title: The Orphan's Gift
author: D'Silva, Renita
description: She allows herself to kiss her perfect child just once. She wraps the baby in her last gift: a hand-knitted cardigan, embroidered with a water lily pattern. ‘You’re better off without me,’ she whispers and although every step breaks her heart, she walks away.
  
  1910, India
  .
  
  Young and curious
  Alice
  , with her spun-gold hair, grows up in her family’s sprawling compound with parents as remote as England, the cold country she has never seen. It is
  Raju
  , son of a servant, with whom she shares her secrets. Together, their love grows like roses – but leaves deep thorns. Because when they get too close, Alice’s father drags them apart, sending Raju far away and banishing Alice to England…
  
  1944
  . Intelligent and kind
  Janaki
   is raised in an orphanage in India. The nuns love to tell the story: Janaki’s arrival stopped the independence riots outside the gates, as the men on both sides gazed at the starry-eyed little girl left in a beautiful hand-knitted cardigan. Janaki longs for her real mother, the woman who was forced to abandon her, wrapped in a precious gift…
  Now old enough to be a grandmother and living alone in India, Alice watches children play under the tamarind trees, haunted by the terrible mistake she made fifty years ago. It’s just an ordinary afternoon, until a young girl with familiar eyes appears with a photograph and Alice must make a choice.
  Will she spend the rest of her life consumed by dreams of the past, or can she admit her mistakes and choose love and light at last?
  
  A stunning and heartbreaking novel about how a forbidden love can echo through the generations. Readers who love Lucinda Riley, Kathryn Hughes and
  The Storyteller’s Secret
   will be captivated.
  
  
  
  Readers absolutely adore
  The Orphan’s Gift
  :
  ‘
  Utterly spellbinding
   and so beautifully written…
  Will draw you in and immediately transport you
  … This
  heart-warming and heartbreaking
   novel is a story of friendship, of love, of tragedy and loss…
  I absolutely LOVED it
   as I have ALL of Renita’s novels…
  Couldn’t put it down and as always the tissues were definitely needed
  .’ NetGalley Reviewer
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  ‘
  So beautiful!
  ...
  As I was reading, I was crying
  … Well written and the
  characters were really brought to life
  .’ Goodreads Reviewer
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  ‘
  Wow!
  This was an
  incredible
   story… Fantastic and
  the emotions were so real
  .’ Goodreads Reviewer
  ‘
  I kept turning the pages until my eyes blurred
  . I just wanted to hear how all of the stories would come together… Look forward to checking out her other books!’ Goodreads Reviewer
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  ‘
  Could not put this book down, a real page-turner
  . Definitely
  will be recommending this book
   to other readers, love to read more books from this author.’ Goodreads Reviewer
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  ‘
  I could not put this story down
  … The ending was
  perfect!
  ... This book is
  captivating, sad and then more sad
   added in. This was a quick read for me but super enjoyable.’ Goodreads Reviewer
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  ‘
  Transported
   me to another world… The characters are vibrant and dance off the page.
  I couldn’t stop
   once I started.
  I laughed and cried
  .’ Goodreads Reviewer
  
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
  ‘This book was
  so good!
  The characters were so well rounded, you
  felt like you actually knew them!
   The plot was so good you
  didn’t want the book to end!
  ’ Goodreads Reviewer
  ‘
  This book has everything
  …
  I loved each and every character and felt every emotion that they did
  .’
  Rachel Marie’s Blog
  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️