After losing her husband and son in a car crash, concert pianist Julia Forrester returns to Wharton Park, the English estate where her grandfather tended orchids for decades. Paralyzed by grief, Julia struggles to take an interest in anything, even Wharton Park's handsome new heir--until a diary found in her grandparents' house unlocks some unexpected secrets from the past.
Faced with Julia's questions, her grandmother spins a tale reaching back decades to the eve of the Second World War, when the heir to Wharton Park married a young socialite and then left to fight in the Pacific. His time as a prisoner of war in Singapore, and his convalescence in Bangkok, would affect his family's history for generations.
Riley skillfully moves her characters from England to Thailand and back again, drawing sharp contrasts between the two settings and giving richly detailed glimpses into time periods from the 1930s to the present day. The Orchid House has a few twists--one or two predictable, the others truly unexpected--and several love stories, each as fragile and yet tenacious as the orchids in Wharton Park's hothouses. As Julia learns more about her family's tangled history, she also finds the strength to move forward, returning to her music and opening her heart to the possibility of new love.
Full of family secrets, exotic flowers, tragedy and redemption, The Orchid House is a sweeping, poignant saga that will enthrall fans of The House at Riverton, Rebecca and Downton Abbey. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams