by Jenn J McLeod
RRP $24.99
Bequeathed a century-old house, four estranged friends return to their home town, Calingarry Crossing, where each must stay for a season at The Dandelion House to fulfil the wishes of their benefactor, Gypsy.
But coming home to the country stirs shameful memories of the past, including the tragic end-of-school muck up day accident twenty years earlier.
Sara, a breast cancer survivor afraid to fall in love; Poppy, a tough, ambitious journo still craving her father’s approval; Amber, a spoilt socialite addicted to painkillers and cosmetic procedures Caitlin, a doctor frustrated by her controlling.
At The Dandelion House, the women will discover something about themselves and a secret that ties all four to each other and to the house – forever.
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Jenn J McLeod’s debut novel, House for all Seasons, is a thoroughly enjoyable read. Light hearted, yet thought provoking. The author does an excellent job of bringing all her characters together, highlighting the differences not only between the women, but the differences in themselves, from their younger selves to today. Her supporting characters add real flavour to the country feel, complementing her descriptions of country life in Australia, so much so I could envision readers packing up their city lives and heading for the country permanently. If you have ever felt that there are things in your life that have gone unsaid or you would like to turn back the clock then this is the book for you. Enjoy!
I love it when an Australian author, especially one with their first novel, writes something I’m happy to recommend. This is the case in “House for all Seasons” by Jenn J McLeod. Even the cover is appealing.
I enjoy well written literature that revolves around relationships. I have to admit to needing to re read the first section to make sure I knew who each person was – not sure whether it was a case of “information overload” which was actually necessary or whether I wasn’t concentrating enough. Once I got the four main characters sorted in my own mind I became engrosed with each one of them.
The four girls, once the best of friends from a small country town, haven’t seen each other or had contact for twenty years. Then they’re thrown together through a bequest of Dandelion House, a century old house where each is to spend a season to fulfil the wishes of Gypsy, their benefactor. Gypsy is also the mother of Willow, whose untimely death on the school muck up day sends the other girls away from the town and from each other.
Sara takes the first season. Sara is a really lovely young woman who is overcome and weighed down with grief having nursed both her mother and father in difficult health situations. She needs to come to terms with her own breast cancer treatment which resulted in the removal of one breast.
Sara knows that by returning to Calingarry Crossing she will have to face Will, someone she has probably always loved, who hasn’t loved her in return.
Poppy wins a Walkley Awar for a story in war torn Afghanistan but her father doesn’t come to the awards ceremony. Poppy has a love/hate relationship with her father and at first has no idea of how her father’s time in Vietnam has affected him.
Poppy eventually comes to the realisation that she needs to be true to herself and make her writing reflect her values which she hasn’t always done.
Amber has been manipulated all her life. She finally realises that she needs to work out who she really is. She has had a fractured relationship with her alcoholic mother. The mending of that relationship is beautifully handled. Amber grows so much and from spoilt little rich girl she emerges as a caring, thoughtful, lovely young woman.
Caitlin is delightful but she has always “met everyone’s expectations” even to becoming a doctor so that she could carry on her father’s work. Cait is left in a quandry after being handed a box left by her father with the word “Destroy” across the lid. Caitlin’s father, as the town doctor, has held secrets which horrify Caitlin.
I found the characters believable but the situations and causes of those situations not always believable. However this didn’t spoil the reading for me.
The way the girls find themselves and each other and grow and develop was really well done. I was impressed with the way the ending was handled, with the girls discovering themselves and becoming so much more than friends. All in all an excellent read.
I am very appreciative to Beauty and Lace for the opportunity to review this book. It is so good to have a debut novel by an Australian author with such promise.
I love what I call school reunion stories: the character returns to their childhood, riddled with childish fears but also with a more mature outlook to conquer them. These books rely heavily on characterisation, again something I love. So ‘House For All Season’ had all the right ingredients for me. Alas, it failed to deliver.
Four friends are bequeathed a house they all had some connection to. They have to spend a season each in the house before they can inherit. The house is in their childhood town, a place none have visited for 20 years or so, each leaving in distressing circumstances.
I wanted to like this book but it was just too hard. Not the read: the words were fine, if plodding. The dialogue, particularly for the male characters, was grating. I had no idea why these four women were friends – nothing really bound them. And nothing much bound the four separate storylines. The muck-up day was tragic but nothing that should have caused any guilt. Gypsy’s house could have been a focus but descriptions were too little and mysteries too few to make it a breathing entity.
Sara’s story, the first, was too long and tedious with Will’s awful dialogue. She was the most sympathetic character. Poppy, supposedly a journalist, was simply unbelievable. The inaccuracies were gob-smacking. Amber’s story I found the best, if I discounted how a super bitch could turn into a charity queen overnight. Caitlin’s story was barely there. The twist at the end was interesting and plausible.
The cover riddled with beauty and a hint of mystery. A gorgeous skin to a flawed apple underneath. Thank you, Beauty and Lace, for the read. Unfortunately, ‘House For All Seasons’ isn’t a book I can recommend.
A debut novel by an Australian author, House for all seasons i found to be a thoroughly enjoyable book.
Four estranged friends are bequeathed a house with the condition that they must each return to their home town and each stay for a season.
For the four women Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin Friendships are revisited, old memories are stirred up and a long hidden secret is discovered which shocks them all.
