Author: Anna Romer
ISBN: 978-19-251-8442-6
RRP: $29.99
Beyond the Orchard is the third suspenseful offering from Australian Anna Romer, I have read all three and loved them all.
A tale of dark family secrets, buried for decades, and told in multiple time periods this is one that I found very difficult to put down. There are two distinct times, past and present, but we have a couple of different periods within those two times.
Lucy Briar left home years ago and moved to London, running from an awkward situation with an unrequited love. In London she met her fiance and they have mapped out a life together, until Lucy receives a letter from her estranged grandfather asking her to come see him. Eventually she returns home, on her own, hoping to resolve her feelings and find the answers she seeks to childhood questions.
Elements of the story have a very fairy tale type quality, and there are fairy tale references, so the choice of Briar for the family name really struck a chord in that vein for me.
Soon after her arrival home Lucy’s father suffers a fall that sees him hospitalised and her grandfather passes away. She is left reeling and wondering if she will ever get her answers. At her father’s insistence Lucy heads to the historic family guesthouse, Bitterwood Estate, to clear out her grandfathers things before the Estate is sold – and to find the photo album that created the rift between father and son.
Lucy has some traumatic memories of Bitterwood Estate and dreads returning but she knows that to find the answers she seeks she has to go. She’s not sure how she’ll get her answers now that her grandfather isn’t there to hand over whatever it was he had that would explain everything.
The quest for answers, and the album, seems overwhelming when for every inch of progress there seems to be a bigger setback. Much of the album has been reduced to ashes, and Lucy can’t find anything addressed to her from her grandfather that may hold the answers. The further she gets packing up the house the more information the house releases. The blurb says that the house begins to give up its ghosts, and it certainly does, but these are metaphorical ghosts not paranoramal ones.
Lucy was followed to Bitterwood Estate by Morgan, the man she was running from, who has come to help her get the house in order. His proximity isn’t helping her cold feet, though he certainly helps her make progress in the quest for answers.
Lucy’s father Ron is a writer, he takes fairy tales and twists them, making the villians the heroes and telling the story from a different perspective. He and Lucy are a team, she illustrates for him. There is a little bit of life experience in Ron’s retellings and none more so than the manuscript he’s just finished, that Lucy starts illustrating while she’s at Bitterwood Estate. Ron’s writing is part of his coping mechanism, he writes to work through the things in life he’s struggling with.
Beyond The Orchard is haunting and suspenseful, and it leaves you guessing. There were many times throughout that I was sure I knew what was going on, only to discover how wrong I was.
A tale of love, loss, betrayal, desire and family secrets this is not to be missed.
Lucy was a beautiful character, haunted by ghosts of her own, and always running away from something. Throughout the story we see her starting to face some of her demons so that she can move forward and stop running.
Yet again Romer has written with great depth and sincerity, a touching novel that brought me to the brink of tears on a number of occasions and one which I hope to read again one day just to see what else I pick up on that I may have missed on the first read.
Beyond the Orchard is book #57 for the Australian Women Writer’s Challenge 2016.
Available now from Simon & Schuster, Angus & Robertson Bookworld, Booktopia and where all good books are sold.
You can find Anna at her Website as well as on Facebook.
Thanks to Simon & Schuster 30 of our lucky Beauty and Lace Club member will be reading Beyond the Orchard so please be aware there may be spoilers in the comments below.
I devour books, vampires and supernatural creatures are my genre of choice but over the past couple of years, I have broadened my horizons considerably. In a nutshell – I love to write! I love interacting with a diverse range of artists to bring you interviews. Perhaps we were perfect before – I LOVE WORDS!
Beyond the Orchard had me reeled in from the behinning. I really enjoyed Anna Romer’s writing style, it is quite unique.
We follow Lucy on her journey back to Australia after receiving a letter from her Grandfather Edwin promising to explain everything.
The book goes between the early 1900s and early 1990s and we slowly learn bits and pieces, however the twists and turns threw me a few times, just when I’d think aha that’s what happened there’d be something else to throw me off. Romer sure had me on my toes.
