The Secret Orchard by Sharon Gosling

 

The Secret Orchard by Sharon Gosling.

Published 12th September 2024 by Simon and Schuster.

From the cover of the book:

Can a return to the past be the start of something new?

Bette and Nina Crowdie have never been close – the ten-year age difference doesn’t help, and Bette’s rarely been home since she left for university at eighteen.

When their father passes away and unexpectedly splits the family farm between them, Nina is furious and afraid. She’s been working at the farm for the past five years. It’s the only home her young son, Barnaby, has ever had, and she’s convinced that Bette will sell at the first chance she gets. When they discover the huge debt their father has been hiding, Bette reluctantly agrees to help her sister. But that means they have to find a way to work together, and Bette must face up to the real reason she left all those years ago.

Could a long-forgotten diary and the discovery of a secret orchard on their land help save the farm – and the sisters’ relationship?

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Sisters Bette and Nina have never been close. The ten year age gap between them when growing up on their father's Scottish farm was insurmountable, and their lives have taken very different paths - Bette leaving as soon as she could to pursue a legal career in London, and Nina staying behind to work on the farm, where she now lives as a single mother with her young son, Barney.

Now their father has passed away, and his funeral brings Bette back to Scotland, where she has not been in years. Nina feels nothing but resentment and bitterness about Bette's long absence, wishing her gone before she even arrives - and Bette plans to stay no longer that necessary, plagued with memories of her youth she would rather forget. 

But the sisters' reunion is going to be longer than they anticipated. Once the funeral is over, they find that rather than leaving the farm to Nina, their father has split ownership of the property between them. And the surprises continue to come when they learn he has left considerable debts that somehow need to be settled. Feelings are running high, and prospects of saving the farm look bleak - until they discover the existence of a secret cliff-top orchard on their land, that they had no idea was there.

It turns out that this is a very special orchard indeed, with a very unusual history. Could this be the solution to their troubles, and a way to breach the distance between them at the same time?

The Secret Orchard is an enchanting, and immersive, story that combines a historical mystery with heart-wrenching family dramas, and all the romantic suspense of not one, but two smashing love stories!

The tale begins with an intriguing prologue that hints at the complicated history of the orchard, and then unfurls through the twists and turns of the emotionally supercharged story of Bette and Nina's attempts to save the farm. Spending time together in their joint crusade gradually brings them closer together, aided by the presence of the adorable Barney, and there are heart-warming moments galore as their relationship thaws - especially once they are able to open up to each other about their separate heartaches, and forgive each other for years of perceived slights. 

Alongside the transformation in their relationship, the opportunity for second-chance love comes calling for both sisters, in an enjoyable mix of enemies to lovers AND friends to lovers storylines that hit that magic sweet spot - once the necessary rocky trials of misunderstandings, challenging set-backs, and unforeseen disasters perpetrated by the unscrupulous, have been overcome, of course. 

This is character-led gorgeousness of the type Gosling does so well, and it works beautifully with the clever threads of mystery about the orchard's past, and the care needed to bring it back to life. There is so much engaging detail about cider making and its history too, which I found absolutely fascinating. The location oozes atmosphere, and you can almost smell the sea and taste the apples. The characters and community are fabulous, and the echoing themes weave into so many parts of the story with accomplished flair. 

Utter escapist loveliness, and another winner from Sharon Gosling. 

The Secret Orchard is available to buy now in paperback, ebook and audio formats.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting me to be part of this blog tour.

About the author: 

Sharon started her career as an entertainment journalist, writing non-fiction books about film and television. She is also the author of multiple children's books. Sharon and her husband live in a small village in northern Cumbria.