A review by portybelle
The Secret of Orchard Cottage by Alex Brown

5.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book set in Tindledale village. It's the third set there I believe and although I hadn't read the others it didn't affect my enjoyment of this book at all - and I now want to read the others! It's mainly about young widow April who has gone to look after her frail elderly great aunt Edie, as she is is getting a little forgetful. Edie keeps confusing  April with her sister Winnie who left Tindledale in WW2 and never returned. April decides to try to find out what happens to Winnie to try to help her aunt. It's such a lovely book which, as well as following April as she tries to solve the mystery, also looks at grief, second chances, finding happiness again, dementia and bullying. The village setting was wonderfully portrayed with so many caring and supportive residents that I wouldn't mind moving there myself! The focus is mainly on the women in the story and I was very taken with the dedication - "For all the ordinary women everywhere, doing extraordinary things."  The women of Tindledale may just have been 'ordinary women' and that's what made the book so readable, but there were certainly more than a few doing 'extraordinary things.'