Bella Vista Chronicles #1 The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs

Posted January 10, 2023 by jrsbookr in Uncategorized / 0 Comments

by Susan Wiggs
Bella Vista Chronicles #1 The Apple Orchard by Susan WiggsThe Apple Orchard Published by MIRA on February 24, 2015
Genres: Fiction / Family Life / General, Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Women
Pages: 512
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Goodreads

A NEW ORIGINAL HALLMARK MOVIE: THE SECRETS OF BELLA VISTA!

From #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Susan Wiggs

"...sweet, crisp and juicy."--Elin Hilderbrand

"A powerful story of love, loss, hope and redemption."--Kirkus, Starred Review

Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their owners. People like Annelise Winther, who has just been reunited with her mother's long gone necklace, worth a sum that could change her life. To Annelise, whose family was torn apart during WWII, the necklace represents her history, and the value is in its memories.

But Tess's own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. Then the enigmatic Dominic Rossi arrives on her San Francisco doorstep with the news that the grandfather she never knew is in a coma and that she's destined to inherit half of his apple orchard estate called Bella Vista. The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen, the half-sister she didn't know she had.

With Dominic and Isabel by her side, Tess discovers world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable. And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don't believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you've not made the right kind of memories.

Wiggs deftly weaves a narrative that takes the reader from present day California to Denmark during WWII to tell a story of family ties both old and new--and the moments that connect our hearts.

Read The Bella Vista Chronicles by Susan Wiggs:

Book One: The Apple Orchard

Book Two: The Beekeeper's Ball

Review:

I am participating in the 2023 Unread Shelf Project, and the January prompt is to pick a book from your shelf that means comfort to you. For me, Fantasy is my comfort genre, but as a result, I read a ton of Fantasy. So I went for my other love and family stories, and the Bella vista chronicles have been on my list to pick up and enjoy for a long time. Finally, I got the comfort of an old fashion treasure hunt to save a wonderful working apple orchard, found a family, and a sweet budding romance. It is a perfect light read that tugs just a bit at your heartstrings, has a bit of mystery, and all the feels of discovering family when you thought you had none.

 

About Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs’s life is all about family, friends…and fiction. She lives at the water’s edge on an island in Puget Sound, and in good weather, she commutes to her writers’ group in a 21-foot motorboat. She’s been featured in the national media, including NPR, PRI, and USA Today, has given programs for the US Embassies in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, and is a popular speaker locally, nationally, internationally, and on the high seas.

From the very start, her writings have illuminated the everyday dramas of ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances. Her books celebrate the power of love, the timeless bonds of family and the fascinating nuances of human nature. Today, she is an international best-selling, award-winning author, with millions of copies of her books in print in numerous countries and languages. According to Publishers Weekly, Wiggs writes with “refreshingly honest emotion,” and the Salem Statesman Journal adds that she is “one of our best observers of stories of the heart [who] knows how to capture emotion on virtually every page of every book.” Booklist characterizes her books as “real and true and unforgettable.”

The author is a former teacher, a Harvard graduate, an avid hiker, an amateur photographer, a good skier and terrible golfer, yet her favorite form of exercise is curling up with a good book. She lives on an island in Puget Sound, where she divides her time between sleeping and waking.