The Orphanage

Absolutely Heartbreaking Historical Fiction (Shilling Grange Children’s Home, Book 1)

By: Lizzie Page

Narrated by: Emily Barber

Shilling Grange Orphanage, England, 1948. She was their only hope. Now they are hers. A gritty, heartbreaking, and unforgettable story of love and hope in the darkest of times.

Clara Newton is the new Housemother of Shilling Grange Orphanage. Many of the children have been bombed out of their homes and left without families, their lives torn apart by the war, just like Clara’s. Devastated by the loss of her fiancé, a brave American pilot, she is just looking for a place to start again.

But the orphans are in desperate need of her help. Funds are short, children cry out in the night, and tearful Rita tells Clara terrible stories about the nuns who previously ran Shilling Grange. Clara cannot bear to see them suffer, but what does she know about how to look after eight little ones?

Clara can’t get anything right, and then she accidentally ruins Rita’s only memento of her mother. Overwhelmed, she wonders if they’d be better off without her. But she’s not completely alone. Living next door is Ivor: ex-Shilling Grange resident, war hero, and handyman with deep brown eyes. He doesn’t trust Clara and she is fiercely independent, but he has a way with the children. And with his support and the help of other locals, Clara begins to find her way.

As she heals from her grief and adjusts to her new life, Clara wonders if she has finally found her home and family among the orphans. Can she find the strength to fight for them when nobody else will? And dare she open her heart to love again?

©2021 Lizzie Page (P)2021 Bookouture, an imprint of Storyfire Ltd.

Nice Listen

The plot was predictable (which I like) and the voice actor did an excellent job with her performance.

What a wonderful book !!

If you love a very good story that you can't predict the ending of, this is It! Set in post WWII, a beautiful young woman gets let go of her job in London and faces a very limited job market as in the 50's weren't supposed to work outside the home. She ended up taking a job being a House Mother in a small orphanage far off in a small town in the English country side. From there, the story becomes a story of personal discovery. Can she manage an orphanage herself? What makes her think she can manage several children with a variety of problems when she has absolutely no experience? And what about her personal life? Will she ever find a man so wonderful as Michael: her American GI fiancée who died in the war?

Great book. Reading needed gaps

Great story. Great narration except there were not any needed gaps between paragraphs or moving into another subject. I found it to be a little offsetting and odd.

Engaging, sad, euphoric & all there is to feel especially hope!

Engaging, and full of sadness, euphoria and all there is to feel. Each character is fully expressed and the storyline lends itself to what it truly feels to be lost and found again!

Somewhat compelling

Kept me entertained and thought the characters were someway quirky! It was rather long but I enjoyed it.

I loved it.

I purchased the audible book and I enjoyed the storyline and the narrator. I will be looking forward to the next book.

found it hard to follow and boring.

struggled to finish it. i found it difficult to follow and the story boring.

Perfect Storytelling and Perfect Narration

I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of this. Page is artful in making her story a page-turner, where we feel so much and want to yell at them to go the other direction.

Lovely narration makes everything come to life.

Sounded like a long run on sentence

I love Historical fiction books. This book lacked any real character development- there are a lot of characters but it was hard to follow at times because they speak about people but not in any way that really matters seemed pointless and I kept waiting for the book to get better but it didn’t. Agree with another reader the performer doesn’t pause and moves on so quickly with no real emotion. Weird as much as I’d love to know what happens next I can’t handle anything like this again