Not an unfamiliar scenario. Frumpy and nearly forty, Frances has spent the last couple of decades nursing her mother, a bitter woman whose joy in life was extinguished when her husband left her and she fell into a slow decline. Freed at last, Frances takes on a commission to catalogue the gardens of a grand but dilapidated country house, sharing accommodation with the worldly and slightly louche Peter and Cara. Frances is entranced and, for the first time in her life, she seems to have made some friends, people who seem to find her interesting and attractive. Early hints point to the couple not being quite as they appear but naive, sheltered Frances is slow on the uptake.

The greatest achievements of this book to my mind are the tense, stifling atmosphere, the sense of foreboding, perfect pacing ramping up the uncovering of lies and evasions to a dramatic, but not particularly unexpected, conclusion. Some lovely description of the house and surroundings. I thought the character of Frances well drawn, too, awkward and lacking in confidence at first, gradually becoming more reckless and abandoned, the whole defining episode in her life contemplated from her death bed many years on. Not a ground-breaking story but very well executed and I’d recommend it.

I loved Claire Fuller's previous novel 'Swimming Lessons' and 'Bitter Orange' doesn't disappoint. The author comes up with original plots each time and her characterisation, including that of the house in which this story is set, is spot on.

Frances is approaching 40 when after many years of sickness, her mother dies. When she is offered the opportunity of researching the architecture of Lyntons, a deserted English country house, Frances is delighted. She arrives to be greeted by a couple: Peter and his younger girlfriend, Cara, also tasked with writing a report detailing the contents of the house for its new American owner. But Peter and Cara have other ideas and Frances becomes a willing participant.

The story is told in flashback when Frances is dying in hospital and visited by an old friend from the past, Claire Fuller brings a sense of fear and drama throughout the narrative. The reader senses that there will be a nasty ending but nevertheless it comes as a shock when it happens. I highly recommend Bitter Orange and many thanks to Net Galley and Tin House for the opportunity to read and review it.

Bitter Orange is a captivating tale of repression and loneliness. Atmospheric and moody, the plot twists and turns, taking us on the journey with Frances as Cara and Peter draw her into their world. The house itself almost becomes a character in its own right, with its buried secrets and its creaks and breaths. The prose is a descriptive delight--so much so that I read the book in a single sitting, unable to put it down. The only slight reservation I had was the lack of clear demarcation between past and present. One bled into the other, and I assume that was an intentional literary device. However, for me, it was a distraction. Each time, it took me a paragraph or two to re-establish where I was in the timeline, pulling me out of the narrative. A simple scene break would have been less jolting, as that is what the eye is used to seeing in such cases. But that is a very minor gripe in what is, in all other respects, a gripping, intelligent, and deep novel. This book gets a strong 4.5 stars from me, and I recommend it to anyone who likes their literary fiction with a dose of atmospheric mystery.

This is the first novel I have read by this author and I loved it. With shades of Mckewan’s Atonement, it hooked me immediately with its deft exploration of human relationships.

Frances has spent most of her adult life nursing her mother and after her death is employed to research and report on the architecture of a dilapidated English stately home owned by Mr Lieberman it’s new American owner. Shorty after her arrival Peter and Cara arrive. Peter has been employed to report back on the building and the value of its contents. Frances becomes obsessed with the couple who live in the rooms below her attic room. Frances has always been a loner but can’t stop herself taking the bait of their offer of friendship. As their lives become more and more entwined secrets start to unravel as does Frances. Secrets and lies are at the heart of this novel with an unexpected twist of an ending. This is a dark, haunting tale full of suspense and I couldn’t put it down! I received a free copy of this book from Penguin Books in exchange for an honest review. A favourable review was not required and all opinions expressed here are my own.

When we see people from afar we can always imagine their lives being ideal or a disaster. It's not until we take a closer look that we realise the truth, whatever that might be. Claire Fuller in all of her novels (three thus far) explores this idea at the core. This, her third novel, is a masterfully executed idea on the subject. Though there have been many books in the past with the same premise, a triad of characters, you cannot help yourself but feel the walls of the house where the story takes place, smell the scents of the foods and enjoy or be appalled by the reality of the characters.

Well this was really different and I say that in a good way. I’ve read one previously by this author and was really refreshing to find a new style, new plot, nothing predictable at all.

Frances, a nearly 40 year old woman who’s led a very sheltered life looking after her frail mother takes a month long job in a very old country house / stately home. There she meets Cara and Peter, also working at the house for a while. Their lives seem fascinating and glamorous to Frances and they quickly take her under their wing.... with what may be devastating consequences. Told in the present day and the past this is a great mystery. Reminds me of Fran Coopers Two houses. Creepy and dark and compelling.

I’m a real fan of Claire Fuller’s books, and her latest did not disappoint. With simmering undertones of love, jealousy and secrets, I couldn’t put Bitter Orange down. Frances (Franny) narrates the book from both her death bed and memories of her time at Lyntons, a decaying country house where she is employed to make an inventory of its architectural features. It is there she meets Peter and the troubled Cara and the story of their summer together begins. There was a twist about two thirds of the way through that was brilliant and had me gulping through the remaining pages into the early hours. I can’t wait to see what Claire writes next! Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book.

