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A review by ncrabb
The Orchard by Jeffrey Stepakoff
3.0
The last thing Grace Lyndon needs in her life is love; Dylan Jackson has known a love so complete that he knew he would never know love again. Grace works in Atlanta in the flavor creation business. She has traveled the world in search of the perfect flavor, a flavor born in nature and worked on in her lab.
Dylan grows organic apples at his apple farm in north Georgia. He, too, strives for perfection, keeping an eye simultaneously on the weather, the calendar, and the fruit itself. Jackson, a widower, has built a barrier around his heart not unlike the barrier that Grace has constructed around hers. When Grace tastes by chance an apple Dylan has grown, she drives through the night to find this enchanting orchard and seek to scientifically capture the flavors of those apples.
While laboratory equipment can indeed capture nature's flavors and even simulate them, affairs of the heart are much less scientific. Can something as simple as the taste of an apple break seemingly impenetrable barriers and knit hearts?
The two most important things to point out about this book are that it's written in almost a lyrical poetic style. The language is enchanting in places. The second point is you'll learn a tremendous amount about the birth of flavors and smells in products--flavors and smells we all take for granted, and that learning experience is well worth the time you'll spend with this book. This is worth your time if for no other reason than that you get acquainted with Jackson's 10-year-old daughter, Carter. She is a shining precocious child who is far wiser than her years. Her solution to her dad's unwillingness to buy Grace a corsage is absolutely priceless.
In short, while this follows the traditional romance path of burgeoning love, something that threatens that love, then an ending anyone can live with, the writing style and the language used sets the book apart in a good way.
Dylan grows organic apples at his apple farm in north Georgia. He, too, strives for perfection, keeping an eye simultaneously on the weather, the calendar, and the fruit itself. Jackson, a widower, has built a barrier around his heart not unlike the barrier that Grace has constructed around hers. When Grace tastes by chance an apple Dylan has grown, she drives through the night to find this enchanting orchard and seek to scientifically capture the flavors of those apples.
While laboratory equipment can indeed capture nature's flavors and even simulate them, affairs of the heart are much less scientific. Can something as simple as the taste of an apple break seemingly impenetrable barriers and knit hearts?
The two most important things to point out about this book are that it's written in almost a lyrical poetic style. The language is enchanting in places. The second point is you'll learn a tremendous amount about the birth of flavors and smells in products--flavors and smells we all take for granted, and that learning experience is well worth the time you'll spend with this book. This is worth your time if for no other reason than that you get acquainted with Jackson's 10-year-old daughter, Carter. She is a shining precocious child who is far wiser than her years. Her solution to her dad's unwillingness to buy Grace a corsage is absolutely priceless.
In short, while this follows the traditional romance path of burgeoning love, something that threatens that love, then an ending anyone can live with, the writing style and the language used sets the book apart in a good way.