The Lemon Orchard

New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice’s novels almost always explore themes of love and family, and though the narrative of The Lemon Orchard (2013) addresses these themes via a love story, it addresses other pertinent issues, including illegal immigration, class struggles, loss, death, justice, and hope. Told from multiple viewpoints, the story takes place in idyllic Southern California, where Julia and Roberto explore love, loss, and redemption in a Malibu lemon orchard in the beautiful Santa Monica Mountains.

Julia Riley Hughes, a widow from Connecticut with a Ph.D. in Anthropology, is mourning her daughter, Jenny, and her husband, Peter, who both died in a car accident. Peter, who had been a successful lawyer, thought that Julia’s academic goals were inconsequential and wanted her to focus on their social life. Alone now, Julia wonders if the tension in her marriage negatively affected her daughter.

Her uncle, a professor named John Riley, and his actor wife, Graciela, are researching a family project in Connemara, Ireland (Julia’s family is related to historical figure John Patrick Riley). Julia agrees to house-sit the Malibu estate in their absence. The titular lemon orchard, which Julia loves, is also on the property, and she hopes to find solace with the change of scenery.



Julia meets Roberto Rodriguez, a thirty-five-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico who works on the property. After greeting him, Julia asks if he has children. His tentative reply is telling, and after the two become better acquainted, it is revealed that Roberto, too, is dealing with loss. As it turns out, he was separated from his six-year-old daughter, Rosa, while trying to cross the border into the U.S. in 2007. U.S. Border authorities were close to catching their group, and while Roberto tried to stake out their transportation, he and Rosa were separated. He still blames himself for the incident.

The narrative explains how daunting the journey is for those who try to enter the U.S. In earlier days, immigrants would try to cross into the U.S. via rivers, hence the derogatory term “wetback.” Because this resulted in capture for many, dangerous land routes are now used. These routes are dangerous for a number of reasons: crossings are often done in relentlessly hot, dangerous weather; groups are subject to encountering dangerous animals; and the groups are often at the whim of “coyotes,” the guides who exploit them while taking them across the border.

Julia eventually begins investigating Roberto’s plight without telling him. She contacts Reunion Project, an investigative group in La Jolla, California comprising forensics experts and archaeologists who try to determine the status of migrants who have gone missing while attempting to cross the border. Julia also visits a retired border patrolman, Jack Leary, in Yuma, Arizona. Jack was one of the patrolmen who rounded up Roberto’s group on the night his daughter disappeared. Leary relates how he did, in fact, find the footprints of a child, but, on finding no child, sought the help of the Shadow Wolves, a team of expert trackers. Their research found that Rosa had been rounded up by another group, but they were only able to find her running shoes, and no one knows what happened to her after being picked up. Though Julia leaves for Malibu to inform Roberto, Leary continues to investigate on her behalf.



Increasingly, Julia and Roberto begin to feel for each other. Though the believability of their unconventional romance has been questioned by critics, several threads in the narrative support this romance: Julia’s uncle has previously compared the plight their family’s nineteenth-century Irish immigrant connections to the plight of contemporary Mexican immigrants; Julia’s uncle is married to someone from another ethnicity; Julia often felt a connection when younger to their relative John Patrick Riley. Riley, it was earlier stated, sided with Mexican forces in the 1846-1848 Mexican War. These connections help the reader to understand how an academic mourner from upstate New York could fall so easily in love with an illegal immigrant from a lower class (the main argument against their relationship by critics).

The ending of the novel is left open, and many readers find it bittersweet. Julia reciprocates Roberto’s love, but the narrative doesn’t resolve in a tidy marriage. Roberto doesn’t want Julia to marry him so that he can obtain a green card. He wants her love, not her help. The two agree to love each other “forever.” By the novel’s end, many traditional romance tropes have been upended: Julia is the stronger character of the two (there’s a strong feminist thread throughout the narrative), though traditional romance often portrays the male as stronger; the HEA, or happily ever after, which is usually mandatory for a romance, is more of a happily for now (HFN), though the “forever” can also be viewed as HEA.