Season of Shadow and Light

One of the best book I have read this year. Can do you find your past when you are not sure about it. Paige starts having dreams but are they real? Her husband thinks she watches too much TV. So she takes Mati & Alice on a trip it turns out very different. Paige finds what she is looking for but it comes with sadness as well.

If you love happy endings this is a story you must read. The story of sisters ripped away from each other at a young age. Each being told a different story about that fateful night. Paige not even knowing that Rory existed. Fate plays a big part when Paige needs to get away from her marriage to assess the situation of a cheating husband and a man she has fallen out of love with. A flooded countryside and misdirected detour and unbeknownst to her she is in her dead mothers home town. Alice had promised Nancy before her death that she would never tell Paige the truth about her childhood to ensure that she stays protected. But will Alice be able to keep her promise once Rory shows up. The dark and the light, Ebony and Aurora. The story behind this story is a really inspiring and heart warming journey, How we should never give up. There are answers out there that we may not even know we are seeking. Apart from some small editing/ grammar errors this book was an exceptional read. I struggled a little with the to and fro from past to present in the first few chapters, but this quickly passed and I couldn't put the book down. Thank you for the opportunity to read and review your novel.

This is a story of secrets and lies, trust and betrayal, family, friendship and forgiveness.

Paige has had a terrible time - she had a stillborn son, she had a stroke and now her husband has betrayed her.

So she sets off on a restorative roadtrip with her daughter Mati and Nana Alice, her dead mothers partner.

Flooding strands her in a small town in the woop-woops where the local publican may resemble Mr Magoo (according to Mati), the hotel chef has a temper, and the barmaid/waitress a heart of gold.

This is a lovely story, well-written, sad and uplifting, that had me chuckling in places and crying in others.

A definite recommendation..

Thank you to NetGalley, Simon & Schuster, & Jenn McLeod for the copy for review.

This review will appear on the link below approx 25th April

Paige and Robert’s marriage was a little rocky – two years prior Paige had lost a longed for baby son and suffered a postpartum stroke which still affected her. Nana Alice and six year old daughter Matilda kept her sane but Paige couldn’t say the same about Robert – their lives had drifted apart and Paige was unhappy. When the opportunity arose, she informed Robert that she, along with Nana Alice and Mati would have a two week holiday in a quaint little boatshed in a bush town called Saddleton – leaving Robert to his privileged and boring life in Sydney.

But along the way the long, hot and dreary drive had turned into a challenge – they became lost due to floodwaters closing various roads and ended up in an even smaller bush community called Coolabah Tree Gully – and that was where Paige found they were stuck. Flooded roads forced them to seek accommodation in the local pub – they couldn’t return to Sydney; they couldn’t move on to Saddleton – but was it fate they had ended up in Coolabah Tree Gully?

Nana Alice was tense and stressed. She loved her daughter Paige and granddaughter Mati deeply; but the secrets she was hiding, and had been hiding for decades were wearing her down. And now, here in this unexpected place she felt trapped. She had to get her little family away from there; away before the trust between Paige and Nana Alice turned to dust…

As Mati and Paige fell in love with the local area; the horses, the friendly neighbours, the animals and birds – and seven year old Liam bonded immediately with Mati – Alice could feel the pressure mounting. Paige could see Alice was troubled but couldn’t prize it from her – she was moody; first bubbly and happy, then angry and depressed. Paige was confused – her beloved Nana Alice was never like this. What would be the outcome? Would Alice keep her secrets?

Season of Shadow and Light is another enjoyable contemporary novel by Aussie author Jenn J McLeod. It is a story of family; of betrayal and trust; of secrets and lies. But ultimately it is a story of forgiveness and love. I have no hesitation in recommending this novel to all lovers of contemporary fiction, along with the author’s previous two “Season” novels.

With thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for my copy to read and review.

Paige’s life was heading in a downhill spiral. She was stuck in a rut, not fulfilled with the role of wife and mother. Her health had suffered a massive blow and her marriage was crumbling around her. After finding a photo of her long deceased mother at a horse ranch she decides that two weeks in the country with her daughter, Matilda, and Nana Alice would help her relax and sort herself out. And who knows she may come across someone that knew her mother.
But when a hot, stressful trip finds them lost and stranded in the tiny outback town of Coolabah Tree Gully, with Nana Alice becoming more stressed by the minute, Paige begins to wonder if this trip was such a good idea. Paige soon befriends Sharni and Aiden who have both come home to the small country town to get their lives back on track. She soon finds that even though the residents of Coolabah Tree Gully are a bit rough around the edges they are all genuine people with hearts of gold and she is soon feeling right at home.

