Hope's Road in Aussie Readers

Dec 13, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, aussie-author, netgalley-reviews, arc-are

In Hope's Road, Margareta Osborn's second novel, she returns to the Victorian highlands and the rural community she knows so well. Montmorency Downs is home to Tamara McCauley who inherited the dairy farm upon her grandparents tragic death. Tammy loves the land and is proud of her heritage but when her marriage breaks down Tammy risks losing her family legacy as her faithless husband tries to force a sale. High on the hill at the boundary of the property lives Joe McCauley, sixty years ago he wa
In Hope's Road, Margareta Osborn's second novel, she returns to the Victorian highlands and the rural community she knows so well. Montmorency Downs is home to Tamara McCauley who inherited the dairy farm upon her grandparents tragic death. Tammy loves the land and is proud of her heritage but when her marriage breaks down Tammy risks losing her family legacy as her faithless husband tries to force a sale. High on the hill at the boundary of the property lives Joe McCauley, sixty years ago he walked away from Montmorency Downs and cut all family ties when his brother married the woman Joe had fallen in love with. When the elderly Joe is injured, Tammy surprises herself by volunteering to care for the old man, along with wild dog trapper and Joe's neighbour, Travis Hunter. Forced to keep company, a fragile bond is forged between Tamara, Travis and Joe, cemented by the needs of Travis's young son, Billy, but as their pasts threaten to overwhelm them, they risk losing everything.

Vivid, authentic characterisation is becoming a hallmark of Osborn's writing. I feel as if her characters could easily walk right off the page and slot neatly into my local community. Tamara McCauley is gutsy, intelligent and hard working but not without her vulnerabilities after years of insidious abuse from her husband. The portrayal of Travis Hunter as a single father out of his depth is well done, and his son, Billy, is just adorable. Curmudgeonly Joe McCauley evokes sympathy, despite his temper and his inability to let go of a sixty year old grudge. These are complex characters that demonstrate real growth as tentative connections are made and strengthened through shared adversity.
Osborn's minor characters are equally colourful personalities, from the eccentricities of Tammy's best friend, Lucy, to the flirty desperation of local school teacher Jacinta Greenaway, whose single minded pursuit of Travis provides some amusingly awkward moments. Even the abusive Shon Murphy, Tammy's husband, is a man who also inspires some pity when it would have been simpler to simply paint him as a villian.

At it's core, Hope's Road is a contemporary romance but the storyline also touches on issues such as domestic violence, abandonment and elder care. The connection with family and the need to belong is a major theme illustrated by the relationship between Tamara and Joe, and Travis and his son. As rural fiction, the connection between the characters and the land also plays a vital role.
I really like the way in which Osborn approaches rural life in Hope's Road. The romantic view of farm life cedes to the reality of dairy farming, graphically depicted when Tammy's cows suffer bloat, and newborn calves come under attack from a wild dog.

I find Margareta Osborn's writing style particularly appealing though I am not entirely sure why I connect with it so strongly. I think because I find her characters so believable, her plot's have a realism I appreciate and her stories are well grounded in settings that are familiar to me. I enjoy the author's sense of humour and feel the narrative flows well. The dialogue is authentic, though fair warning, it may be a little coarse for some at times. I thought the pace was good, firmly establishing character and back story before introducing the conflicts. I love that Osborn slips in a mention of the characters of Bella's Run connecting the two stories, even if only peripherally.

Hope's Road is a fine example of contemporary rural fiction. It's no wonder the genre is enjoying a surge in popularity with such appealing characters and engaging stories capturing the readers imagination. Hope's Road will definitely be on my favourites list for 2013 and I am happy to endorse it. ...more

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Mar 09, 2013 Marg rated it really liked it

Shelves: aww2013

When Margareta Osborn's first book, Bella's Run, came out she came and visited my local bookstore. Bree and I went to the signing and chatted with Margareta for ages. I duly bought the book, which Margareta signed, and that was that. I never actually got around to reading the book. Now, having read Hope's Road, I am pretty sure that I am the one who has missed out by not having read Bella's Run and I will be rectifying that as soon as I can! I feel like I should apologise profusely to Margareta! ...more

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Feb 13, 2013 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, netgalley, kindle-version, romance, rural-lit, aww2013

Some sixty years ago, Joe McCauley returned to his family farm Montmorency Downs on top of the world, ready to propose marriage to the woman of his dreams. But while he’d been away working hard to earn the money to pay for the ring, his beloved had settled down with someone else – his very own brother. Joe turned his back on his family and never spoke to them again. Even though he managed to find happiness in his own marriage later on, he could only watch from high up on his rocky land as his br Some sixty years ago, Joe McCauley returned to his family farm Montmorency Downs on top of the world, ready to propose marriage to the woman of his dreams. But while he’d been away working hard to earn the money to pay for the ring, his beloved had settled down with someone else – his very own brother. Joe turned his back on his family and never spoke to them again. Even though he managed to find happiness in his own marriage later on, he could only watch from high up on his rocky land as his brother successfully farmed the family spread. Joe inherited nothing, not an acre of the successful dairy farming pasture. Now all these years later, he watches his great niece from afar.

