Books on Tour: The Orphan's Island

Book Description:

1904: Ellen Copley is still a child when she leaves behind the sooty rail yards of Glasgow, and crosses the Atlantic Ocean with a heart full of dreams. Yet within weeks of their arrival in America, her father has disappeared—leaving Ellen with resentful relatives, feeling alone and scared for her future.

But then her kind Aunt Rose invites Ellen to stay with her large family, in their rambling house on beautiful Amherst Island, which nestles like a jewel in the blue waters of Lake Ontario.

There Ellen finally begins to find the love and acceptance she has long been craving—both from Aunt Rose’s boisterous family, and from the boys next door, Jed and Lucas Lyman. It’s Jed she’s drawn to… the one with the twinkling eyes, who teases her, and laughs with her, and soon steals her heart…

But does Jed love her back? Because—even though Amherst Island feels like home—Ellen knows she can’t stay there with a broken heart…

This is the first book in the unmissable Amherst Island Trilogy that follows the life and love of Ellen Copley from the magic of Lake Ontario to the bloody battlefields of the First World War and beyond. Perfect for fans of The Oceans Between Us, The Orphan Sisters, and My Name is Eva.

Previously published as Down Jasper Lane. 

Author Bio:

Kate Hewitt is the author of many romance and women’s fiction novels. A former New Yorker and now an American ex-pat, she lives in a small town on the Welsh border with her husband, five children, and their overly affectionate Golden Retriever. Whatever the genre, she enjoys telling stories that tackle real issues and touch people’s lives. 

https://www.kate-hewitt.com/

https://www.facebook.com/KateHewittAuthor/

https://twitter.com/author_kate

Nerdy Mom Dot Com Review:

The Orphan's Island is the heart wrenching story of a young Scottish girl named Ellen Copley. Ellen comes from a poor family, her father works on railway engines and the family cannot afford to let Ellen continue to go to school with her friends, instead she must stay home with her mother and keep house, forcing her to grow up at a very early age. Ellen's father tries to give her and the family hope in the dream that one day they will be able to immigrate to America, a land of new opportunities. Unfortunately, any money that the family saves is spent on medicines trying to heal Ellen's quickly declining mother. At the age of twelve Ellen loses her mother and bittersweetly Ellen and her father pack what little belongings they have and immigrate to America.

Several years before Ellen and her father make their overseas journey her father's brother, Hamish, and his wife, Ruth, make the trip to America and lay down roots in a town called Seaton. Ruth and Hamish make a name for themselves in Seaton by opening a general store and are doing well. Ellen and her father set their sites on travelling to Hamish and Ruth in order to get their feet under them in this new country. Ellen has a hard time fitting in with the locals. Coming from Scotland she has a thick Scottish "burr" that she is constantly teased for. She also has a hard time warming up to her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Hamish, as much as she tries, she just can't seem to do anything right in Ruth's eyes. Ruth is forever correcting Ellen to the point that Ellen begins to feel that she will never fit in in Seaton. 

Ellen awakes one morning to find that her father has abandoned her to Hamish and Ruth and she feels that her life and any happiness she hoped for is truly over. A letter soon arrives in the mail from Hamish's sister Rose asking to borrow Ellen because of her nursing skills. Seems that all of Rose's children have come down with scarlet fever and Rose needs an extra set of hands to help in nursing her children back to health. Ruth and Hamish are more than obliged to send Ellen off to Rose hoping that maybe she can forget some of her sadness while helping Rose.

Rose's family lives on an island on the Canadian border. It is here on this island with Aunt Rose that Ellen truly begins to find the family life and happiness that she searched for her whole life. When she arrives she quickly finds that she wasn't just summoned to be an extra helping hand around the house, but was asked to come because Rose and her family wanted to know Ellen for Ellen. Ellen grows into herself at the Mcafferty farm and finds a place to call home. 

I enjoyed following the life of Ellen. Her story was such a sad one from the very beginning. It was hard to think that the privilege of being able to go to school was not easily obtainable at the turn of the century especially for young girls. Ellen's persistence to not give up and to keep going showed the determination of the human spirit to find a place to settle and a place where one can feel wanted and needed. I think my favorite line from the book that will stick with me is, "Ah Ellen. We can't choose the way people love us. They just do." Throughout the story Ellen faces many different kinds of love some forthwith and easy to see and some that was hidden and took a lot of thought to understand. I think The Orphan's Island was a beautiful coming of age story and I look forward to reading the second book in the series to see where Ellen's life takes her next. 

Thanks to Netgalley and Bookouture for an advanced copy for an honest review.