I’ve been wanting to read The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs since I bought it at a book signing last year, but I held off because it felt like a book that needed read in the fall. Although it fits with the fall season, it is delicious enough to read anytime. Anyone who enjoys the women’s fiction genre will love it, even Granny Smith. Ok, ok. Enough of the apple jokes.
Tess Delaney loves living in the city where she makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. She is on the verge of great success in her career when Dominic, a good-looking banker, shows up at her workplace to tell her that her grandfather is in a coma after a bad fall. This is strange news since Tess never knew her father and never met her grandfather. Dominic also explains that her grandfather’s will lists her to inherit half of Bella Vista, a working hundred-acre apple orchard. The other half will go to Isabel Johansen, a half sister she didn’t know existed.
Tess heads to Sonoma to see Bella Vista for herself. Although Dominic, the love interest, has done everything he can to delay it, the property is nearing foreclosure. Tess and Isabel are challenged to find a way to save it. A missing relic from Grandfather’s past may be the answer which means learning about his younger life in Denmark during WWII.
The Apple Orchard is family drama, mystery, romance and historical fiction, all in one. Wiggs does a great job tying the present and the past together. Although country life is a bit romanticized, I enjoyed this story and would recommend it. Susan Wiggs has become one of my top five best-loved authors. In my opinion, readers believe her books will be a light read but are pleasantly surprised with more depth and substance than expected.
The Apple Orchard is the first in the Bella Vista series. The Beekeeper’s Ball and The Lost and Found Bookshop are the second and third installments in the series.
