Queen of the Orchard by Kimberly Thomas ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

 

Emma Carlisle has spent her entire life rooted in the red clay soil of her family’s Georgia peach orchard. While others dream of adventure, Emma finds solace among the trees, pouring her heart into the land her father built. 

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site.  A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2025; Indie; 979-8286820207
ebook, print (392 pages); 

Emma Carlisle has spent her life at her family's peach orchard in Georgia.  Carlisle Orchard was well known for the quality of peaches that they provide, and she is determined to maintain that legacy..  She got married and had two sons, and her husband helped at the orchard, but he died two years earlier, and she is left to take care of all the myriad jobs that are involved while she tries to make a profit, plus take care of her sons and her eccentric mother.  She is struggling to make the farm profitable, worrying constantly about her growing debts and the possibility of losing the orchard. She has a sister, Caroline, with whom she had been close when they were younger.  But Caroline never appreciated the orchard and got out of town right after high school, married a rich man in Atlanta, and never looked back at the family orchard.

All of a sudden, life takes a big turn.  Caroline finds out that her husband has been cheating on her, plus he gets arrested for stealing money from a charity.  It has become a big scandal in Atlanta, so Caroline returns to Augusta to the orchard.  There is a lot of resentment between the two sisters, and Emma doesn't trust Caroline at all - after all, she turned her back on the family business and their parents for the rich life she had in Atlanta.  Caroline has a lot of great ideas to help the orchard make money, but Emma turns down all of them until she realizes that the orchard is literally bleeding money, and they have to make changes to keep it in the family.  Along with their money problems, a huge storm hits the orchard, and there is considerable damage, which will also limit their output and lessen their profits.  When Emma and Caroline begin to work together, they discover that someone has been stealing money from the orchard accounts and taking out and using credit cards in their name.  They know that they have to figure out what's going on plus come up with new ways to increase their profit.  Is it too late for them to save the orchard that has been in their family for generations, or by working together can they turn things around?

This book has everything that makes a book unputdownable.  There is family estrangement, a mystery about who is stealing the money, plus a bit of romance for both sisters.  Neither sister is looking for romance, but a local chef who is opening a farm-to-table restaurant wants Carlisle peaches for his restaurant, and he and Emma become friends.  Despite Emma still feeling loyal to her dead husband, he begins to break down her barriers.  Caroline goes to an old boyfriend in town to get some help with one of her new ideas, and he is interested in spending more time with her, but she is still deeply hurt by her husband's betrayal.  This book kept me interested from the first page, and I was hoping that the sisters could save the peach orchard and both find their happily ever after. 

Buy Queen of the Orchard at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is three hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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