Claire Fuller is an amazing writer. This novel had tinges of Atonement, Beguiled and novels like that with one single lonely manor house and the study of those within. It gave me frissons during it and I didn’t know why exactly, as if that’s kind of books. What is going on, who is Cara really and why do they want Frances in their lives? Why is Frances so socially awkward and looking through the hole in the floor looking for clues into a another world.
There’s a lot of soul-searching and thinking inwardly, strange walks in the woods, creepy statues in the gardens and those Palladian bridges...well they do sound nice.
I just wasn’t wholly convinced of the characters and the reveal in the story overall. it was a lovely atmospheric novel however and the decay, the sense of wrong, the whole atmosphere, those bitter oranges really did sum up the novel well - it might be a beautiful fruit now, but bite it and taste the bitterness, then wait for the rot to set in.

It’s a beguiling read however and I was enchanted by the whole thing.

I like Claire Fuller's work very much and Bitter Orange is a beautifully written novel of repression, loneliness, guilt and the quest for redemption. It is good but I did have my reservations.

The book is told in the first person and set mainly in 1969 as an old and dying woman, Frances Jellico, recalls that time. It is the story of how Frances, newly released from an all-consuming carer's role looking after her cruel and critical mother takes a job cataloguing some of the contents of a derelict country house. An eccentric and rather bohemian couple are also working there and the stories of the three of them emerge as the summer progresses and Frances begins to experience new aspects of life.

It is very well done. Fuller writes beautifully and again inhabits the mind of a thoughtfully and richly portrayed female narrator. She creates a fine atmosphere of decay and a sense of impending catastrophe along with a wholly convincing sense of place, so the whole thing is very readable. However, I wasn't always convinced by Frances's actions, the "twist" didn't come as much of a surprise and overall I wasn't sure Bitter Orange had said much new to me.

I did enjoy Bitter Orange, but didn't quite grab me in the same way as the outstanding Our Endless Numbered Days and the very good Swimming Lessons. Claire Fuller is a very fine writer and I can still recommend this, but with a slight note of reservation.

(My thanks to Penguin Books for an ARC via NetGalley.)

A beautifully written, multi layered novel, brimming with cleverly chosen imagery and highly atmospheric prose. This dark and haunting tale was an utterly compulsive read. Superb.

Bitter Orange is a novel about loneliness, lies, and one summer in an old house. Frances spent years as the carer of her mother, but once her mother was gone, she was a lonely woman looking for purpose. A job surveying the gardens of a dilapidated house for its American owner was an opportunity to do something different, but it becomes even stranger than she expected as she befriends Cara and Peter, the couple living beneath her in the house as Peter looks at the contents of the house. Soon, they are languishing about the place and telling stories, but lies and obsession start to surface.

The novel is written in a readable style and the narrative is suspenseful and carefully paced to give a sense of the summer, but also to give the reader a sense of unreliability, remembrance, and withheld information. From its summary, Bitter Orange may sound similar to a lot of novels set in the twentieth-century; what distinguishes it as different is the way that Frances is presented, both by herself as the narrator and through the way she tells the story. The story itself is quite simple, with ambiguity at times taking the place of revelation to match the focus on lies and storytelling.

Bitter Orange has the atmosphere and feel of a novel written much closer to the 1969 setting of the summer Frances spends in the house, and unfolds a story that is simple yet complex in its telling. It grew on me as a reading experience: it takes time to realise that it is not a story about revelation, but one about how stories are told and how people really feel underneath.

An intriguing book of past and present, guilt and atonement, and the way we tell stories to recreate the world and our selves as we’d like them to be.

Fuller writes fluid, fluent prose and though some of her symbolic imagery is a tad heavy handed (those bitter oranges that glow with promise but which are acidic within, the trompe l’oeil décor, the repeated use of the word ‘penance’), she winds it through her story to some effect.

We’re probably used to the fictional relationship triangle and this one between bright, charismatic but volatile and troubled Cara, staid but naïve Frances and the charming yet enigmatic Peter doesn’t break the mould – it reminded me constantly of the triangle in Sophie’s Choice (but without the Holocaust backstory, of course).

I did think that the ‘secrets’ were fairly obvious to anyone who reads extensively – and the ‘twist’ at about 80% had me groaning aloud! Why is it that a book can’t be a book, seemingly, without a twist somewhere these days? – it feels a bit crude here, to tell the truth.

So some nicely controlled writing and a genuinely gripping, page-turning narrative - atmospheric and satisfying.

The book begins in what appears to be an elderly lady's bedroom in a care home, with flashbacks to the summer of 1969: Socially awkward Frances undertakes a job cataloguing garden structures at an old and dilapidated house for the absent American owner. Unknown to her, others are also in the house - Peter, who has been commissioned with surveying the house itself, and Cara, his much younger girlfriend/partner. Much to Frances' surprise, they befriend her and make her part of their life. Cara takes Frances into her confidence, telling her tales of her background, but something is not right. Frances misinterprets Peter's friendship and falls in love with him.
As the story develops, so does the intrigue - is Cara all that she seems? What is Frances hiding? What is the true back story of the three main characters?
Although a compelling read, the ending was a little predictable (I had worked it out about three-quarters of the way through the book, but kept reading to check that I was right) and the storyline was at times reminiscent of other novels.