Title: The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season
Author: Molly Fader
Publisher: Graydon House
Publication Date: June 9, 2020
Genre: Women’s Fiction
In cherry season, anything is possible….
Everything Hope knows about the Orchard House is from the stories of her late mother. So when she arrives at the northern Michigan family estate late one night with a terrible secret and her 10-year-old daughter in tow, she’s not sure if she’ll be welcomed or turned away with a shotgun by the aunt she has never met.
Hope’s aunt, Peg, has lived in the Orchard House all her life, though the property has seen better days. She agrees to take Hope in if, in exchange, Hope helps with the cherry harvest – not exactly Hope’s specialty, but she’s out of options. As Hope works the orchard alongside her aunt, daughter and a kind man she finds increasingly difficult to ignore, a new life begins to blossom. But the mistakes of the past are never far behind, and soon the women will find themselves fighting harder than ever for their family roots and for each other.
Why This Book
The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season is, delightfully, set at a cherry orchard at the very beginning of cherry season. This is about three generations of a family with secrets in their closets. Hope and her young daughter are on the run from an abusive man, and the only place they have to go to is Hope’s aunt Peg. It’s slow going for them to open up to each other and become a family, but this was a lovely story of pieces of a family becoming a whole family.
I chose this book because of Hope’s daughter, Tink. She didn’t play a huge role in this book, but I loved how Hope and Peg really tried to look after her and take care of her. There are just some things a young child shouldn’t be exposed to. It was wonderful to see her grow from a curious and cautious girl into one with friends and a bright light inside her.
Reviews
My review: “Tink was also so much fun. As a ten year old girl, there’s a lot of spunk in her, but her life has also been tinged with fear, loss, and trauma, but I loved how healing The Orchard House was for her and how it helped her find empowerment”
Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks gave this a 4, saying “The twisting of secrets in The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season is more than enough to keep any reader invested. There’s so much to unfold within these pages. Not just the secrets of generations but the secrets of the Orchard itself”
Robin Loves Reading gave this a 5, saying “This compelling read offered several lessons, including trust and forgiveness. It also dealt with secrets of the past and how they impacted the lives that the three primary characters in the story were experiencing. This dramatic book really caught me by surprise and I am very pleased to have had an opportunity to read a story that affected me on such a visceral level”
The Wandering Wordsmith said “I was sucked into this story in the first couple chapters alone and couldn’t put it down, which is always a quick sign of a great read. There were so many different facets of emotions, secrets, family relationships and more in this book and it was not a simple story in any way”
Purchase Links
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