Tammy McCauley is the sole remaining McCauley left on Montmorency Downs. Other than crabby old Uncle Joe up the hill, who has barely spoken to her, Tammy spends most of her days working on the farm alone with only an older couple for help. Her husband has been after most of the glory for doing very little of the work for years now and it seems as though he’s about to finally do her a favour and leave for good, although it comes with a terrible price. Demanding a payout for his share of the land, Tammy knows that she just doesn’t have the capital – thanks in part to her husband’s spending. It seems like even with the best advice, Tammy might have to bite the bullet and put the farm on the market, for the first time in 150 years, since the land was settled.

Travis Hunter is a dog trapper who has settled back in the area to be close to his mother, in a nearby nursing home, and provide a hopefully stable home life for his son Billy. Travis’s mother had been looking after Billy prior to her stroke while Travis worked wherever he was needed. He has no real idea how to be a father and has trouble relating to his son. But Tammy McCauley isn’t afraid to tell him that he needs to step it up a little more and Travis finds himself taken with the country beauty despite the fact that she’s married.

Slowly, the barriers between Joe, Tammy, Travis and Billy begin to blur as they each begin to dream that there might be happiness and a family waiting for them. But mother nature has a way of forcing her way in and there’ll be a battle for land and life first.

Hope’s Road is the second full-length novel from Margareta Osborn, author of Bella’s Run. We return to the Gippsland area and this time we meet Tammy McCauley, last of a farming dynasty. The only remaining member of the McCauley family left on Montmorency, Tammy has some tough decisions to make. Her mistake in marrying someone who didn’t love the land, but wanted to make something from it looks like it’s going to cause her a lot of trouble. Despite being left Montmorency by her grandparents, Tammy and her husband Shon together bought a piece of land and now Shon wants his share of it. If Tammy can’t come up with the money (and it looks like she can’t) then she’s going to have to sell. And she’s going to have to confess that to her great uncle Joe, a man who she is only just starting to get to know after years of him being estranged from the whole family. Tammy has come to care about Joe and she knows that the news that she may have to sell the farm will destroy him and set their blossoming family relationship way back.

Tammy has also had young Billy Hunter helping out around the farm, which has brought her into contact with his father. Sparks fly as Tammy isn’t afraid to tell him straight up that he needs to man up and lift his game. Billy is aching for a family, having been abandoned by his mother and has had little to do with his father in recent years. Travis is doing his best but it isn’t enough and he needs to learn to open up to Billy and reassure him, make him see that he’s loved and wanted. Travis doesn’t really know how to do that and he needs Tammy to show him what life could be like with his son and someone to care for. Trav is still very wary after the way in which his marriage ended and Tammy has known unhappiness too, so they have that in common.

I think the relationships in this book are so well done. Osborn captures perfectly the crotchety old recluse in Joe, the hopeful young boy in Billy, the slightly clueless and out of his depth father in Trav and the determined young woman in Tammy. The way in which she creates connections and builds on them to flesh out proper blossoming relationships is quite a joy to read. I especially enjoyed the way that Billy and Joe connected. Billy had gone without a father for a long time and now the one he had was busy, often out working. Joe was desperately lonely – he and the woman he married were never blessed with children so no grandchildren either. They brought out something in each other. Joe trusted Billy enough to begin to teach him farm things – driving a tractor, looking through the scope of a rifle. And in Joe, Billy found a male role model, a grandfatherly type, someone who wouldn’t threaten the bond that he was beginning to build with his father, but help facilitate it, in his crusty old way. It was clear that all the players in this quartet needed each other in different ways and most were possessed of pride that would’ve made it a lot more difficult if it weren’t for the charm and sweetness of Billy. A lot of the time he was the glue that brought and kept them together.

My only minor criticism is that the first 40% of the book was quite slow. Once I hit over the halfway mark it really picked up and became pretty impossible to put down. ...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-authors, net-galley, read-on-kindle, 2013-release, arc, own-read

Joe and Thomas McCauley both fell in love with the same young woman, and Mae chose Tom, as he was the elder of the two, and would inherit the property, Montmorency Downs, in the beautiful East Gippsland area of Victoria. Joe was devastated, and walked out the door, never to speak to or contact his family again.

Now, sixty years later, Joe is old, tired and lonely. He lives on the hill, high above the property which should have been his, and spends his days with his beloved dog, Boots, on the vera ...more

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Jan 05, 2022 Janine rated it really liked it

One thing I like about Margarita’s books are that what you are reading comes from experience of living on the land. This was a wonderful rural fiction story about love, loss and survival set in Gippsland. I really admired Tamara who was single handedly running a dairy farm on her own preserving the family inheritance. Travis was a bounty rider who culled wild dogs which was an interesting story to read about.

Highly recommend this book, read it in 3 days!

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Aug 16, 2014 Nicola Marsh added it

Shelves: aussie-authors, contemporary-romance, women-s-fiction, rural-romance

Another wonderful warm-hearted read by Margareta Osborn.

If you haven't read Aussie rural romance, do yourself a favour and pick up these totally readable books.
Realistic characters, tough heroines, sexy heroes and an interesting secondary cast. ...more

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