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Eine große Australiensaga um Liebe und Verrat vor der atemberaubenden Kulisse des australischen Outbacks
Alice ist noch ein Kind, als ein Buschfeuer sie und ihren Bruder zu Waisen macht. Doch sie folgt unbeirrbar ihrem Traum: Sie will die erfolgreichste Schafzucht Australiens aufbauen, an der Seite des Mannes, den sie liebt. Als sie Robert begegnet, glaubt sie, den Richtigen gefunden zu haben, und wird zunächst bitter enttäuscht. Doch Alice ist nicht bereit, sich kampflos in ihr Schicksal zu ergeben …
Alice ist noch ein Kind, als ein Buschfeuer sie und ihren Bruder zu Waisen macht. Doch sie folgt unbeirrbar ihrem Traum: Sie will die erfolgreichste Schafzucht Australiens aufbauen, an der Seite des Mannes, den sie liebt. Als sie Robert begegnet, glaubt sie, den Richtigen gefunden zu haben, und wird zunächst bitter enttäuscht. Doch Alice ist nicht bereit, sich kampflos in ihr Schicksal zu ergeben …
608 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1996
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November 30, 2020
Reach for the Dream
by
Anne McCullagh Rennie
Reach for the Dream by Sydney author, Anne McCullagh Rennie, was my second novel by this author, and after Reach for the Dream she is now on my favourite authors list.
Shortly after the death of their mother, eight year old, Alice and younger brother, Ben and also lose their family home and any connection they had to their mother when their house burns to the ground.
Their shearer father palms of his children to live with his sister and her family, where both settle in fairly well with the exception of an obnoxious female cousin.
Alice loves the outback and soon she and Ben have plans to start a sheep stud from which they will breed the best wool in the country. However, the best laid plans are often thwarted by fate and jealous cousins.
Alice moves to London where she works successfully as part of a research team, for half a decade or more.
Upon her return to Australia she purchases land near Bilabrinn where her aunt lives, and commences to pursue her dream of breeding the best wool Australia has ever seen. Although many of the locals just want her to breed…a woman’s place is in the home… and all that.
If you like good clean storylines and Outback Australia I feel certain that you will love Reach for the Dream. I have rated Reach for the Dream as a solid four star read/audio
At the time of writing my review other Goodreads readers have awarded Reach for the Dream an average of 3.95 stars from 41 ratings and 8 reviews
by
Anne McCullagh Rennie
Reach for the Dream by Sydney author, Anne McCullagh Rennie, was my second novel by this author, and after Reach for the Dream she is now on my favourite authors list.
Shortly after the death of their mother, eight year old, Alice and younger brother, Ben and also lose their family home and any connection they had to their mother when their house burns to the ground.
Their shearer father palms of his children to live with his sister and her family, where both settle in fairly well with the exception of an obnoxious female cousin.
Alice loves the outback and soon she and Ben have plans to start a sheep stud from which they will breed the best wool in the country. However, the best laid plans are often thwarted by fate and jealous cousins.
Alice moves to London where she works successfully as part of a research team, for half a decade or more.
Upon her return to Australia she purchases land near Bilabrinn where her aunt lives, and commences to pursue her dream of breeding the best wool Australia has ever seen. Although many of the locals just want her to breed…a woman’s place is in the home… and all that.
If you like good clean storylines and Outback Australia I feel certain that you will love Reach for the Dream. I have rated Reach for the Dream as a solid four star read/audio
At the time of writing my review other Goodreads readers have awarded Reach for the Dream an average of 3.95 stars from 41 ratings and 8 reviews
March 4, 2014
Alice is only 8 when her life changes forever. A bushfire takes not only her family home but also part of her family and not long after Alice and her 5yo brother Ben are sent to live with their father’s sister, their Aunt Bea in the small farming town of Billabrin. Although lonely and missing her parents and her old life, Alice falls in love with rural life. She cares for her aunt and uncle’s goats and dreams of one day owning her own property and breeding the best wool sheep in the country.
As she grows up, Alice faces setback after setback, tragedy reappearing in her life until finally she leaves her dream behind and flees overseas to England for a new life. Betrayed by her resentful cousin and the man she loved, Alice seeks a new life working as an assistant in a laboratory, far away from her bush and the outback. But she never forgets her dream of owning her own property and acquiring the best sheep, building a wool dynasty.
