The Discovery 4. Chronicles from the Orchard

This is a beautiful and fitting ending for this wonderful series!  You will reconnect with old friends and meet new ones.  You will see the third generation growing up and beginning to come in to their own.  The orchard remains as the steady, connecting background to the events playing out with Kyle, Jacob, Troy, Andy, Brian, and all their family.

A truly awesome ending to the Orchard Series.

We follow Kyle, Jacob and friends as they work through many issues.

These issues will have you laughing, crying and wondering what the hell is happening as they deal with problems that affect them along the way.

This is an amazing story, that comes from an amazing author @Jdonley75.

If you haven't read the Orcard Series, I suggest you do as all the books come highly recommended.

There is nothing I can add that the other readers have already said and besides I would not have said it as well as they have anyway so I write this so this story will deservingly have another 5 stars next to it  and also to tell any reader who looks at the reviews first to go to The Acquittal already and start this series

The capstone to a truly amazing series, while this story could stand all on it's own, it will read much better if you read the previous stories.

As well written and crafted as any other story on this site...we are so fortunate to have authors and stories such as this!!

This is the third in the Chronicles of the Orchard trilogy and is one of the finest pieces of writing o  this site. 

The characters are filled with life and bring life to the reader in so many ways. 

You will cry and laugh and be lifted to the moon. Enjoy every word. 

This is an amazing series it is a must read. I guarantee that you will fall in love with each one of the characters in the way that Jonathan has brought them to life. You will see them in your mind and you will feel what they feel in their hearts. 

You will experience their grief and their sorrow and you will cry with them laugh with them and I guarantee you that you will love them. This story emphasizes what family is all about and it doesn't mean that you have to be blood to be family. As we know so well in the gay community we have our chosen family that we're often closer to than our own who may have disowned us. This story will lift you up and drop you down just as fast you will have a roller coaster of emotional experiences that will affect you and stay with you. Jonathan you are an amazing author and I will continue to follow all of your works. I just wish I could get you to continue with this series as it's become to mean so much to me and all of the characters I feel like they're part of my life and part of my mind and it's all thanks to you.

As with the three prior "books" in the Chronicles from the Orchard series, a 5 star rating seems totally inadequate. Prior to this book I was most moved by The Acquittal, the first book in the series, and did not think the author could better it. I was incorrect, this book is at least the equal to The Acquittal, if not better. 

Once again the characters are so well drawn by the author one forgets they are fictional. Unlike any main character in any of the prior books, I found one of the main characters in this book very "challenging" and initially not to my liking. He was a difficult character for me to relate to and I found myself second-guessing many of his actions and judging him unfavourably. Unlike most the characters, he was very guarded and rarely wore his "heart on his sleeve". I have to say though by the end of this book I had grown to respect this character and was profoundly moved by his grief, something which I could not have envisaged well into the book. The realisation of this character was for me a joyful surprise.

I found this book a difficult read in parts, primarily because of a number of profoundly moving events. I contemplated not finishing the book at one stage such was the impact of one particular event. After a short break of a couple of weeks I resumed reading the book and am so very glad I did.

As stated in the review by @drsawzall, this story could be read on its own, but to do so would deprive the reader of a body of work which is unsurpassed, for this reader at least, by any literary works I have read written in recent times, including those written by professional authors. 

From the pen of an extraordinarily gifted and humble author, a work to be treasured for its bounty of wonderful characters.

This review is actually on all four books in this series that has been written at the time of this review. It has become my favourite serie in gay genre so far. I highly recommend it and hope more people will discover the books and enjoy getting to know David, Andy, Troy, Tanner, Matt, Aaron etc. They are friends. They are family. They are everything you wished for, warts and all.

As someone closer to 50 than 40, I grew up in a time where gay marriage and family acceptance was more a dream than something achieveable. Gay content were hard to find and most were pornographic. It tends to give one a skewed view of gay life. The Chronicles from the Orchard books are about the ups and downs of family life for a bunch of gay and straight friends. It talks about trauma, addiction and other difficult subject without bogging the reader down in the dirty details. Critics may say that it is a Disneyfied depiction but I’ll take it. What I want is not the puking scenes but the healing. The books have made me cry over the wounds the characters have suffered, and the healing and support they have provided for each other. It has given me a view on what a bunch of friends and family can do to support each other through lives ups and downs, without having homosexuality being an issue. 

With that said, the books are not just about doom and gloom. Far from it. Their struggles is what drives the plot but the books flows with lots of funny and heartwarming scenes from the adults to the kids. I found myself loving all the characters and wanting so desperately to be part of this extended and unconventional family. The feelings I get after reading them is heartwarming and cozy. I hope more readers will get the chance to experience it.

While this is the concluding story in the Orchard series, it is by far the most powerful in terms of events, emotional impact, and character development.  It is a fitting conclusion to the series leaving us wanting more but comfortable with how this series concludes.   It is a must read once each of the other stories have been read (those are superb reading too!!).  It is an example of superb writing on the part of the author!