Book Giveaway: Lemon Grove

[TinaMumsnet]

Our second giveaway this week is Helen Walsh's new novel Lemon Grove.

Each summer, Jenn and her husband Greg return to Deia, on Mallorca's dramatic west coast. This year the arrival of Emma, Jenn's stepdaughter, and her new boyfriend Nathan threatens to upset their equilibrium. Beautiful and reckless, Nathan stirs something unexpected in Jenn.

As she is increasingly seduced by Nathan's youth and the promise of passion, the line between desire and obsession begins to blur. What follows is a highly-charged liaison that puts lives and relationships in jeopardy. For Jenn, after this summer, nothing can ever be the same.

Reviews for The Lemon Grove
‘Extraordinarily, electrifyingly good, you will read it and then instantly give it to your best friend to read.’ Lisa Jewell
‘Walsh magnificently racks the tension up, notch by excruciating notch as the emotions in the villa reach fever pitch’. Independent
‘The Lemon Grove is fraught, highly-charged and very sexy, as well as being an intelligent take on raising other people’s children, and it should be at the top of your summer reading list.’ Stylist
‘It’s a very rare occurrence that I read a book whose prose is quite so poetic, whose plot is quite so compelling, that the second I finish it I want to re-read it all over again. This happened with The Lemon Grove.’ The Unlikely Bookworm

Click here to apply for one of the 50 copies that we have to giveaway.

If you're lucky enough to receive a copy of Lemon Grove, please remember to post your thoughts about the book on this thread or write a review here.

This book giveaway is sponsored by Headline PR

Ooh yes please, this sounds right up my street

Sounds good, have applied, fingers crossed.

Oooh yes please!

Ooh, I've been dying to read this, going to apply now!

I've just received my copy, thank you.
I'll come back with a proper review, but just wanted to say that I love the cover and format of the book, and after opening it up and becoming absorbed in the first chapter, have struggled to tear myself away to start my urgent work!

Thank you so much, mine arrived today too. Can't wait to start reading it

I received my copy today, thanks so much! I can't wait to start reading it, looks very good!

Mine came in the post today - what a lovely surprise! thank you very much! Am off for a night away on monday so this will be great for the train journey - 3 hours each way!

Just received my copy, yay!Have just started reading "the Goldfinch" so am packing it in my case as one of my holiday reads, will post a review when we are back. Thank you Mumsnet x

My book arrived yesterday - thanks very much! Just finishing another one at the moment so will get to it asap.

Thank you. My copy arrived yesterday. Really looking forward to reading it, but need to finish the book I'm currently reading. I stayed up last night late, late, late to try to finish it, and now only have 17% to read. Soon be reading 'The Lemon Grove'.

I started reading this over the weekend and have just finished it. It was a light summery read but with a bit of a dark side to it. I felt like the author knew her Majorcan setting quite well and it made me want to be there.

Overall, a nice easy read but probably not one to be shared with my teenage DDs!

Hmm. Very disappointing.

On the plus side - she writes well, and her descriptions of the island are very evocative.

But on the negative side - unpleasant characters, totally unbelievable premise and badly plotted (so many chapters just end, with the next one just skipping forward and not even bothering trying to explain how Jenn/Nathan have got away with it/not been caught). Predictable, and no subtlety in the symbolism at all. And the sex is totally unbelievable.

The language describing women is awful. I don't know how many times the word 'crone' is used, for example.

I was really disappointed with this. Sorry MNHQ. I loved getting a free book, and really wanted to be able to give a positive review. But I can't.

I really wouldn't recommend this book,

Thanks for my copy. Starting it next week.

I was really pleased to receive this book as it's one I have considered buying on several occasions (although I have actually opted for a book which I thought sounded more original instead each time!)

While an ok read, I was left a little disappointed.

Good things:

• as above, the description of the setting is very evocative and really helped to set the scene
• the pace was good and the length of book right

Bad things:

• I just didn't like the characters! While I got a really good sense of the setting, I felt as if I didn't learn enough about the characters and this meant I didn't care for them or understand why they did things. It made the middle section of the book hard-going
• The content didn't feel unique and I'm not sure it's a book I'll remember

The Lemon Grove was easy to read and I read it quickly. It wasn't the kind of book I usually read and was glad to have the chance to read it. However, it wasn't as good as I was expecting. I didn't think the characters were particularly well drawn and their motivations weren't clear. I liked the setting, I've been to the monastery at Valdemossa and it is always nice to read about places you've been to. This book might appeal to some readers but I found it rather disappointing.