I loved the characters Clarice and Orah but won’t say too much in case I give something away.
Bitterwood, the estate where most of this book is written around came across dark even when the characters were all happy. The icehouse just gave me the creeps.
This is definitely a great Christmas gift idea for the mystery lover in your family!
Thanks again for a good read 🙂
I really enjoyed this book and the further I read the more I didn’t want to stop. Beyond the Orchard is a book that jumps around from past to present uncovering the family secrets that have been buried for 60 years. In the present (actually 1993) we see the story through Lucy’s eyes as she returns to Melbourne after running from her own problems and tries to uncover her Grandpa’s secrets in the family guesthouse. We see the past through a number of different characters eyes as what happened to each of them is revealed. And we see how what happened affected all the characters involved. It’s a bit of a dark tragic story and the landscapes sound beautiful.
The story really sucks you in on Lucy’s journey of discovery and it is written really well. Thanks for the opportunity Beauty and Lace. 🙂
Thank you Beauty & Lace, and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read Beyond The Orchard.
I have read one of Anna Romer’s other novels, Lyrebird Hill, and although I enjoyed that one a bit more than this one, Beyond The Orchard is worth reading!
In this book, the main character is Lucy Briar, who returns to Australia from London after receiving a mysterious letter from her grandfather, Edwin.
Edwin has had a rocky relationship with his son Ron, Lucy’s father, and it is up to Lucy to figure out why.
Soon after she returns, her dad injures himself and ends up hospitalised, and her grandfather passes away.
Lucy has left behind her fiance Adam back in London, and upon returning to Australia, she finds out that the man she once had very strong feelings for, Morgan, is now divorced. As Morgan is quite a few years older than Lucy, their relationship didn’t take off when Lucy was younger, but it isn’t long before her feelings for him are reignited.
I liked Morgan’s character, especially as he helps Lucy decipher many of the mysteries that surround her family’s past.
With regards to Adam, I felt that his character was almost non-existent throughout the story. It’s as though Lucy just forgot about him (for no real apparent reason). I don’t know if this was done on purpose, but I didn’t like this quality in her character as she seemed like a fairly loyal person, and this just clashed with that part of her nature.
The story lapses back and forth in time from the early 1900’s to 1993. It was a little confusing for me at times, but the further into the story I read, the easier it became to interpret, and I could grasp the flow of the story better.
I liked the element of mystery in this story, and I thought I knew what secrets were being kept hidden, but they turned out to be something else, so that was refreshing!
Beyond The Orchard was a pleasant read, particularly if you enjoy books about family secrets, betrayal, and love.
This is the second novel I have read by Anne Romer and again I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The main character, Lucy Briar, arrives home after living overseas, unsure of her past, and her future. The storyline reveals the plot by featuring episodes in the present and the past, but the reader is always able to follow the characters without losing their way in the story, which sometimes happens in this style of story telling.
I really enjoyed the story, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to read it.
this is another of those books that I dont really want to put down… It is just so well written, and smoothly takes you from the past to the present. It is very difficult for the main you ng lady lucy when she returns to australia from being in london and getting engaged… Into her life again comes the man she loved, but who was married, but now he is divorced, and this becomes a sticky patch for lucy, as he knows how she felt, and I feel is trying to re-uite the two of them…. The grandfathers hidden agenda for lucy comes too late, and she is not able to know what her grandfather wished to tell her., and the photo album her own dad wants from his fathers house, is more or less destroyed by the mans father… wonderful absorbing reading …. thank you for the opportunity to read …..
What a fantastic book! Right from the first page your hooked! Starting in the 1900’s when family secrets where kept firmly under the rug. From London to Australia where old romances are found. The tangled web of family secrets love and betrayal.
Get a cool iced tea and find a quiet spot and get lost in the fantastic book xxx
Thanks so much beauty and lace
Four words is all I need to describe this book.
Beautiful, haunting, mesmerizing and mystical.
Once again Anna Romer has written such a beautiful story with detailed descriptions of the lands around the story.