When once again Alice finds herself knocked down she decides to return home to the bush and put her dream in place. It’s going to take a lot of hard work – the area is in a drought and although this has brought prices of land and stock down, it’s driven up the price of feed. Alice faces discrimination because she’s a woman and a single one at that and hardship as she seeks to build from the ground up. And of course she is returning to the area that houses her first love, the man she’s never been able to forget, even overseas in London. But it’s going to take something of a miracle for the two of them to finally be able to find the happiness together they have long desired.
Reach For The Dream is a sprawling rural story focusing on Alice who is 8 at the beginning of the book. Her bush smarts and paying attention to her mother’s drills saves her and her younger brother’s lives when a bushfire rips through their property and destroys almost everything in its path. Unable to cope in the aftermath, Alice’s father takes her and her brother to his sister and leaves them there, even though they already have four of their six children living with them in their small 2 bedroom house. There Alice finds solace and comfort in her Aunty Bea and comes to love the land and the animals on it however she is always dealing with the jealous underhandedness of her cousin Katie, who resents the arrival of Alice and the theft of her parent’s affections.
This is the sort of book where anything that can happen to the main character, will. Alice suffers with deaths, bullying, loss, grief and betrayal, makes a fresh new start only for the cycle to repeat several times throughout the book. However each time she manages to pick herself up and dust herself off and begin again with a kind of grim determination. No matter what is thrown her way, Alice is unwavering in her goals, be they her own property in Australia or a work/life balance in London. It’s just unfortunate that things keep happening to her although it must be said that some of them are of her own doing or more accurately, her inaction. Alice has a lot of determination to get things done but she has very little spine/backbone and is walked all over by Katie when they are children. This becomes a bit tedious as the story goes on because Katie is really the most horrible character with zero redeemable features but yet the reader is never satisfied in relation to her actions. It’s just her inherent selfishness and jealousy coming up again and again and she’s so overdone that I stopped feeling sorry for Alice and started wanting her to just defend herself.
The love between Robert and Alice is very swift and all-encompassing despite the fact that they only interact two or three times before they are torn apart. It also forms a huge part of their lives for the next ten plus years – both are unable to forget the other and their love for each other colours every other relationship they form and perhaps because of this, the choices they make are very poor ones. Robert is perhaps not entirely to blame for his but his stupidity got him into the situation that enabled someone else to force his hand anyway, because he was acting like a child. Alice however, should’ve heeded the warning bells a long way out but in typical Alice fashion, just buried her head in the sand and pretended it wasn’t happening and just went along with it.
The story picks up a lot when Alice returns to Australia. The most interesting thing for me was her acquiring her own property and buying her stock and putting her dream into action. For me that should’ve been a much larger part of the story than it was – the England section dragged a lot and could’ve been a lot shorter. Most of it wasn’t important to the core story. I’d have liked to read more about Alice and her uncle fixing up the house, more about the building up of stock rather than just a couple of brief sales scenes. The whole farm thing is a dream for me that I won’t actually ever make reality but I enjoy reading about others doing so. And given Alice had been so passionate about it for so long, it would’ve been nice to be a bit more involved as the reader in that part of the story.
Although I enjoyed some of the relationships in the book, such as the ones Alice forms with her aunt and her gruff uncle and I found the story of Alice’s dream in setting up her property when women weren’t really doing that sort of thing (the book starts in around 1951) really interesting, it didn’t get deep enough into that for me and I wasn’t overly invested in Alice as a character until the end of the book, when she returned to Australia. Prior to that her passivity frustrated me and although I know she grew up a certain way, being quiet and unobtrusive and not causing trouble in her new household, there comes a time when you just can’t be a victim anymore. For Alice that was when she decided to return to Australia and she had a bit of a new attitude – she confronted people when she thought they’d done her wrong. Her best scene was the one where she goes to demand an explanation from the real estate agent who allows someone else to gazump her on purchasing a property neighbouring hers. For me, this part of the story needed to be longer and the England section shorter.
As she grows up, Alice faces setback after setback, tragedy reappearing in her life until finally she leaves her dream behind and flees overseas to England for a new life. Betrayed by her resentful cousin and the man she loved, Alice seeks a new life working as an assistant in a laboratory, far away from her bush and the outback. But she never forgets her dream of owning her own property and acquiring the best sheep, building a wool dynasty.