Season of Shadow and Light is a story about fate, family, love, secrets, acceptance and forgiveness. As Alice would say “two wrongs don’t make a right” but it’s never too late to right a wrong.
I enjoyed this story with a real Australian flavour. I loved the descriptions and mentions of towns I have visited and how the residents of Coolabah Tree Gully were so welcoming and accepting of strangers.
With thanks to Simon & Schuster via Netgalley for my copy to read and review.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm going to stretch this one from 3.5 to 4 stars, because I did get thoroughly engrossed at certain points, and I loved the twisted nature of the family secrets that had been kept so firmly and so long. Doubtless, such terrible deceptions are not as rare as we would like to think. I'll leave the overall premise of the novel to the summaries provided here and on Goodreads, and simply tell you that if you like a Nicholas Spark novel - you are going to love this book. It would make a great movie (with the long sections of angst shortened down - as I did find the character "Nana Alice" extremely frustrating with her "I should tell / I can't tell" torment going on just a little too long and too often for my liking) - but all in all - a memorable novel, with some characters you can't help falling a little bit in love with by the end. It did seem to wrap up very quickly at the end - but I was ready for that, by the time I got there. I did like that it wrapped up everyone's lives into much tidier packages than they were to start with!

Seasons of Shadow and Light Jenn J McLeod Paige Turner has had a very different life than a normal one in her nearly 40 years a child with two mothers and lots of dreams from a very young age a life of moving around a fair bit losing her mother Nancy when she was only young and then having her other Mum Alice take over her care and nurturing but she was always happy and knew that she was very much loved. She was very fond of cooking and became a culinary journalist spent a lot of time at the beach met her man Robert surfer guy happily married him had a beautiful little girl Matilda but was always afraid someone would take her away and the dreams continued here and there Nana Alice moved very close to become a fulltime Nanny and loved her life with her family and then Paige fell pregnant with baby no two but things went wrong here Paige miscarried then had a stoke her life was turned upside down and this put a lot of pressure on her and Robert and with the dreams happening more often and always at the same time Paige was asking more questions about her mother from Alice and a holiday was decided upon to the country a small town called Saddleton that Paige found on the only photo that she has of her mother.
Paige, Alice, Matilda and their dog Toto set off on a road trip for a couple of reasons Paige needs to re think her marriage to Robert and she is also trying to discover more about her mother much to Alice’s dislike there are things that Alice would much prefer to stay secret. But when they get detoured because of rising flood waters and end up in a little town called Coolabah Tree Gully that they know nothing about this is where the story really heats up with so many things happening and the characters that they meet the pub owner and his daughter and grandson and then the pub owners nephew Aiden and the stories that they hear and the feeling that this is where they should be for Paige to find out the truth and to uncover a lot about her mother and that photo that she found with her on a horse and Paige thinking that her mother had been allergic to horses but she is on a horse in this photo holding a baby and there is a man in the background also holding a baby.
This is story that really is a page turner when after all of these years Alice who has been the keeper of secrets and when Rory comes back to town ill should Alice open up and tell them all that she knows to help the living or keep her promise to the woman she loved and help Paige understand her dreams and the reasons for the way things turned out. This is a beautifully written story that is so rich and real the setting is lovely and it is compelling reading a little different to the normal romances that I read but what a beautiful HEA for so many people that you will fall for reading this book. I highly recommend it and I do hope that this review has done justice to this story.
This review will go on the ARRA blog and in their newsletter I have also left a review on Amazon this is the link http://www.amazon.com/review/R3FFJA89S3CA8C/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_cm_cr_notf_app_fbt?post_id=1212437615_10206641840744008#_=_

“Light can illuminate truth, let us see things we might otherwise unknowingly pass by in the dark. It can also illuminate the signs that will allow each of us to find the road to forgiveness, to trust, to hope, to belief and to the future.”

An engaging story of secrets and lies, of trust and betrayal, of family, friendship and forgiveness, Season of Shadow and Light is Jenn J McLeod’s third novel of contemporary fiction set in rural New South Wales.

