Review: A house we'd all like to come home to
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 16, 2014
House for All Seasons is the engaging debut from novelist Jenn J McLeod. Told with a distinctly Australian voice, this ensemble tale is fragrant with the best of Australian country life.When an old friend dies, four former school friends are bequeathed a house in their home town, Callingary Crossing, in country New South Wales. The only caveat is that each must spend one season in Dandelion Cottage – a house that holds ghosts for each of them. As each woman returns to Callingary Crossing, the scene of a childhood tragedy which scarred them and their friendship, they are forced to confront a past each has done their best to forget. But Callingary Crossing holds a deeper mystery. One that will change the women and bind them in a way they could never have imagined.House for all Seasons is effortlessly told, evoking the character, resilience and colour of country living. As each protagonist spends her season in Dandelion Cottage she remembers her past and her hand in the tragedy. The conflicts faced by the characters – particularly their inner demons – are as riveting as the mystery at the heart of the bequest. Those who like their women’s fiction thick with ardour may feel a little bereft as the romance, while satisfying, is secondary to the women’s need to face their past. House for all Seasons is a story about looking back to move forward, about starting over with a better sense of self. And Dandelion Cottage is the kind of house we’d all like to come home to.This is the first in a series set in the fictional town of Callingarry Crossing and I look forward to more from this new voice in rural women’s fiction.