When once again Alice finds herself knocked down she decides to return home to the bush and put her dream in place. It’s going to take a lot of hard work – the area is in a drought and although this has brought prices of land and stock down, it’s driven up the price of feed. Alice faces discrimination because she’s a woman and a single one at that and hardship as she seeks to build from the ground up. And of course she is returning to the area that houses her first love, the man she’s never been able to forget, even overseas in London. But it’s going to take something of a miracle for the two of them to finally be able to find the happiness together they have long desired.
Reach For The Dream is a sprawling rural story focusing on Alice who is 8 at the beginning of the book. Her bush smarts and paying attention to her mother’s drills saves her and her younger brother’s lives when a bushfire rips through their property and destroys almost everything in its path. Unable to cope in the aftermath, Alice’s father takes her and her brother to his sister and leaves them there, even though they already have four of their six children living with them in their small 2 bedroom house. There Alice finds solace and comfort in her Aunty Bea and comes to love the land and the animals on it however she is always dealing with the jealous underhandedness of her cousin Katie, who resents the arrival of Alice and the theft of her parent’s affections.
This is the sort of book where anything that can happen to the main character, will. Alice suffers with deaths, bullying, loss, grief and betrayal, makes a fresh new start only for the cycle to repeat several times throughout the book. However each time she manages to pick herself up and dust herself off and begin again with a kind of grim determination. No matter what is thrown her way, Alice is unwavering in her goals, be they her own property in Australia or a work/life balance in London. It’s just unfortunate that things keep happening to her although it must be said that some of them are of her own doing or more accurately, her inaction. Alice has a lot of determination to get things done but she has very little spine/backbone and is walked all over by Katie when they are children. This becomes a bit tedious as the story goes on because Katie is really the most horrible character with zero redeemable features but yet the reader is never satisfied in relation to her actions. It’s just her inherent selfishness and jealousy coming up again and again and she’s so overdone that I stopped feeling sorry for Alice and started wanting her to just defend herself.
The love between Robert and Alice is very swift and all-encompassing despite the fact that they only interact two or three times before they are torn apart. It also forms a huge part of their lives for the next ten plus years – both are unable to forget the other and their love for each other colours every other relationship they form and perhaps because of this, the choices they make are very poor ones. Robert is perhaps not entirely to blame for his but his stupidity got him into the situation that enabled someone else to force his hand anyway, because he was acting like a child. Alice however, should’ve heeded the warning bells a long way out but in typical Alice fashion, just buried her head in the sand and pretended it wasn’t happening and just went along with it.
The story picks up a lot when Alice returns to Australia. The most interesting thing for me was her acquiring her own property and buying her stock and putting her dream into action. For me that should’ve been a much larger part of the story than it was – the England section dragged a lot and could’ve been a lot shorter. Most of it wasn’t important to the core story. I’d have liked to read more about Alice and her uncle fixing up the house, more about the building up of stock rather than just a couple of brief sales scenes. The whole farm thing is a dream for me that I won’t actually ever make reality but I enjoy reading about others doing so. And given Alice had been so passionate about it for so long, it would’ve been nice to be a bit more involved as the reader in that part of the story.
Although I enjoyed some of the relationships in the book, such as the ones Alice forms with her aunt and her gruff uncle and I found the story of Alice’s dream in setting up her property when women weren’t really doing that sort of thing (the book starts in around 1951) really interesting, it didn’t get deep enough into that for me and I wasn’t overly invested in Alice as a character until the end of the book, when she returned to Australia. Prior to that her passivity frustrated me and although I know she grew up a certain way, being quiet and unobtrusive and not causing trouble in her new household, there comes a time when you just can’t be a victim anymore. For Alice that was when she decided to return to Australia and she had a bit of a new attitude – she confronted people when she thought they’d done her wrong. Her best scene was the one where she goes to demand an explanation from the real estate agent who allows someone else to gazump her on purchasing a property neighbouring hers. For me, this part of the story needed to be longer and the England section shorter.
October 9, 2020
Absolutely enjoyed this book from start to finish.
Alice Ferguson knows tragedy from a young age, when she and her brother are sent to live with their aunt and uncle in Billabrinafter their family are torn apart by fire. She starts to settle in to country life and dreams of having her own sheep station one day.
After another terrible incident involving her brother,betrayal of the male kind, and jealous cousin playing games, Alice needs to get away and starts working in England. She marries and has two children whilst there, but when things take a turn for the worst she returns to Billabrin.