The story begins with Lucy arriving home to Australia after living in London. She is back to find out what it is that her grandpa wants to tell her. Finally those missing parts of her life might get put back together.
Her life, her fathers life and all those around her will change and grow with each discovery.
Secrets, love and heartache are just part of a growing story.
From here Anna has woven a story that takes you back to the time of her grandfather and his whole story is written out and woven from one decade to another.
Anna books are never just straight out love stories but rather a delicately woven time travel that lets the characters grow on you until you just can’t put the book down.
Her attention to detail is amazing and you are drawn in so deeply that you start telling Lucy the places she should be looking to find the answers (hmmm maybe that was just me)
This was a story that seemed so real, thank you Anna for sharing you gift of storytelling.
Thanks Beauty and Lace and Simon and Schuster for giving me this book to read.
Beyond the Orchard is an Australian saga spanning multiple years, taking in different generations and perspectives. It seems to have a lot in common with the late Bryce Courtenay’s work insofar as it’s an epic slice of Australiana. The book is the third novel by Anna Romer (Thornwood House) and a rich and detailed tapestry where some different characters lives are all interwoven together through a series of secrets and lies.
The story stars Lucy Briar, a young woman whose mother passed away when she was just a young girl. Briar is now all grown up and has been living in London for the past few years. She is also newly engaged. Lucy left Australia for the UK a few years ago after a relationship with an older man (the father of a friend of hers) had gone awry.
Lucy is called back to her childhood home after she is invited to her friends’ wedding. Before Briar arrives in Victoria she receives a message from her estranged grandfather that is completely unexpected. He wants to meet her and set the record straight on a few things regarding the past. Sadly, Lucy’s grandpa does not get the opportunity to follow through with his promise. But little by little Lucy undertakes he own detective work and uncovers a rich and complicated family history and some life events that involve her relatives as well as love, loss, death, despair and redemption.
Anna Romer’s novel is a rather ambitious one that threads together the perspectives of various characters living at different points in history. She also adds additional textural flourishes in the form of extracts from a book written by Lucy’s father Ronald. These extra storylines add greater depth and meaning to the existing characters and their motivations because it is a case of art imitating life.
Beyond the Orchard feels like it’s a real story because it is so atmospheric and emotional. It’s a testament to Romer’s fabulous writing that the characters seem as rich and complex as real people. Romer’s prose is well-written and sometimes quite poetic and beautiful. This book is a well-constructed one where mystery and romance make for one haunting and intriguing family history.
Thank you for the opportunity to read Beyond The Orchard by Anna Romer.
There were a lot of sections to this book and to-ing and fro-ing in chapters. I had a little fun the first few chapters, but after that it ran smoothly.
This is the story of Lucy and her family. She feels she is happily engaged andlivin in London, until she receives correspondence from her grandfather alluding to a mystery.
She travels home to Victoria trying to find some answers only to find out her grandfather has dies and her father had a fall. She goes to Bitterwood Estate for her father, to tidy the estate. She is also hoping to fin some answers to her family questions. These include who is in photos found at the estate, why her father and grandfather don’t get along, finding out about her heritage, her grandfather’s relationship with his brother Ronald and what actually happened to her mother. Then there is the issue of the mysterious icehouse.
The story is also interspersed with Lucy’s father Ron’s written fairy tales that hep him sort through his troubles relationship with his father Edwin. Throw in a possible romance for Lucy and all the ingredients are there for a family mystery to be solved and relationships healed.
The story is written in the past and present as it unravels and by the end I couldn’t wait for certain moments to be revealed. I would really recommend this book as one to delve into to work out a family and how everything impacts and all is not as it seems.
Mesmerising reading the book that once opened cannot be put down until the end thank you to Anna Romer for a wonderful read.
A storyline that cover past & present intrigue loss & love but draws a family to one place to uncover dark secrets that have to be told in order to mend
The story moves from present to past but overall is a storyline that can be followed as Lucy delves into the history as requested by her grandfather
Thanks Beauty & Lace for the opportunity to review such a good book.