Tallowood Bound
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley December 20, 2015
Author Karly Lane
Distributor: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781743317273
Publisher: Areana
Release Date: December 2015
Website: http://www.allenandunwin.com
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Erin McAllister returns to the small rural community of Tallowood to care for her elderly grandmother. She grew up in the loving care of her grandmother and the strictures of her grandfather, secure in the knowledge that she was loved and cared for, even though her mother was only a small part of her life.
Returning to the farmhouse full of memories she soon realises her grandmother is not going to get better and it is not long before she has the sad task of sorting out the family home and getting it ready for sale.
As the days go bye she realises little has changed in the community; that although time has not stood still altogether the basic fundamentals of rural life hold true.
Jamie McBride, neighbour to her grandmother and love of her life at the age of seventeen, calls in to make sure all is well after the death of her grandmother, still with that devil-may-care attitude and as good looking as ever. As he keeps on returning to see Erin on one pretext or another Erin realises that he would, or appears to want, to take up where they left off when she moved on to the city and University.
With the devastation of her marriage still raw, she is not at all certain she wants to be more than just friends with anyone, let alone Jamie McBride, the man who broke her heart so many years before.
But as Erin works her way through her grandmother’s papers she unearths a tin box in the bottom of the wardrobe; the contents have been stored safely for many years, since the days when her grandmother was a young girl in Toowoomba at the end of Second World War.
Erin begins to piece together her grandmother’s life, which leads her to America to discover a family she never knew about and heals a rift with her mother, when both she and Erin are bought face to face with the truth and sadness of the reality of her beloved grandmother’s life.
Can past events have a bearing on how Erin feels towards Jamie McAllister or will the same thing repeat itself over and over again, if she does not follow her instincts and take a chance at love again?
Karly Lane has once again used a basis of social history to weave a poignant and heartfelt story that was all too true in many, many families after the Second World War, which is entertaining and totally enjoyable.