 🙂
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This sounds like a fascinating read! I love it when a book skips from past to present to tell a story if it does it well.
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Then you’d like this one for sure!
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I’d be willing to overlook predictable for real characters.
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That’s why it didn’t bother me so much here.
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This book sounds intriguing and I am definitely curious about the passage that made you want to throw the book! I love a book in which the author can almost literally transport you to the story’s setting with the beauty of the written images. This book sounds very sad from Julia’s grief to the people in pain and more. I love that you found the characters extremely real and human and that you also found both the past and the present sections of the story good.
This is a wonderful review, Anna. I’m putting this book on my wishlist!
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I think you’d really like this one. Even if that one twist didn’t feel real to me, the characters and their reactions certainly were.
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This book sounds wonderful, except that part about the ending! I hate when that happens in books, but it does seem like the rest of the book redeems it.
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It certainly does! I was totally able to overlook that one event, probably because even though it happened toward the end of the book, it was far enough away from the actual ending for me to move beyond it.
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This sounds mostly really good. I will have to see about reading it at some point!
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I’d love to know what you think about it!
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I am going looking for this book-the cover alone is gorgeous.
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I must admit that I was immediately drawn to the cover.
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[…] Anouk Markovits 20. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak 21. The Sins of the Father by Jeffrey Archer 22. The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley 23. Archie’s War by Marcia Williams 24. The Far Side of the Sky by Daniel […]
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[…] wonderful from the tragedy and loss of war. I enjoyed The Lavender Garden even more than The Orchid House and can’t wait to read more of Riley’s […]
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