The Orchid House: A Novel

A great read. I will preface this review with the fact that I have never taken the time to write one before. But because I have found an author whose work I truly enjoy reading, I wanted to make the time to write it. Riley's writing flows beautifully and captures me from start to end. I love a book that just makes we want to keep reading and never contains a dull paragraph. This is the kind of book where I could be stuck on an airplane not able to take off, but if reading this, I am taken away to another world and do not even notice the wait. In particular, I like how the sections flip from one time era to another, the perspective you gather from each, and the suspense (and not easy to predict) of "how it will all turn out." This is the second Lucinda Riley novel I have read (I also loved her Midnight Rose), and because I love the way her writing flows, her amazing ability of story-telling, I am inspired to read every novel she has written. Very, very good.

Having been on a historical fiction kick of late, was thrilled to find this book randomly while cruising through other reviews. I couldn't put this book down all weekend-- in fact, every time I surfaced for air, I felt as if it I had totally been lost in another place/time. The Orchid House focuses on a group of individuals who are all tied to a fictional British estate, Wharton Park. Interweaving a storyline set today, the author nicely sets up each character; no two are alike. Though some personalities do border on cliche, in a book that features a cast of so many, it actually makes it easier to follow the plot and remember who is who. While the author does take some historical liberties (would a woman in the 1920's really ask "What's up?", ahem...), the story flows and builds suspense to the point where the reader appreciates that the prose doesn't delay your progress. Dialogue isn't overly complex (and in some places a little cringe worthy), but overall thought the story was excellent and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to get lost in books.

An excellent story that kept me engaged and forgetting everything around me. I needed an escape and I was able to do so through this book. I loved the twist and turns, the characters, and especially the outcomes. Wonderfully done.

I loved this book. I didn't want to put it down. This is the story of several generations of people connected to Warton Park, an estate that has been in the Crawford family for generations. Besides the family living in the main house are approximately o⁴ne hundred tenants, farmers and staff. The story describes the interactions of many of these people and really establishes the character and personality of families and the interplay among them. At the most basic level, this is a love story, between the many family members and with the estate.

For the most part, I enjoyed the book. A little slow at the start, but it picked up and I liked the tie to the past -- the history bit. It has characters you love, characters you loath, and characters that don't need to be there at all. Everything was plotting (pun intended) along nicely until the title character goes back to France. Then, a bunch of unnecessary junk gets thrown into the story and I was very tempted to just stop reading it. I have to admit, there were several "France chapters" I just skimmed through to get beyond the useless plot twist. The same info could have come to light without the character introduced. I found myself rolling my eyes. So . . . 4-stars for the Beginning, 3-stars for the Middle, and 2-stars for the End = 3-stars overall.

I don't know why but when I bought this book I thought it was going to be a haunted house book. I think I might have read something in the reviews or maybe I was reading reviews for an entirely different book but I bought it and started reading it expecting something totally different. It took me til about halfway through the book before I realized that this isn't a haunted house book and it is not going to become one either. After my hopes were deflated I still kept reading because it really is a neat story about two different generations and their love stories. I personally got a little bored with this book. It just isn't my type of story. There is not a lot of action. That's not to say a lot is happening but there isn't a lot of suspense and crazy scenes. I, generally, am pretty horrible at figuring out endings and what is going to happen next but I actually figured out the twists in this book pretty quickly. Luckily there are quite a few twists to keep a person interested but they are pretty transparent too. The writing was amazing though, Riley has no trouble with communicating to her readers and I could very easily follow the jumping back and forth between time periods. I can see why so many people would like this book because it really is a good book, in fact I think I am going to recommend this to my Grandma who is always looking for another good book that isn't to startling!

A beautifully written sad and happy story with a wonderful ending! I will read more books by this very talented author.

This was my first book written by Lucinda Riley and I really enjoyed it. Her style of writing, the storyline and the beautiful adjectives she used made my experience pleasurable. I just completed my first book FROM WE TO ME letters to my friend so I was very inspired after reading THE ORCHID HOUSE. A good love story, especially examining the past and present in our lives is enjoyable meaningful reading. Great book Lucinda..I will recommend it to others. Thank you! Maryann Hartzell Curran