This was a brilliant read. As soon as I started reading this book I just knew I was going to love it. Highly recommended

What a amazing read so easy to read fab story was so pull into the plot very well written was easy to read I like all the twist and turn a very interesting read characters were like family you could feel what the were going through it was very good

I’ve read many a historical novel where it flicks between two times periods, but as I started Where the Wild Cherries Grow, it was a great pleasure to find that instead of a past/present switch, it was between the near past (1969) and further back (1919) – the reasons for this become obvious, but I thought it was a nice little twist on the format.

It’s clear from early on that food plays an important part in the novel – from the wild cherries of the title, to the strange ‘crescent-shaped buns’ that Bill Perch first tries in a Paris railway station and the sumptuous dishes that Emeline learns to create – some of the descriptions are so evocative that you can almost imagine the strange new tastes and smells that both Emeline and Bill experience as they journey across Europe.

There are some extraordinarily maddening scenes in the 1919 sections, particularly those dealing with Emeline’s grief after the war, and her treatment by her male relatives. Her powerlessness is infuriating and it’s hard to blame her for trying to escape that life of unjustified confinement.

This really is a lovely book to read, with each of the time periods described well and without too much effort to cram in what I’m sure was a good deal of research. We really get a good sense of time and place without having to rely on real-world markers and, when they do appear, they are discreet yet unmistakeable.

Could read as it was archived the day I was approved to read it! Shame as the blurb sounded interesting!

Don’t you just love a story that hooks you in with the prologue and Where the Wild Cherries Grow certainly did that for me! I had so many questions in April 1919 … and as in Laura Madeleine’s debut novel, The Confectioner’s Tale, I was deeply involved in this story throughout.

I’m a fan of dual timelines. In Where the Wild Cherries Grow, Emeline Vane narrates in 1919 from shortly after her mother’s death at Hallerton in Norfolk and Bill Perch narrates in 1969 London on his quest as a solicitor’s assistant. The two different times in history felt authentic. The sleepy village of Hallerton in 1919 not dissimilar to how it is in 1969 although very different to the hurly burly of 1969 London. I think it shows how real the story felt to me as I pondered after the story ended if they continued the same festivals in Cerbére in 1969 or had they been forgotten! I loved the mirroring in the dual timelines of the two train journeys and the significance of the crows.

I do have a favourite character! Clémence. She is so solid and ‘present’ (no doubt at all why she is known as Maman) however it’s something unseen and intangible but with such an impact that drew me to her. Cerbére is an amazing community with depth and belonging.

The story has a great pace with the conflict known at the start of the story and with the timelines drawing closer and closer to the resolution, lots of tension for me (would I get the ending I wanted? Not just for Emeline but for Bill too). I always think it’s such a skill to create a story that takes the reader full circle. Whilst on the one hand I didn’t get the ending I wanted (don’t get me wrong it made perfect sense), in another way I did …

Entertainment and escapism doesn’t get much better than with these characters and their lives in Where the Wild Cherries Grow. Highly recommended. Don’t miss it!

England 1919

The Great War has not even been over for a year. The ripples from the war, the loss is still being felt. For Emeline Vane she only has two things to cling on to, her younger brother Tim and their home in Norfolk.

Events overtake her emotionally and physically and the rash decision of running and stowing away on a train take her to the South of France, almost like the end of the world.

She is taken in like a wounded bird, to a cafe in Cerbere there she mends, grows and develops. She is taught to cook, to use the food as medicine, as reward, as celebration, as love. Everything grows around her in Cerbere and she no longer feels like she is running away......until.......

England 1969

Bill Perch does nothing but type things in triplicate in the solicitor's office in London where he works. When a client arrives Bill becomes involved in his first proper case that takes him away from the typewriter. Can he proved that his clients aunt is dead and therefore her father, Tim is the sole owner of his childhood home and it can now be sold.

