My Review: I had an enjoyable time reading The Secret Orchard by Sharon Gosling. It’s well written, paced just right and held my attention, I read it in three sittings.

After the death of their father, Bette and Nina have a time of it, whilst estranged and frosty with each other, they have to pull together to save the family farm. Bette has returned from her high flying lawyer job to do this, but will it bring the sisters closer and cause Bette to reconsider her life? Can they save the farm? The discovery of the secret orchard brings new life to the whole situation. I enjoyed the drama and the guessing, the friendships and dynamic between the sisters and their mother. 5 Shiney Stars. Recommeded.

Set in a small community on the Scottish coast, the new feel-good story about family, belonging and finding peace with the past from the author of The Lighthouse Bookshop and The Forgotten Garden.
 
‘Warm, tender and wise, Sharon Gosling’s well-crafted, engrossing story was a pleasure to read’ Rachel Hore, author of The Hidden Years
‘Beautifully observed family dynamics in the present day all wrapped up in a romantic mystery from the 1800s. Absorbing and memorable’ Juliet Ashton

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?
 
Praise for Sharon Gosling:
 
‘A compelling read with a dramatic sense of place and a caring community at its heart’ Heidi Swain 
 
‘A warm, romantic mystery, beautifully structured and feelingly written’ ― Daily Mail

https://amzn.eu/d/jbCymF2 purchase link.

I’ve been writing since I was a teenager, which is now a distressingly long time ago! I started out as an entertainment journalist – actually, my earliest published work was as a reviewer of science fiction and fantasy books. I went on to become a staff writer and then an editor for print magazines, before beginning to write non-fiction making-of books tied in to film and television, such as The Art and Making of Penny Dreadful and Wonder Woman: The Art and Making of the Film.

I now write both children’s and adult fiction – my first novel was called The Diamond Thief, a Victorian-set steampunk adventure book for the middle grade age group. That won the Redbridge Children’s prize in 2014, and I went on to write two more books in the series before moving on to other adventure books including The Golden Butterfly, which was nominated for the Carnegie Award in 2017, The House of Hidden Wonders, and a YA horror called FIR, which was shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award in 2018. My last children’s book (to date) is called The Extraordinary Voyage of Katy Willacott, and was published by Little Tiger in 2023.

My debut adult novel, The House Beneath the Cliffs, was published by Simon & Schuster in August 2021. Since then I’ve written three more: The Lighthouse Bookshop, The Forgotten Garden, and The Secret Orchard, which is out in September 2024. My adult fiction tends to centre on small communities – feel-good tales about how we find where we belong in life and what it means when we do. Although I have also published full-on adult horror stories, which are less about community and more about terror and mayhem…

I was born in Kent but now live in a very small house in an equally small village in northern Cumbria with my husband, who owns a bookshop in the nearby market town of Penrith.