My first "Guest Review" posts were for the delightful Kat over at Bookthingo as part of her preview of the 2013 R*BY Finalists (for more about the awards check out their website Romance Australia ) I got to read two books - Wattle Creak by Fiona McCallum which I was looking forward to after enjoying her earlier books, and Queen of the Road by Tricia Stringer who I hadn't heard of before but after reading this book have tracked down her earlier books!
Here are the two reviews - hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Queen Of The Road
by Tricia Stringer
Tricia’s heart warming story of Angela “Angel” Ranger’s struggle as a single mother trying to keep her head above water grabbed my attention and held it through to 4.30am when I finished.
The characters in Queen of the
Road are believable and very relatable as are the situations they are in,
and this book covers allot of them - Juggling
Credit Card debt, Struggling single parent, Fake Friends, Annoying Ex’s, Interfering
(step)Parents, Alcohol issues and small town struggles.
Angela is struggling with overwhelming
debt when a fair-weathered “friend” asks her to be a fill-in bridesmaid. Throw
in a manipulative step-mother’s sudden interest in her granddaughter, an ex who
sudden arrival everyone knows about but her and a morning after the wedding
she’d rather everyone would forget suddenly and her father’s offer to fill in
on the Adelaide to Munirilla run driving “Big Red” seems to be a good idea. But
with Claudia, her four year old daughter, to look after, a small country town
who were expecting their new freight driver to be a huge MALE trucker with the
ironic nickname of “Angel” and someone who seems to be out to sabotage her
every move could this decision cause more pain the pleasure?
Throw into this mix is the
delightful but mysterious “just call me Coop”. The hansom fill-in farm manager has
always been a loner and somewhat of a drifter. He pretends to be stoic but
underneath beats a heart of gold. He’s worried about his elderly boss Alice and
is ready to move on as soon as she is better and back home but then life gets
in the way when he walks into the trucking depot to collect a spare part only
to meet the always friendly Claudia and the intriguing Angela. Suddenly loner
Coop has all sorts of excuses to come into “town” and lets him mind wonder to
the possibility of a family of his own.
While Angela & Claudia
quickly falls into life on the road things are never going to be smooth sailing
for this hard work single mum and everything seems to be conspiring against her
to fail. But will her determination, quick thinking and budding relationship
with Coop be enough to save her?
Tricia’s story has just the right
mix of suspense, mystery, friendship, romance in a wonderful rural setting
which will make Queen of the Road at home on your shelf along with Fiona
Palmer, Rachel Treasure and Margareta Osborne. If you love Loretta Hill’s
style of strong women in non-traditional job’s you’ll quickly fall in love with
Queen of the Road.
Having already loved reading Paycheque and Nowhere Else by the talented Australian Author Fiona McCallum, I was looking forward to devouring Wattle Creek and was not disappointed.
Wattle Creek starts off with a somewhat confronting scene of Damien
attempting suicide, but then Fiona lets you into the lives of Damien and the
farming community of Wattle Creek, who like most farming communities in
Australia, are struggling with drought and the like. In comes city psychologist
Jacqueline, who takes the opportunity of a 12-month posting to escape her own
issues. She wants to try and make a difference in this town, but is just not
sure how. With lots of lovely, well-meaning locals and bush telegraph that
would put most 24-hour news stations to shame, Jacqueline quickly falls for
this small town and its favourite son.
McCallum tackles some confronting issues in Wattle Creek—most predominantly,
something that is unfortunately faced by many of our hardworking farmers and
that is depression and suicide. Damien’s struggles are handled with the dignity
and compassion they deserve, and the complex issues that small farming
communities deal with are not handled lightly. While this may not sound like an
uplifting read, ultimately it is, and McCallum’s handling of the topic is never
preachy; the information is obviously well researched never tries to be a
self-help book. The relationship between city girl Jacqueline and
third-generation ‘accidental farmer’ Damien is realistic and honest and heart
warming.
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