A 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 Deià, 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. Title Info. Dedication. One
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"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 crazi