I found it to be an easy to read book with interesting characters and an interesting storyline.
All in all i highly recommend House For all Seasons and can’t wait to read more of Jenn J McLeods work.
House For All Season tells the story of four estranged school friends summoned to return to the country town of their youth. Each must spend a season in the crumbling Dandelion House and there Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin uncover the real story of the tragedy which haunts all their lives and the ways in which they are foever linked.
This novel is a mixed book of warmth, humour, sadness, friendship,love and how going home can sometimes be the thing that you need.
Cancer survivor Sara is the first character whose story we follow as she finds herself facing her first love/crush and all her battles with love and self finding.
Poppy is a journalist and still looking for love from her father, finds herself the second to stay in the house. She finds out more about herself and her father and why their relationship is the way it is.
Amber is next and she left the town with her dad many years ago. Her husband thinks her mother is dead as that was what Amber and her dad had told people. Only Amber’s mother isn’t dead and her life has been turned around. Amber finds a new found bond with her mother and finds out a lot of untruths along the way.
Caitlin is last to stay in the house and being the only one who never stayed there as a child can not work out why she is asked to stay.
Caitlins father was the local doctor and Caitlin is given a box of documents belonging to her father. In them she discovers many secrets that bond the girls even more.
The real story is all about Willow and how she and her mum Gypsy had an impact on the girls lives when they were young.
I loved this story and wished each girls story was itself a novel with the side of Willow being the last. To say it captivated me is an understatement. I couldn’t put the book down and was lost when it was finished. Being myself a country girl that left for the city and having never really been back I could understand the trepidation each girl felt upon returning home.
The story just flowed along and was at times almost like listening to a friend tell you their story. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for an enjoyable read.
Thank you for letting me read this book.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, it’s kept me interested and intrigued all the way through it.
I did find the constant hinting at the girls’ trouble pasts and secrets but then taking almost forever to get to find out what they were a little frustrating, but I loved how each character was developed and we were made to hear their tale and feel something for them.
It was wonderful how they were bought together after so many years and what and who brought them together again.
Although I did have a few little gripes with this book, I would definitely recommend it and I will most certainly read it again!
Thank you for the chance to read this book!
It took me longer than usual to read this book, as I found that the storyline dragged on a bit. But endure I did and I am so glad that I perservered, as it got better and better.
Loved the fact that there was a “sub-story” behind each character and their pasts, but again, took too long to get “there”!
Glad I finished it, as the ending was beautiful.
Would definitely be passing this book on to friends to read and look forward to reading more books by this author.
Thanks again B&L, for the opportunity to read and review this Australian author’s debut novel.
The blurb on the cover of Jenn McLeod’s HOUSE FOR ALL SEASONS really makes the novel sound so appealing: on the front we are told “Four women. Four lives unravelled. The truth will bind them forever”. Along with a snippet of information about each of the women on the back cover, indicating that all are dysfunctional in some way, we are also told “Small towns can keep big secrets”. I was intrigued and keen to read more.
Unfortunately, the novel didn’t live up to my expectations. It was almost as though it was written to a formula: isolated house, dysfunctional woman alone, strange “helper” arriving, a hint of a really bad mysterious happening in the past to a vulnerable child. It was a pleasant but rather light read with very superficial and somewhat cliched character development. The repetition of “helpers” turning up was too contrived. I thought we were going to be more involved with the strange woman from the “Madgick & Associates” Trust Managers. With such a portentious name, I assumed there would be some strong input from them in terms of engineering experiences for the women. If so, this was not made clear.
One thing I did like about the characters was that they were shown to be trying to reach independence from others. This would be good role modelling for young female readers.
All in all, I certainly did not dislike the novel. It was a light, pleasant, easy to read story which certainly would not be out of place in the senior fiction section of a school library or the “light reading” section of a public library.
I really enjoyed reading this book: A new take on the whole now and then situation, what was and what could have been… I loved it.
The writing style was interesting and although it may not appeal to some people I really enjoyed it, the story just sucked me in and it kept me turning the pages wanting more.
I would rate this book 5 out of 5.
I would firstly like to thank Beauty & Lace for giving me the opportunity to read and review ‘House for all Seasons’.
This novel is about four women who were school friends and all had left their home town of Calingarry Crossing 20 years ago after finishing school and had not seen each other since. It was only as a result of being bequeathed what they all called “Dandelion House” by Gypsy that they were re-united.
The condition of the bequest was that each of the women had to stay for a season at “Dandelion House” and this was something that none of them wanted to do, as they did not wish to return to their home town, as there were far too many memories there of the past. Memories that each of them preferred to forget, especially the tragic end to their school muck up day.
I liked the way the author Jenn J McLeod devoted a section to each of the women during their season at the house – telling their connection to the house and what their lives had been like over the past 20 years and their experiences in returning to their home town.
Prior to their stay at the house each of the women were determined to sell “Dandelion House” and share the money made from such sale. After each of them had stayed a season, confronted their pasts and discovered the secret that tied each of them to each other changing their lives forever, they were not so certain and the novel finished by them all agreeing to meet again in a few months time to make a decision. That decision however was very unlikely to be selling the house.
I liked all the characters in the novel and living in a country town I can understand their reluctance to return to relive the memories of the past and face the locals.
The fact that this novel was written by an Australian author and set in an Australian town made it more interesting for me. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to others.