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Sign up todayThe Lemon Grove
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Learn moreA highly charged, sultry, beautifully written and compulsive one-sit read, The Lemon Grove is an intense novel about obsession and sex—the perfect summer book.
Jenn and Greg have been married for fourteen years, and, as the book opens, they are enjoying the last week of their annual summer holiday in Dei├á, a village in Majorca off the coast of southern Spain. Their days are languorous, time passing by in a haze of rioja-soaked lunches, hours at the beach, and lazy afternoon sex in their beautiful villa. It is the perfect summer idyll—until Greg's teenage daughter, Emma, arrives with her new boyfriend, Nathan, in tow.
What follows, over the course of seven days, is a brilliantly paced fever dream of attraction between Jenn and the reckless yet mesmerizing Nathan. It is an intense pas de deux of push and pull, risk and consequence, and moral rectitude, as it gets harder and harder for Jenn to stifle her compulsion.
This is a very smart novel about many things: the loss of youth, female sexuality, the lure of May-December temptation, the vicissitudes of marriage and the politics of other people's children. It is simultaneously sexy and substantive, and Helen Walsh's masterful, evenhanded tone can't help but force the reader to wonder, what would I have done?
Beautifully written with the tension of a rubber band just about to snap, The Lemon Grove is a book that will have people talking all summer long.
Helen Walsh was born in Warrington, England, in 1976. Her second novel, Once Upon a Time in England, was the winner of a Somerset Maugham Award. She now lives in Liverpool.
Kate Reading has recorded hundreds of audiobooks across many genres, over a thirty year plus career. Audie Awards: The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter (mystery), Breasts (non-fiction), Bellwether (fiction), and Words of Radiance (fantasy), co-narrated with her husband, Michael Kramer. Among other awards, she has been recognized with: the ALA Booklist best of 2019 for Bowlaway (fiction), AudioFile Magazine Voice of the Century, Earphones Awards, Narrator of the Year, Best Voice in Science Fiction and Fantasy, and Publisher’s Weekly’s Listen-Up Award. She records at her home studio, Madison Productions, Inc., in Maryland.
Reviews
“Walsh’s pacing is brilliant, her writing a combination of William Trevor and Erica Jong, as she fearlessly explores the complexities and nuances of a woman surprised by her own feelings…[A] gripping tale of a woman stepping beyond conventional boundaries and into the unknown…Can mutual peace really coexist with wild chaos? Walsh’s readers will find themselves eagerly turning the pages, racing to find out.”
“A beautifully written and erotically charged tale of a reckless holiday affair between a married woman and her step-daughter’s teenage boyfriend. The Lemon Grove mines the dark territory of illicit desire with prose as sensual and sultry as its Majorcan setting. Once you’ve started reading you won’t be able to stop.”
“Helen Walsh is a talented and serious writer, and The Lemon Grove endeavors to explore the dark temptations of forbidden lust and the disappointments of aging.”
“The one to read and get you hot and bothered.”
“Breathtaking.”
“Fraught, highly charged, and very sexy…Should be at the top of your summer reading list.”
“This year’s Beautiful Ruins.”
“This is your next Gone Girl. It’s a sultry, sexy, intense story about the lure of the forbidden, and you won’t know who to trust—a definite page-turner.”
“A brilliant study of lust and obsession, where desire cancels out caution and restraint. The writing is sensuous and sexy, with a nail-biting sense of trepidation, as things spiral out of control.”
“Packs a punch.”
“Walsh’s novel, which takes place over the course of just one week, will have people talking about it for a long, long time. It exudes controversy and hushed conversations that almost feel taboo. But readers will admire the author’s slow tug at their hearts as they ponder what is socially acceptable when it comes to love and lust. This tale of tantalizing temptation is impossible to put down, and the unexpected ending will shock you to the core.”
“Driven by her awareness of the connection between lust and romantic love, natural beauty and artifice, and passion and regret…Compelling.”
“Edgy, in-your-face…Fading youth, female desire, the pull of temptation, the craziness of marriage, and vivid sex—it’s all here.”
“Walsh’s writing is mesmerizing.”
“The Lemon Grove is a slinky, sultry, seductress of a novel that kept me reading long past bedtime. Titillating and tense, poignant and honest, Helen Walsh’s tale of forbidden desire satisfies on all levels.”
“The Lemon Grove is by turns delicious and shocking, erotic and mournful, heart-stopping, yet languidly, achingly sexy. Helen Walsh deftly explores that perilous place where temptation tips into sexual obsession. And she does so with the kind of writing that leaves you no choice but to consume the book in one sitting. I did.”
“I cannot imagine a more gripping, sexy summer read; I loved it.”
“Extraordinarily, electrifyingly good. You will read it and then instantly give it to your best friend to read.”
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