The Orchard House by Heidi Chiavaroli

The Orchard House by Heidi Chiavaroli
Series: Stand Alone
Publisher: Tyndale Fiction, February 9, 2021

Review by Kelly Goshorn

As a fan of Little Women, Heidi Chiavaroli’s other books, as well as ALL things historical, I had a sneaking suspicion that I would love The Orchard House before I read a single word. That being said, I was truly captivated by this dual timeline novel that bings the story of two sisters reunited after sixteen years and how their relationship was healed through a shared love of words. Especially those penned in 150 year old poems by a friend of Louisa May Alcott.

Chiavaroli’s characters were real and relatable, their relationships gritty and vulnerable. I was immediately drawn to them because I knew them. Not because I had experienced similar tragedies, but because the author created them that life-like. They were not flat, cardboard characters, but every bit as real to me as a dear friend. I was truly in awe of how the author wove these two timelines together so seamlessly. Each one with characters struggling with similar hardships, and how the women from the past reached forward and helped bring healing to their contemporary counterparts.

That being said, The Orchard House is not light fare. Chiavaroli tackles difficult subjects like physical and emotional abuse, abandonment, betrayal, self-worth, lost dreams, alcohol abuse, cancer, and PTSD. But don’t let that deter you for these are the stories that bid us to look in the mirror and examine our own selves. Though I’ve always considered myself a strong woman, I found myself pondering how easily I could become Johanna or Victoria. Both suffered rage and violence at the hand of the man who’d vowed to love and cherish them. Both desperately wanted their marriages to succeed. Both wanted to hide the darkness that had invaded their lives from being exposed to the light, and while I have never suffered such abuse, I know my own tendency to hide the difficulties and imperfections of my life from others’ scrutiny.

All this made me wonder if I, too, would not endure more than I should if I were in their shoes. If desperate apologies from my abuser would bid me to forgive him and stay because I knew him to be more than that moment. Or because I erroneously believed that my love, my influence, could change him. And in that examination, I came to the same conclusion that Chiavaroli’s characters did—that we are not the ones to bring healing, to bring peace or even light into the dark places of others’ souls. They must choose, just like we ourselves must, to surrender our hearts, our choices, and our dreams to ‘Someone’ bigger than ourselves.

“I am talking about a bigger place to belong – in the arms of One who not only tells me not to fear; but who, in the midst of my failures, has loved me and given me a worth beyond measure. In this, I find both liberty and home – two things I once thought opposites but I now see are not so very different.”

Heidi Chiavaroli, The Orchard House

The Orchard House also celebrates the deep bonds of sisterhood. Bonds that are not necessarily formed through blood, but through bearing one another’s burdens in adversity, for being consistently present even when you disagree with another’s choices, and for never ceasing the hope of reconciliation even when that friendship may be rejected.

If you’re a fan of thought provoking storylines, richly drawn characters, and eloquent prose, The Orchard House is for you. I enthusiastically give The Orchard House five well-deserved fish!