Alice Ferguson knows tragedy from a young age, when she and her brother are sent to live with their aunt and uncle in Billabrinafter their family are torn apart by fire. She starts to settle in to country life and dreams of having her own sheep station one day.
After another terrible incident involving her brother,betrayal of the male kind, and jealous cousin playing games, Alice needs to get away and starts working in England. She marries and has two children whilst there, but when things take a turn for the worst she returns to Billabrin.
June 26, 2025
There's nothing special about this book.... but... It's long and detailed and we get a good description of one woman's life story. The tale takes us on a journey with Alice from girlhood until her happy ever after. So yes it's predictable but there's a lot going on and it's easy escapism.
The Australian setting adds something rather nice and authentic.
The Australian setting adds something rather nice and authentic.
October 21, 2022
When you are reading into the night it's the sign of a book that has your attention.
Reach for the dream, no matter the obstacles or fear keep going. It might not look how you imagine it.
Reach for the dream, no matter the obstacles or fear keep going. It might not look how you imagine it.
March 11, 2014
Reach for the Dream is a saga set in the 1950′s- 1960′s that spans the life of (fictional) rural girl Alice Ferguson from aged eight years until her late twenties. After a tragic event leaves her motherless, Alice and her brother Ben are sent off to live with their Aunt, Uncle and cousins while their father grieves the loss of his wife. While Alice develops a strong bond with her Aunt Bea, the relationship with her cousin Katie is far from affectionate. Katie is jealous of Alice’s relationship with her mother and the way her bright and determined view of the world attracts a lot of suiters. She makes life difficult for Alice from very early on and this tumultuous relationship continues into their adolescence when they fall in love with the same man. Robert and Alice develop strong feelings for each other following a misunderstanding (instigated by Katie) and begin to make plans for their future. But her cousin’s unexpected pregnancy throws a spanner in the works and Alice and Robert are torn apart by the expectations of the society and their families during this time.
Alice travels to England where she pursues scientific investigations and starts a new life. She is a strong and determined woman and people (especially men) seem to flock around her and no matter what gets in her way, she continues to push forward and follow her dreams. She’s hard working and determined to live a life on the land which was quite unusual for women during the 1960′s. While Alice and Robert continue to lead separate lives with different partners, their love for each other survives and in essence this is a story about two young people finding their way back to each other. Unfortunately it takes 400+ pages to get there which I found really frustrating!
I don’t think I even finished the last book by this author that I attempted (Songs of the Bellbirds) and I found the last book of hers (Under Southern Skies) difficult to immerse myself in due to the young age of the protagonists. The author certainly does write sagas! In Reach for the Dream, we are introduced to the protagonist, Alice Ferguson at just age 8. She’s a resilient young girl who experiences much suffering and struggles that no young child should have to go through. However, I did expect that after the first chapter with the tragic circumstances of the fire that that story would then jump ahead a few years… but it continued on immediately after this moment and went into detail about her life after these events. For this reason I found it really hard to get into the rhythm for the story. Partly because of my expectations of where I felt the story should go, but also because in my opinion the story starts way too early. I felt that some of these early experiences could have been intertwined into the story through flashbacks…. Or to just include the first chapter and then jump ahead. Perhaps it was just my own impatience that I wanted to get into Alice’s story as an adult, to discover how those early experiences impacted on her life later on.
While there were many elements of this story that I liked (Alice’s strength and determination) there were many things about the storyline and characters that also frustrated me. I felt that her cousin Katie was portrayed as selfish and pretty evil at times. However, I felt that her character was quite one-dimensional and there wasn’t really a realistic exploration of why she behaved the way she did or why she disliked Alice so much. I also found it difficult to believe that everyone knew how manipulative she was and yet they continued to listen to her lies. Alice, at times, also didn’t feel like a wholesome character. I think she displayed a real strength and determination to move forward no matter what adversity she faced, but I did find it a bit unrealistic that everyone she came into contact with (except her cousin) fell in love with her. I’d have liked to see Alice have a weakness, something that I could relate to. It also really took a long time for Alice to take charge of her life and follow her dreams.
It’s obvious that my views on Reach For The Dream are mixed. On the whole I did like the story and after a rocky beginning I did manage to read it quite quickly. However there were elements of the story and the character development that I found difficult to relate to or find believable at times and this affected my overall experience of the story. One thing I could most definitely relate to (since I’ve recently relocated to a rural town) was Alice’s love of the land. This was something I could really appreciate.
