A Book Club Romance - The Apple Orchard

refreshing, easy, sweet

I love hosting book club, but this year choosing a book was a real struggle. I knew we had a pretty serious July book in The Light Between Oceans. How do you find a book that is on the lighter side, but still has enough meat to stay interesting and lead to a good discussion? Wow, so hard. I ended up selecting a Romance, The Apple Orchard by Susan Wiggs.

Tess is a modern Indiana Jones, dedicating her life to researching, finding, and returning stolen war treasures. Unfortunately, Tess is lonely, she doesn’t have a family; her life is her work. That is until the sexy Dominic walks into her office and turns her world upside down by telling her that she has family – a sister and a grandfather, both are living in Sonoma.

The story of Tess’s grandfather is by far the greatest story. As a teen in World War II, the Nazis took Magnus’s family away, he never saw them again. Soon he becomes a resistance fighter, saving many children from the death camps. Eventually he and his new bride settle in California, starting an Apple Orchard and thus the saga begins…

There are stories past and present and plenty of recipes - The Apple Orchard is a delightful choice for book club when you need something from the lighter side.

The Apple Orchard Book Club

What to Serve:

Any recipes from the book (Danish Apple Pie) &

Sonoma wine, a cheese platter, fruit (apples and grapes), bread, chocolates, apple dessert

Book club idea:

Trivia with an Apple Prize. Or: I found book conversation starters (for book clubs) online. Questions such as “If you could be any character in a book who would you be?” I printed out the book-related questions and then had each person select a question from a jar at the beginning of the night. I tagged one question and that person won the “prize”. The prize can be a bottle of Sonoma wine, or a fun Apple scented candle.

Enjoy the caramel apple topping,

- Sara