Book Summary and Reviews of The Orchid House by Lucinda Riley

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Elizabeth @Silver's Reviews

Excellent Read - Elizabeth @Silver's Reviews
What better way to heal from a tragedy than to go back to a time and a place when life was good. Julia had lost her husband and her son in a tragic accident in France and decided to return to England to begin healing and to begin re-acquainting herself with her family.

Julia was having a difficult time with her grief, but luck came her way one day when she was given a diary that belonged to her grandfather.

The diary had been found under the floorboards in one of the cottages on the Crawford estate, Wharton Park. Along with the diary, Julia also had Elise, her grandmother, to help her remember the good times and to explain firsthand about the past and what actually happened at Wharton Park when Elise worked as a lady's maid for Olivia Crawford. The memories and a few of the characters, one in particular, helped Julia begin to bring herself back.

Wharton Park was where Julia helped her grandfather in the estate's hothouses where he grew orchids....orchids that had come from Thailand where her grandfather had been held captive during WWII. Being with her grandfather was the best part of her childhood. The diary brought back memories, and Julia's grandmother brought forth the truth about the family's history along with all its unspoken secrets.

Remembering the past and finding hidden secrets are a part of THE ORCHID HOUSE that is very appealing. You will follow the lives of the Crawford family where Julia's grandmother and grandfather were part of the staff of Wharton Park. The secrets revealed in the diary and those secrets revealed firsthand by Elise will keep you turning the pages. Knowing that there is a secret between the aristocratic Crawfords of Wharton Park and the household staff which included Julia's grandparents made the book intriguing and one that will keep your attention.

Don't miss this alluring story with its captivating characters who have secrets that span 70 years and a family that makes a full circle with Wharton Park being the beginning and the end.

I truly enjoyed the book because of its historical fiction and the style of going back and forth in time. The secrets that are revealed, the lies that kept the secrets unspoken, the twists and turns, and the surprise ending make this book one I couldn't read quickly enough. ENJOY!!!! 5/5

This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Cathryn Conroy

What a Huge Disappointment! Weak and Boring…Nothing More Than a Mediocre Soap Opera
Oh, what a huge disappointment! The publisher's plot summary is spectacular, and based on that this could have been a wonderful, compelling ChickLit book. But it wasn't. Why? The writing is stilted, the dialogue is strained and unrealistic, and the characters' actions are straight out of a mediocre soap opera.

Written by Lucinda Riley, the book is really two related stories, both of which focuses on Wharton Park, a large (think Downtown Abbey) ancestral home in rural Norfolk, England with side trips to Bangkok, Thailand. Taking place in modern times, the first story focuses primarily on Julia, the granddaughter of one of Wharton Park's gardeners who raised orchids in the hothouses, and Kit (Lord Christopher Crawford), who is being forced to sell his ancestral home as it pretty much falls down around itself. The second story takes place just before and after World War II, focusing on a family scandal and long-held secrets with generation-spanning ramifications.

The first story is weak, pitiful, and boring—when it's not totally preposterous. The second story, while far more interesting, is strangled by the second-rate writing. At one point near the end of the book, I actually said out loud, "Oh, come on! You HAVE to be kidding me!" (If you read this book, you will easily figure out exactly when I said this.)