For those more patient than me that enjoy a lengthy saga in a rural setting, then Reach For The Dream may just be the right kind of read for you.
Alice travels to England where she pursues scientific investigations and starts a new life. She is a strong and determined woman and people (especially men) seem to flock around her and no matter what gets in her way, she continues to push forward and follow her dreams. She’s hard working and determined to live a life on the land which was quite unusual for women during the 1960′s. While Alice and Robert continue to lead separate lives with different partners, their love for each other survives and in essence this is a story about two young people finding their way back to each other. Unfortunately it takes 400+ pages to get there which I found really frustrating!
I don’t think I even finished the last book by this author that I attempted (Songs of the Bellbirds) and I found the last book of hers (Under Southern Skies) difficult to immerse myself in due to the young age of the protagonists. The author certainly does write sagas! In Reach for the Dream, we are introduced to the protagonist, Alice Ferguson at just age 8. She’s a resilient young girl who experiences much suffering and struggles that no young child should have to go through. However, I did expect that after the first chapter with the tragic circumstances of the fire that that story would then jump ahead a few years… but it continued on immediately after this moment and went into detail about her life after these events. For this reason I found it really hard to get into the rhythm for the story. Partly because of my expectations of where I felt the story should go, but also because in my opinion the story starts way too early. I felt that some of these early experiences could have been intertwined into the story through flashbacks…. Or to just include the first chapter and then jump ahead. Perhaps it was just my own impatience that I wanted to get into Alice’s story as an adult, to discover how those early experiences impacted on her life later on.
While there were many elements of this story that I liked (Alice’s strength and determination) there were many things about the storyline and characters that also frustrated me. I felt that her cousin Katie was portrayed as selfish and pretty evil at times. However, I felt that her character was quite one-dimensional and there wasn’t really a realistic exploration of why she behaved the way she did or why she disliked Alice so much. I also found it difficult to believe that everyone knew how manipulative she was and yet they continued to listen to her lies. Alice, at times, also didn’t feel like a wholesome character. I think she displayed a real strength and determination to move forward no matter what adversity she faced, but I did find it a bit unrealistic that everyone she came into contact with (except her cousin) fell in love with her. I’d have liked to see Alice have a weakness, something that I could relate to. It also really took a long time for Alice to take charge of her life and follow her dreams.
It’s obvious that my views on Reach For The Dream are mixed. On the whole I did like the story and after a rocky beginning I did manage to read it quite quickly. However there were elements of the story and the character development that I found difficult to relate to or find believable at times and this affected my overall experience of the story. One thing I could most definitely relate to (since I’ve recently relocated to a rural town) was Alice’s love of the land. This was something I could really appreciate.
For those more patient than me that enjoy a lengthy saga in a rural setting, then Reach For The Dream may just be the right kind of read for you.
September 24, 2014
How far would you go to keep your dream alive? As an eight year old girl, Alice Ferguson is struck down by tragedy when her family is torn from her by a bushfire. As a young girl, she rises above the heartbreak and resolves to fulfil her dream - of owning an outback property and to produce the best quality wool in the country. Achieving this dream, full of triumphs and further tragedies, is what drives the storyline in Anne McCullagh Rennie’s latest book, Reach for the Dream. It emotional Australian rural saga, separated in three parts. The first part follows Alice when she is sent to live on her Aunt’s farm, following the bushfire tragedy. Here, Alice finds her character tested as she faces bullying, further loss, heartbreak and strong resentment from her cousin. Despite this, her spirit remains strong and it is at this point in the novel that we see Alice’s true love of the land develop. The second part of the novel crosses continents as we see Alice embark on a career in London. This takes Alice far away from the heartbreak of life on her Aunt’s farm in Billabrin but also draws her further away from her childhood aspirations. As Alice tries to move on with her new life in London, things look up when she finds love, but she eventually faces further setback and tragedy. Alice is forced to gather all the strength she has to rise above the setbacks and return to Australia to achieve her dream. The third and final part of the novel is by far the best, as we see Alice’s character truly shine. The storyline steps up a notch as the reader sees Alice’s dream comes to fruition. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy Australian rural sagas but don’t mind a good helping of heartbreak!
April 9, 2014
Loved this book from the very first page right until the last. I shed many tears in the beginning and couldn't put this book down.
June 12, 2015
Wonderful story - loved it. A great read.
November 20, 2015
A good solid story with a few twists.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews