Close to Home in Aussie Readers

Jan 29, 2022 Brenda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, aussie-authors, 2021-release, own-read, rural, 3500-2022

The small Australian town of Nyringa had been Aunt Alice’s home all her life. Now in her old age she had family surrounding her who would always do her bidding. But it was her childhood which had left an indelible footprint in her heart and made her the strict and sometimes unkind matriarch of her family. When an old property on the outskirts of town was sold and Alice learned a circus family would be descending on them, including the owner, Lucienne Chevalier, she was incandescent with rage. Ho ...more

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Mar 03, 2021 Helen rated it really liked it

I really enjoy small town stories and Janet Gover does them so well, in this one we meet two matriarchs, both very different but both strong woman, Alice Dwyer known as Aunt Alice to everyone who lives in Nyringa and Lucienne Chevalier owner of a circus who has travelled the world but now is making her home in Nyringa, both these woman are stubborn but family is everything to them, I do hope you will pick this one up and see the battle of wills and see how all turns out.

Aunt Alice has lived in N I really enjoy small town stories and Janet Gover does them so well, in this one we meet two matriarchs, both very different but both strong woman, Alice Dwyer known as Aunt Alice to everyone who lives in Nyringa and Lucienne Chevalier owner of a circus who has travelled the world but now is making her home in Nyringa, both these woman are stubborn but family is everything to them, I do hope you will pick this one up and see the battle of wills and see how all turns out.

Aunt Alice has lived in Nyringa all of her life, she is content and the whole town is related to her in some way and she rules, but underneath that tough exterior sits a girl who lost her heart many years ago when a circus came to town and when a circus family buy a property in her town those old feelings from years past come to the surface.

Madame Chevalier was a fabulous performer in the circus all of her life she travelled Europe as a young girl, and when the family came to Australia from France many years ago Lucienne carried on the tradition with her family, you don’t have to be blood related to be family, but when tragedy strikes Lucienne decides it is time to change her life and with her grandson Simon they move to Nyringa and run the circus from their home base and have a place for the people of the circus to have a break between seasons.

Adding to this story are the other characters we get to know Simon, who has been injured in an accident is still healing physically and mentally and performing is something that he will not be able to do anymore, and Meg the new school teacher in town who is trying to cope after being hurt badly, her and Simon meet while running and soon their friendship grows, then we have young Jenny Harden, Aunt Alice’s great niece, she is strong willed and can be a little rebellious especially when she meets young Finn an acrobat in the circus, Finn wants so much to please his father and look for new acts but things don’t always go the way you want them to.

When a problem arises it is time for the two matriarchs to come together and get things sorted as only they can. This is a fabulous story about family, community and love and how people can and should help each other there was lots of cake and pastries in this story that made me want to visit Nyringa and have tea with Aunt Alice and Lucienne and meet all of the wonderful people who live there. This is a story that I do highly recommend.

My thanks to Harlequin Mira for my copy to read and review
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Feb 21, 2021 Rhoda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars

Thank you to @harlequinaus for sending me a copy of this book!

The book begins with a young Alice out greeting the circus coming to her small country town with her boyfriend, however when her boyfriend is overly taken by a young circus performer on a horse, she is gutted. Fast forward many years, Alice is the matriarch in her small country town and is furious to learn that a vacant property has been purchased by circus performers.

Meg has also recently moved to town, taking a teaching p ...more

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Apr 19, 2021 Bree T rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: arc, australian, contemporary, rural-lit, aww2021

I picked up this because I thought the cover looked lovely and that it might be just the sort of read to get into – something familiar, almost comforting even though I haven’t read this author before.

And for the most part, that’s pretty much what I got! Close To Home is set in the (fictional) small town of Nyringa in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, not too far from Glen Innes. It’s an area I’m vaguely familiar with as I had relatives living in Glen Innes for a while and I’ve been to Armidale a c I picked up this because I thought the cover looked lovely and that it might be just the sort of read to get into – something familiar, almost comforting even though I haven’t read this author before.