Bill escapes the claustrophobic atmosphere of solicitor office, pub, fish and chip shop and home, his cyclical life and finds something about this aunt which means she might not be dead. Bill's escape leads to him running away on a journey of discovery just as the person he is seeking did some fifty years earlier.

This dual narrative novel is wonderful. It alternated between chapters, and was enough in each to keep you wanting to read more,wanting to discover the truth about everything that had happened.

I was transported away to France, to the border with Spain, hence the thought of it almost being the end of the world. I went through the seasons and tasted the fruit of the land, the fish from the sea as it seems that Emeline was brought to life by her senses, taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing.

The contrast to Bill's journey is so different, whilst there had to be similar paths crossed and taken to even to begin to understand Emeline's story for Bill it was more about breaking boundaries, to not conform and to follow through on your beliefs.

This is a wonderful story to become absorbed in and takes you on a such a journey that I felt like I had been on holiday and had even tasted the food that was described in such vivid detail.

Was the ending the right one? Yes it was for me. The book has stayed with me, it had lots of questions still to be asked if not answered and I felt that the characters were let go to live their lives. Would I want to go back and see how there were? Of course I would, who doesn't want to keep a story going. But actually I think it is best that they are left to be.

One of my favourite reads for 2017.

How I loved this. Spanning two periods in the 20 Century and written in alternate chapters it follows young solicitor, Bill, trying to piece together the tragic live of Emeline Vane and what happened when she fled plans to send her to an asylum. The story takes us from middle England right across France and Catalonia country on the French, Spanish border, a part of the world I know well. This is a delight full of the evocative foods, flavours and tastes of the time. I could almost believe I was there seeing what Emeline was seeing. A modern classic - posted on Amazon

Bill Perch is a young solicitors assistant in 1969 and the first case he is handed to look into is finding a woman that disappeared 50 years in 1919 - she is still the joint owner of Hallerton House, a lovely old house that is disintegrating and falling down after years of neglect.

The house was left to two siblings Emeline Vane and her brother Tommy, but Tommy has had a stroke and his children want to sell the house to build a holiday complex on the site and so want proof that Emeline is dead but where do you start after 50 years.

In 1919 devastated by the war - the loss of her two brothers and parents - Emeline is desperate not to leave her home but with the money all gone there is not much choice. Her uncle thinks that Emeline is mentally unstable and arranges for her to go to a Swiss asylum to recuperate - scared that she will never get out again Emeline jumps off the train and on to another one and goes as far south as she can to a lovely little town in Catalonia on the French/Spanish border. Here she is taken in by a local family and learns to cook and help run the restaurant.

A lovely story - Bill gets so involved with the task - especially when he finds Emeline's diary at Hallerton that he gives up part of his own life in his quest to find the truth - is Emeline still alive or dead - Tommy tried to find her years earlier but couldn't, can he do any better. Both stories in 1969 and 1919 draw you in and I found it hard to put it down - especially loved the descriptions of Catalan cuisine - don't read it if you are hungry!

Thank you Laura Madeleine and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
I have to say that I absolutely adored The Confectioner's Tale so read Laura's second book was very exciting.
I love books that converge two different times and this book did it beautifully. A missing young woman and the solicitors assistant sent out 50 years later to look for clues to where she went is written so beautifully that you feel yourself beside them. To quote the book - "how do you describe colour?" - well Laura did just so with the smells of the recipes just wafting off the page.
I highly recommend this book. Thank you Laura, I will be on the lookout for your books forever.

Set in two of my favourite periods of history (1919 and 1969), Where the Wild Cherries Grow is a story of loss, of running away, of finding out who you really are and that family is so much more than blood.

I absolutely loved this book; the parrallel of the two stories, the characters, the train journeys through France are all beautifully depicted - and the pace is just right. And as for the descriptions of food....well, it was as though you were right there, cooking and eating with the characters.

Loved everything about this book. I was sad when I finished it . I could almost taste the food. A lovely story highly recommend

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book at all and found I was skipping chapters and feel that it would be wrong of me to give a fair review as may be I was not in the right frame of mind