Unhappy and frustrated after a difficult few years, Paige Turner decides to take her six year old daughter, Matilda, and mother, Alice, and spend two weeks in country New South Wales. Their destination, Saddleton, is determined by signage visible in an old photograph of Paige’s mother in her youth, but rising floodwater results in the trio becoming stranded in the tiny town of Coolabah Tree Gully. Though Paige is content to enjoy the hospitality of the generous locals who offer the family a place to stay, Alice is increasingly anxious. Coolabah Tree Gully is home to a secret Alice has kept for decades and, should it come to light, has the potential to destroy everything she holds dear.

The story of Season of Shadow and Light unfolds primarily from the perspectives of Paige and Alice, two richly drawn, complex characters confronted with a legacy of secrets.

Paige has had an extraordinarily difficult time recently. A late term miscarriage was followed by a postpartum stroke, leaving her with physical deficits and destroying her career as a food critic. Learning of her husband’s infidelity pushes Paige to the breaking point, motivating her to escape to the country with her daughter and Alice. Paige choose Saddleton as a destination with the vague notion of tracing the origins of a photo of her mother, Nancy, unwittingly ending up in the town her mother fled in the dead of night almost forty years earlier. Paige of course has no idea about her mother’s past, but nevertheless feels incomplete.

“I lost the things that made me who I am, the things that made me feel complete as a person. You know that jigsaw puzzle Mati has – the one with the missing pieces we searched high and low for that day? That puzzle is me. There are pieces missing, and I don’t mean my sense of smell and taste. The fact I can’t explain what I feel frustrates the hell out of me.'”

Alice has been Paige’s sole parent since the death of Nancy, her partner and lover, when Paige was ten. Aware of Nancy’s hidden past, Alice had promised never to reveal the truth of it to Paige, but stranded in Coolabah Tree Gully it becomes harder for her to determine exactly who she is protecting, especially when she is confronted with the consequences of keeping it to herself. Alice really struggles with the thought of not only betraying Nancy, but being held accountable by Paige.

“An improbable set of circumstances.
An impossible situation.
How long could she hold on to the truth? Should she hold on?….Was she obligated to protect the deceptions of the dead when the truth might somehow help the living?”

A low key element of romance is introduced by Aiden, a local man recently returned from Sydney, ‘cheffing’ in the local pub, his own future in tatters after being betrayed by his ex-girlfriend. He is attracted to Paige, who appreciates the attention given the state of her shaky marriage, and eventually proves to be a link between Paige and her mother’s secret but to be honest I thought Aiden’s point of view, shared in brief chapters throughout the novel, wasn’t really necessary.

Through her characters McLeod explores issues such as miscarriage, stroke recovery, infidelity, identity, same sex partnerships, and organ transplantation. The larger themes of the novel examine the nature of loyalty, trust, deception and betrayal. Suspense stems from the nature of the secret that Alice is keeping and the anticipation of Paige learning it. McLeod skillfully teases out the details of Nancy’s hidden past but I did feel there were times when the narrative stalled briefly, repeating Alice’s angst and Aiden’s upset a little too often.

“Love is about connection.” says Alice, and Season of Shadow and Light is a story about connections – between partners and lovers, between parents and their children, and between siblings – tested, sometimes frayed and weakened, but strengthened by forgiveness, trust and love.

I really like reading Australian Authors where I can visit the authors view of an area, whether it be somewhere I know like the Sunshine Coast or like this book - based in Rural Queensland.

Queensland is huge! and I doubt I will get to see every part of the state I live in, but I can still get to imagine the small country towns via the authors who write about them.

Jenn J McLeod brought the rural heart of the country to life for me in this book, and the story line is so deep and full of intrigue, and tells the story of what happens when you keep secrets.

As I read in this book, this quote stuck in my heart

"I will love the light for it shows me the way, yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars." By Og Mandino"

This being the first book I have read by Ms McLeod I am hooked on her writing, the book is rammed packed with intrigue, and the subject matter diverse, Miscarriage, same sex relationships, and the lies that split families apart, but all of it is wrapped up in the beauty of a gifted writer. I am blown away with how this story develops, and I was engrossed as I followed Paige as she journeyed to find herself and ultimately finds the truth and so much more!