And for the most part, that’s pretty much what I got! Close To Home is set in the (fictional) small town of Nyringa in the Northern Tablelands of NSW, not too far from Glen Innes. It’s an area I’m vaguely familiar with as I had relatives living in Glen Innes for a while and I’ve been to Armidale a couple of times. In the beginning we get a glimpse of Alice at 15 and the dreams she has of her future before skipping forward to the present day where Alice is in her 80s, a widow and with a vast amount of relatives surrounding her, ready to do her bidding whenever she requires it. Alice is thrown into remembering things she’d rather forget when Lucienne Chevalier buys a local property to use as a base for her circus – somewhere they can rest and practice new routines. With her comes her grandson Simon, who has some healing of his own to do. For Alice, the circus in town can only be bad news and cause pain and she fears for one of her great-nieces, still a teenager, when one of the boys from the circus catches her eye.

Alice is a tough old character, who often comes across as demanding! She seems to secretly enjoy playing games with her relatives, graciously bestowing the honour of taking her to church of a Sunday or having her over for tea on random people and watching their reactions. At times she’s abrasive but there’s a lot of layers to her and there’s an age old pain and regret colouring her life too. She does tend to have people’s best interests at heart, even if the way she goes about things sometimes, ends up alienating them rather than drawing them closer to her. She quite enjoys the feistiness of one of her many great-nieces Jenny, a teenager of 15, which is why she’s concerned when Jenny and Finn, a boy of 16 from Lucienne’s circus, find a mutual attraction. For Alice, such a connection could only end in heartbreak for Jenny and she desperately wants to protect her from that.

Alice is determined not to like Lucienne, a woman of similar vintage and wants her gone from the community. Lucienne is ready to retire and she knows that things will be easier, especially for her grandson Simon, if she’s accepted by the locals and makes some friends. At first it’s definitely quite a frosty reception from Alice, she might be ‘polite’ but it’s definitely in a way that says she wants to keep her distance. Lucienne is quite undaunted though and I really enjoyed her as a character. Both she and Simon are still in the throes of early and quite deep grief – and on Simon’s part there’s quite a lot of guilt too even though what happened was at his fault. It doesn’t stop the nightmares though or the thoughts and when he meets Meg, the new schoolteacher in Nyringa, they are kind of kindred spirits. Meg had something awful and traumatic happen to her and in a way she’s been running ever since. Nyringa however, is helping her heal as she settles back into teaching and becoming a part of the small community. She finds herself somewhat of a confidant for young Jenny and she keeps bumping into Simon as well.

I enjoyed this. It was a lovely way to pass a morning, getting to know this community and the people that live in it. I ended up liking Alice, although she’s a bit much at times – the sort of relative you’d probably avoid occasionally in real life, lest she get busy passing judgement on some aspect of your life that she didn’t approve of. She had a lot in her life that I think she hadn’t dealt with and that she’d allowed to really colour her opinion of things and it took the events that happen later in the book to help her move past that. I also liked the burgeoning friendship between Simon and Meg and enjoyed Finn and Jenny stumbling their way through a first relationship and learning to make mature decisions and how to help each other in times of need. I thought the circus stuff was quite fun and interesting too, including the inclusion and acknowledgement of how circuses have changed over the years.

***A copy of this book was provided by the publisher for the purpose of an honest review*** ...more

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Jul 07, 2021 Nicola Marsh added it

Shelves: women-s-fiction, rural-romance, read-in-2021

A sweet read featuring a circus in the small town of Nyringa in rural New South Wales.

Two strong-willed matriarchs, Aunt Alice and Lucien (circus owner) go head to head.

Enjoyed the teen romance too between Finn and Jenny, so cute.

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Mar 28, 2021 Dzintra aka Ingrid rated it it was amazing

An absolute delight to read. Loved how Janet has written so sensitively about the characters in this book which I found emotional and full of feeling. Great description of circus life too!

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Jan 03, 2022 Catsalive rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: aww, dnf, 2022

After 50 pages I couldn't get any further with this. I don't know why as it's got all the makings of a tale I'd usually enjoy. Maybe another time. ...more

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