The Orphan’s Daughter by Sandy Taylor @bookouture *Book Review*

Happy Friday y’all!

Delighted to share with you today this beautiful story! A lovely coming-of-age tale about friendship, family, and secrets!

My Thoughts

A tender and touching tale of friendship and family. Sandy Taylor’s exquisite storytelling completely transported me to 1924 Ireland. Nora is a young girl living in a small village in Ireland with her loving family. She spends her days exploring with her BFF Kitty. One day the girls discovered a hole in the fence to the big manor on the hill. Nora has always been warned against approaching the big house, but she cannot resist. While investigating the grounds they run across a boy their age named Eddie. Eddie begins to show Nora how to tend the grounds and a beautiful friendship blooms. What follows is a lovely coming-of-age story.

This is a quiet book with a big heart. The strength of this story is in its keen sense of time and place. Sweet well developed characters who will tug at your heartstrings. Loved all the friendships in the story as well as the strength of family. Times are hard for these characters but they all were so resilient and strong. Emotional and engaging this was a real treat.

*** Big thank you to Bookouture for my gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own. ***

About the Book

Ireland, 1924. For thirteen-year-old Nora Doyle every day is a fight for survival in Ballybun, the rural Irish village she calls home. Each night, as she feels the cold wind blowing through the cracks of her family’s cramped cottage, Nora longs to escape the poverty surrounding her and find her place in the world.

When she meets Edward, from the grand house that looms over her tiny village, she feels an unlikely kinship that is impossible to explain, and as she grows from an impulsive child into a beautiful woman, Nora spends every moment she can with him. But Edward holds the key to a secret about Nora’s own family that changes her life forever, and the devastating impact tears Nora away from her beloved village. Now she must start afresh in busy, hectic Dublin. When Nora meets charming baker Joe Lynch, can she dare to risk her heart again?

But sorrow is never far away for an Irish village girl, and when tragedy strikes, Nora must return to Ballybun to see Edward once more and face up to the truth that drove her away. But back amongst the familiar sights and smells of her childhood, Nora feels herself drawn once more to her old life, and love, as she faces an impossible choice. Torn in different directions, can Nora find the strength to be true to herself?

A heart-wrenching story of love, loss and the power of friendship during unimaginable hardship. This book is perfect for fans of Orphan Train and Diney Costeloe’s The Girl with No Name.

About the Author

Sandy Taylor grew up on a council estate near Brighton. There were no books in the house, so Sandy’s love of the written word was nurtured in the little local library. Leaving school at fifteen, Sandy worked in a series of factories before landing a job at Butlins in Minehead. This career change led her to becoming a singer, a stand up comic and eventually a playwright and novelist.

@SandyTaylorAuth

Buying Links:

Amazon: http://bit.ly/2RTpHo1

Kobo: http://bit.ly/36YeVS1

Apple Books: https://apple.co/2vLhycR

Google Play: http://bit.ly/2tstj7e