The Olive Tree by Lucinda Riley

Olive Tree

EXCERPT: July 2006 – Arrivals – Alex’s Diary
10th July 2006
For some reason, whenever I’m on a plane I think about dying. To be fair, I think about dying wherever I am. Perhaps being dead is a bit like the weightlessness you feel here, now, in this metal tube. My little sister asked if she was dead the last time we flew because someone told her Grandpa was up on a cloud. She thought she was joining him when we passed one.
Why do adults tell kids such ridiculous stories? It only leads to trouble. For myself, I never believed any of them?
My own mother gave up trying to use them on me years ago.
She loves me, my mother, even if I’ve morphed into Mr Blob in the past few months. And she promises that one day, I will have to crouch down to see my face in the water-splashed mirrors such as this one. I come from a family of tall men apparently. Not that this comforts me. I’ve read about genes skipping generations and knowing my luck, I shall be the first fat dwarf in hundreds of years of Beaumont males.
Besides, she forgets she’s ignoring the opposing DNA which helped create me . . .
It’s a conversation I am determined to have during this holiday. I don’t care how many times she tries to wimp out of it and conveniently changes the subject. A gooseberry bush for a father is no longer satisfactory.
I need to know.

ABOUT ‘THE OLIVE TREE’: Please be aware that in some parts of the world, this book is published under the title ‘Helena’s Secret’.

It is said that anyone who comes to stay at ‘Pandora’ for the first time will fall in love . . .

It has been twenty-four years since a young Helena spent a magical holiday in Cyprus, where she fell in love for the first time. When the now crumbling house, ‘Pandora’, is left to her by her godfather, she returns to spend the summer there with her family.

Yet Helena knows that the idyllic beauty of Pandora masks a web of secrets she has kept from William, her husband, and Alex, her son. At the difficult age of thirteen, Alex is torn between protecting his beloved mother, and growing up. And equally, he is desperate to learn the truth about his real father . . .

When Helena meets her childhood sweetheart by chance, a chain of events is set in motion that threatens to make her past and present collide. Both Helena and Alex know that life will never be the same, once Pandora’s secrets have been revealed.

MY THOUGHTS: It is not just the house named Pandora that has secrets – so has Helena.

I always love Lucinda Riley’s characters, and those in The Olive Tree are no exception. I really felt for Alex, who sees himself as the cuckoo in the nest of his mother’s perfect family. Alex is an incredibly intelligent and obliging almost teenage boy. Despite feeling the odd one out, he loves his younger siblings Immie and Fred. He gives up his room at Pandora to sleep in a ‘broom closet’ so that visitors can have it.

I loved Helena’s character despite her refusal to face up to reality and acknowledge her past. She adores her husband William, and he her, although he can never quite rid himself of the feeling that Helena is holding something back from him. As, indeed, she is.

As old and new friends cycle through Pandora over the summer, Alex falls in love for the first time, and Helena’s past collides with her present with an unexpected revelation that generates an explosive fallout.

The story is told over two timelines, 2006 when Helena and her family are holidaying at Pandora, and 2016 when they all return to Pandora for the first time since 2006. There are also occasional flashbacks to Helena’s past life.

I cannot help but become totally immersed in Lucinda Riley’s stories. Her characters become friends, flawed but irresistible. This is a book that I will read/listen to again.

The narration of the audiobook is superbly performed by Lucinda Riley herself and her son, Harry Whittaker. There is also an interesting discussion between the two at the end of the audiobook where they discuss Lucinda’s writing.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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T: @lucindariley @panmacmillan

THE AUTHOR: Lucinda Riley is an Irish author of popular historical fiction and a former actress. She spent the first few years of her life in the village of Drumbeg near Belfast before moving to England. At age 14 she moved to London to a specialist drama and ballet school. She wrote her first book aged twenty four. Lucinda died in June 2021.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Waitomo District Library for the loan of the audiobook of The Olive Tree by Lucinda Riley for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

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