2 Orphans who meet in an off chance meet fortutiously again 20 years later. Tom and Fleur have undergone a huge change in the 20 years since they met. Tom has built a life for himself after he loses his mother and his father all but abandons him. He finds out a secret, and the loss of his friend has him setting off to Adelaide. Fleur is being forced to marry a completely horrible guy by her equally horrible stepmother, who is potting to cast Fleur out and take over all of the family's wealth. During a chance encounter at a dance, Fleur and Tom meet again, and over time, get close and fall in love. But they have hurdles and are separated yet again.

So, for the most part, I liked this story, but it was boshed up in the end with another parting, which seemed a bit unnecessary.

#netgalley #TheOrphans

I've not read any Fiona McIntosh books before, and I do love a bit of historical fiction. This story, set in Australia in the early 1900s was another first for me.
Set in both the Outback and Flinders Range, as well as Adelaide, we start the story with a young 10 year old boy, Tom Catchlove, whose family lives among the sheep shearers. Suddenly losing his mum while she was in childbirth, and his father far away on a job, uncontactable, Tom is set on a fateful journey to Adelaide to her mother's family, for a short while, where she meets a precocious young 8 year old, Fleur Appleby, the daughter of the undertaker looking after his mother.
She leaves an indelible mark on his memory, which doesn't dull as he gets older. As does he on hers.
They meet, by chance, as adults, both in very different situations, and both orphans of a like.
Tom is the wool classes he always said he would be, and Fleur is striving to be the best mortician in Australia, and one of the first female ones.
What pursues is a love story that is achingly painful, and romantic, as well as a heart rending story as they fight the odds to be together.
I sped through this book over one day. Beautifully written.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Storm Publishing for an ARC.

Not a small book which I finished in one and a bit sittings which says it all! The Orphans is a lovely story based in Adelaide and the Australian Outback in-between the wars. Fleur and Tom our Orphans have completely different upbringings. They meet by chance fleetingly as children then not again for 20 years when fate throws them together once more. Their characters are beautifully written. The way Fleur flourishes with her adoptive parents then becomes so frustrated when step mother Irma comes on the scene is just one example. Her frustration almost burns off the page. Fiona's research into undertaking and sheep shearing during this time was amazing. It was so detailed I felt as though I was there in the mortuary and the shearing shed. A book that will be of interest to anyone interested in 20th century social history or who just wants a really great read.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy. All opinions are my own