The book is told in multiple POVs the main contributors being Alice and Paige, the author touches on some subject that could make or break a book but in this instance Ms McLeod has created a tale that will stay with you long after you get to the end. The Secret and the clues kept me guessing for a long time, and I was so glad that there was a happy ending in the end.

This book is ultimately about the actions of the parents and how it affects the children who end up being the most betrayed by those actions, but as the story unearths the secrets long buried, we learn that forgiveness, trust and love are the most important factors.

To To err is human; to forgive, divine.

Alexander Pope

as the quote goes, and that in essence is the moral of this story. I have no doubt that I will re read this book again, as I loved the story that much.

I will be looking for the remainder of these paperbacks in the series. If you love a story that will keep you turning the pages with characters that are delightful set in Rural Australia then keep an eye out for this book.

I have been seeing author Jenn J McLeod’s name being bandied around various book forums and blogs for a wee while now – always with great positive statements. So when I got the chance to review SEASON OF SHADOW AND LIGHT there was not one hesitation before jumping at the opportunity. And what a great story it is too, I became totally immersed.

Paige’s perfect life is disintegrating – she had a late in pregnancy miscarriage, which triggered a stroke, and her sense of taste and smell have gone which leads to her loosing her job as a food critic. Now she has discovered her husband was unfaithful. She may be well off and living in an upper middle class suburb with a wealthy husband. But she is not happy. When she finds an old photo of her now deceased mother, Nancy, she tracks down the small country town that the snapshot may have been taken at. Paige then decides to take a break and books a cabin next to the river in the town. Her aim is to find out more about her mother – as her early life is a complete mystery. Paige is puzzled by Alice’s totally negative reaction to this plan, but goes ahead anyway. A change in the weather and rising floods leave them marooned in Coolabah Tree Gully instead and the scene is set for past secrets to start unravelling. The reader does learn a few of the truths; however some of the details are not connected until much later in the book leaving the mystery ticking along nicely.

Even though Paige is the main character and the story is about her search for the truth about her mother’s past, which also creates the suspense for the story, I found my focus to be on Alice. She was a wonderfully complex character torn between her love of her adopted daughter, and her allegiance to her now dead partner Nancy. Alice knows the secrets but made a solemn vow on her soul mates death bed not to reveal them. Alice has been the sole carer of Paige since Nancy died when Paige was ten. She is terrified that the past will be revealed – and no good will come of it. Jenn McLeod does a terrific job with Alice – a woman with her back to the wall – her allegiances called into question and the terrible strain she is under while she battles with her conscience terrified that all she holds dear will be destroyed.

There are many themes in SEASON OF SHADOW AND LIGHT infidelity, same sex relationships, abuse, and organ transplants. Which made it such an interesting story to read. The relationships between the different characters are very believable and the country town that was the setting just came alive on the pages. I can see I am going to have to go back and pick up some of Jenn McLeod’s earlier works.

Riveting tale, well told.

(I received a free copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.)

When it seems everything Paige trusts is beginning to betray her, she leaves her husband at home and sets off on a road trip with six year old Matilda, and Nana Alice in tow.
But stranded amid rising floodwaters, on a detour to the tiny town of Coolabah Tree Gully, Paige discovers the greatest betrayal of all happened there twenty years earlier.
Someone knows that truth can wash away the darkest shadows, but…
Are some secrets best kept for the sake of others?

An entertaining novel set in rural New South Wales. It is a story of betrayal and secrets, lies and trust - but also about the meaning of family and friendship.

Rural romance novels sometimes get a bad rap - it's "chicks in hats, falling in love with handsome men (who sometimes also wear hats) and everything is happy and everyone just gets along perfectly. I don't know if you would even categorise this novel as "rural romance", as it does more than tell a love story.

The cast of characters brought together some very interesting people. Anyone who has lived in small rural towns will recognise a lot of these characters as they are everywhere. These aren't just made-up people for a story - you can tell they are based on real people, with real passions and dreams, with real emotional and personal issues.

Overall, I thought the story was tight and really made me want to discover more about the characters and the town they were in. The only thing that really was a letdown for me were the chapters from Aiden's POV. I would rather just "hear" one voice and discover the story with them, rather than chopping and changing - but that is a personal thing!

I do recommend this to people who are not just interested in rural stories - but books about people with real issues and how they deal with them.


Paul
ARH