The Lemon Grove, Helen Walsh
The Lemon Grove, Helen Walsh
1 Rating(s)
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The Lemon Grove

Author: Helen Walsh

Narrator: Kate Reading

Unabridged: 6 hr 12 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/03/2014

Synopsis

A highly charged, sultry, beautifully written and compulsive one-sit read, The Lemon Grove is an intense novel about obsession and sex—the perfect summer book.Jenn and Greg have been married for fourteen years, and, as the book opens, they are enjoying the last week of their annual summer holiday in Dei├á, a village in Majorca off the coast of southern Spain. Their days are languorous, time passing by in a haze of rioja-soaked lunches, hours at the beach, and lazy afternoon sex in their beautiful villa. It is the perfect summer idyll—until Greg's teenage daughter, Emma, arrives with her new boyfriend, Nathan, in tow.What follows, over the course of seven days, is a brilliantly paced fever dream of attraction between Jenn and the reckless yet mesmerizing Nathan. It is an intense pas de deux of push and pull, risk and consequence, and moral rectitude, as it gets harder and harder for Jenn to stifle her compulsion.This is a very smart novel about many things: the loss of youth, female sexuality, the lure of May-December temptation, the vicissitudes of marriage and the politics of other people's children. It is simultaneously sexy and substantive, and Helen Walsh's masterful, evenhanded tone can't help but force the reader to wonder, what would I have done?Beautifully written with the tension of a rubber band just about to snap, The Lemon Grove is a book that will have people talking all summer long.

About Helen Walsh

Helen Walsh was born in Warrington, England, in 1976. Her second novel, Once Upon a Time in England, was the winner of a Somerset Maugham Award. She now lives in Liverpool.

About Kate Reading

Kate Reading, named an AudioFile Golden Voice, has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty–year plus career and won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. Among other awards, she has been recognized as an AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and winner of an Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Leanne on January 28, 2015

I'm not particularly picky about the books I choose as vacation reads - in fact, I sometimes even save longer or heavier ones for trips that I know will have long hours of uninterrupted beach reading time, leaving me no choice but to finish them (I even conquered The Fountainhead on one such holiday......more

Goodreads review by Karina on July 29, 2014

5 tart and tangy stars. Soooo it looks like I'm in the minority here for rating this book high but whatever, ain't no shame in loving what you love. Yes, The Lemon Grove is very scandalous and immoral, but that's exactly why I picked it up at the bookstore (plus the UK cover is to die for). I love sto......more

Goodreads review by Blair on February 22, 2022

(Review originally published on my blog, February 2014) The Lemon Grove is a breathless, read-it-in-a-day kind of book, heavy with atmosphere and feeling, the type of story that is almost hallucinogenic in its evocation of place and character. Its focus is Jenn, a bored and restless fortysomething w......more

Goodreads review by Anne on February 22, 2014

We join Jenn and Greg who are taking their annual holiday on Majorca, in the villa that they rent every year. The sun is hot, the days are long and full of food and drink, lounging by the pool, exploring nearby villages and enjoying the slow pace of life. Jenn is unsettled, their usual routine is se......more

Goodreads review by Dawn on March 09, 2014

I was given a proof copy of this book in return for an honest review by Georgina Moore at Headline which I'm more than happy to do. I really wanted to read this book, I'd heard so much about it, not all good I have to say. There didn't seem to be any middle ground reviewers either loved it or couldn'......more

Quotes

“Walsh’s pacing is brilliant, her writing a combination of William Trevor and Erica Jong, as she fearlessly explores the complexities and nuances of a woman surprised by her own feelings…[A] gripping tale of a woman stepping beyond conventional boundaries and into the unknown…Can mutual peace really coexist with wild chaos? Walsh’s readers will find themselves eagerly turning the pages, racing to find out.” New York Times Book Review

“A beautifully written and erotically charged tale of a reckless holiday affair between a married woman and her step-daughter’s teenage boyfriend. The Lemon Grove mines the dark territory of illicit desire with prose as sensual and sultry as its Majorcan setting. Once you’ve started reading you won’t be able to stop.” Fiona Neill, Sunday Times (London) bestselling author of What the Nanny Saw

“Helen Walsh is a talented and serious writer, and The Lemon Grove endeavors to explore the dark temptations of forbidden lust and the disappointments of aging.” Boston Globe

“The one to read and get you hot and bothered.” Sun (London), Hot Books for 2014

“Breathtaking.” Daily Telegraph (London)

“Fraught, highly charged, and very sexy…Should be at the top of your summer reading list.” Stylist

“This year’s Beautiful Ruins.” Glamour (UK)

“This is your next Gone Girl. It’s a sultry, sexy, intense story about the lure of the forbidden, and you won’t know who to trust—a definite page-turner.” Cosmopolitan (UK)

“A brilliant study of lust and obsession, where desire cancels out caution and restraint. The writing is sensuous and sexy, with a nail-biting sense of trepidation, as things spiral out of control.” Marie Claire (UK)

“Packs a punch.” Harper’s Bazaar (UK)

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