I would leave this book behind in the hotel for others to read while on holiday but I wouldnt pass it on as a good read to friends as I think it was full of predictable characters - randy teenaged boy, sexually frustrated middleaged wife and sulky teenage daughter.
I enjoyed the descriptions of beautiful majorca. Wish I was there!

Finished this today.

I found this a very odd book. It read like it was written by a man just out of an evening class in creative writing, flicking through his thesaurus.

I was amazed that the writer was actually a woman and not a man using a female nom de plume because the women in it were so poorly written and the feelings and emotions expressed just didn't ring true.

The characters were poorly drawn, the sex was badly written, and the plot was non-existent. So many cliches it was laughable.

Not one to pass on or re-read. This one is heading for the recycling bin.

God, this book was dire..... Just awful. It was the third book I read on a weeks holiday and I just skim read (with embarrassment) and left it in the hotel room......

I enjoyed the book for what it is - a quick and easy summertime read. I wish I'd taken it on holiday alongside some the heavy fiction which I packed.

Positive points:
Well written, some really evocative descriptions.
Contemporary references
Well paced and just enough tension building to make it a page turner
Loved the cover presentation

Negative points:
The characters were 2 dimensional caricatures (trust fund hippy? pompous lecturer?)
The word 'crone' repeated over and over. It served as a good description with its first use, but then started to jarr as a shorthand for all old Spanish people.
The reference to "a slither of moon". Did this really slip the notice of the editor? The word 'sliver' was used later in the book to refer to something else. Pedantic, maybe, but this sort of thing draws my attention back to the book, rather than the story.
The final chapter could have been very foreboding, but instead didn't quite ramp up the suspense

I'll pass the book on to a friend now, who is off on holiday.. Thanks for giving me the chance to read it.

Another one who did not enjoy this book

Some of the writing was very poor, cliched descriptions that didn't evoke any images, adjectives used in an odd way (agree with the above poster about the creative writing class & the thesaurus)

The sex was very poorly written. All if a sudden out if nowhere you'd get descriptions that are very crude, references to his dick, no attempt at sensuality or even lust.

The characters were poorly described, no insight as to their motivations & a lot of the plot was very vague.

The only bit that was vaguely excited was the beginning ofvthe search but then it jumped around & you never ended up knowing what really happened.

Quick, easy read, but on the whole disappointing. Walsh spends more time on describing the landscapes than the characters, with the consequence that you really don’t get to know the four main people involved in the story. So the relationship between the mother and daughter’s boyfriend, for example, really doesn’t ring true.

I agree with other reviewers that there are quite a few plot ‘holes’ which meant I re-read bits to see if I’d missed something, but no, there are just gaps in explanation. The ending too was a disappointment, with so many questions left unanswered. Perhaps that’s exactly what Helen Walsh wanted for her ending. But for me, it just gave me another reason for not bothering to pass this book on to friends to read!

Helen Walsh fans out there – which book is her best? I’d like to compare this one with another one.

This is the first Helen Walsh book I've ever read. I certainly won't be bothering to waste my time or money on any more.

I took this book on holiday and read it very quickly as the others have said. I think it is a perfect holiday book. Easy to read and not too taxing, which is what I want from that kind of thing. I agree it would be sort sort of book I would leave for someone else to read too.

If you are looking for complex characters or a more intellectual book then this isn't for you. I mean really - with your daughter's boyfriend, in your own villa, in the space of one week???? And I totally agree that there is a lot more that could have been expanded upon in terms of characters, both the main 4 and the others, such as the lemon grove owner. but then I guess it wouldn't have been such an easy holiday read.

It is the literary equivalent to an storyline of Neighbours or Home and Away - but then again, sometimes all you want is a crappy soap opera to watch.

Still not managed to read this but it's next in my pile:) will report back soon