House for all Seasons in Aussie Readers

Feb 04, 2013 Helene Young rated it it was amazing

Jenn J McLeod’s debut novel, House for all Seasons, is a rich tapestry of small town life. It interweaves the lives of Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin as they deal with painful memories and confronting secrets.

The themes are strong and wide-ranging, moving from the issues of illness and disability, to teenager pregnancy, domestic violence, alcoholism, and post-traumatic stress disorder. That may sound like a truckload to pack into one book, but Ms McLeod doesn’t dwell on the issues or preach. Rat ...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2013-release, borrowed-from-library, aussie-authors, rural

When Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin were to stay at The Dandelion House, a season each, they hadn’t seen each other for twenty years. They had all drifted apart after the Year 12 muck-up day, in which they were all a part of, went terribly wrong, and guilt kept them apart while they forged ahead with careers and marriage, life and living.

Owner of the house, Gypsy, had left it to the four of them, but they had to come back to the country, to their origins in Calingarry Crossing, and stay for a se ...more

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Jun 28, 2017 Janine rated it it was amazing

Wonderful story about 4 childhood friends who are reunited after many years. They have been left a house in the will of a lady who lived in their hometown. One of the conditions of the inheritance is that they each spend one season back at the house, they don't know why, but do comply with the conditions. They all find out lots about themselves and reunite with old friends and relatives and townsfolk that they have not seen for years. There is the underlying story about a fifth friend called Wil ...more

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Dec 16, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

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

Jenn J McLeod's lovely debut novel, House For All Seasons, is the story of four women, once childhood friends, now strangers, drawn back to their hometown by the unusual terms of a surprising inheritance. Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin must each must spend a season at Dandelion House in Calingarry Crossing to honor Gypsy's last wishes and face the memories they left behind.

The women in The House For All Seasons are at a crossroads in their lives when they receive word of the bequest. Sara is phy
Jenn J McLeod's lovely debut novel, House For All Seasons, is the story of four women, once childhood friends, now strangers, drawn back to their hometown by the unusual terms of a surprising inheritance. Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin must each must spend a season at Dandelion House in Calingarry Crossing to honor Gypsy's last wishes and face the memories they left behind.

The women in The House For All Seasons are at a crossroads in their lives when they receive word of the bequest. Sara is physically and emotionally fragile after treatment for breast cancer and her recent divorce, Poppy is beginning to recognise that her professional success is a poor substitute for personal satisfaction, Amber's perfect facade is starting to crack and Caitlin is frustrated by thwarted dreams.
Though they are reluctant to revisit Calingarry Crossing, Dandelion House proves to be a haven as each woman assesses her past, present and future, searching for redemption and renewal. With a nudge from heartfelt letters left for them by Gypsy, and timely intervention from mysterious (perhaps mystical) sources, Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin confront their difficult pasts and their memories of Willow.

As part of the women's stories, McLeod explores difficult issues such as cancer, teenage pregnancy, domestic violence, post traumatic stress and addiction. The larger themes examine the need to make peace with the past in order to move forward and the importance of knowing what you need, and want, to be happy within yourself. Their experiences are sure to strike a chord with any reader who has questioned their role or direction in life.

There is romance, though it remains mostly low key. The emotion is heartfelt and honest without becoming overly sentimental. The drama increases as the secrets begin to unravel concluding with a surprising twist that binds the women in an unexpected manner. I thought perhaps McLeod could have lingered a bit more over the ending, it felt a little rushed and blurs with Caitlin's story. It is a minor quibble though, for what is a well crafted, well written story.

A moving novel of friendship, family and forgiveness, I thought House For All Seasons was a warm, engaging story and an impressive debut from Jenn J McLeod. I look forward to revisiting Calingarry Crossing in her next book.
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Apr 07, 2013 Kathryn rated it liked it

Shelves: australian-authors, fiction, reading-list-2014, recommended-by-people-on-gr

This was an interesting read. For some reason initially left unspecified, four women (Sara, Poppy, Amber and Caitlin), who sometimes hung around together when growing up, are obliged to return to a house bequeathed to them jointly and are required to each spend a period of time at the house. Why the house was left to them jointly and what the link is between the 4 of them and the lady who owned the house is the main mystery running through the book and it ties the individual stories of the women ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 Tanya rated it really liked it

House for all Seasons is the debut novel from Australian writer Jenn J. McLeod. I discovered her awesomeness last year with A Place to Remember, so figured I should go back and check out her earlier works (and isn't that the best thing about discovering a new author? Loads of unread earlier works - yay!)

This is the story of 4 women, friends in high school but who haven't spoken to each other in 20 years, who share an inheritance in the Dandelion House. One of the clauses of the will though, is t ...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, aww2013

Four friends who have barely spoken to each other in twenty years are left a hundred year old house that they spent time at during their childhood. Situated in their hometown of Calingarry Crossing, the terms of the will state that each woman must spend a season there in order to fulfill the terms of the inheritance. Each of the women have varying feelings about returning to spend time in the house, from downright refusal to eagerness. Returning means confronting demons for all of them, includin Four friends who have barely spoken to each other in twenty years are left a hundred year old house that they spent time at during their childhood. Situated in their hometown of Calingarry Crossing, the terms of the will state that each woman must spend a season there in order to fulfill the terms of the inheritance. Each of the women have varying feelings about returning to spend time in the house, from downright refusal to eagerness. Returning means confronting demons for all of them, including what happened during their muck up day celebrations, so many years ago.

Sara is first. A breast cancer survivor, she’s had one man run out on her when she was at her lowest. Returning to the Dandelion House gives her an opportunity to make amends for things she’s done wrong in the past and it gives her a chance to rekindle her friendship with Will, someone Sara has always loved. But Sara is afraid to love now, love is not on The List.

Poppy is a journalist, up for a Walkley award after a stint overseas reporting on the war in Afghanistan. No matter how successful she is, what she does, all that matters to her is the approval of her distant father Johnno, damaged from what he saw overseas in his own war, Vietnam.

Amber was a spoiled and cosseted teenager, the apple of her charismatic father’s eye. When a youthful indiscretion meant that Amber should probably leave Calingarry Crossing, her father arranged everything. Twenty years later Amber is an over-Botoxed socialite desperately tired of the charity lunch game. The return to Calingarry Crossing gives her a chance to face what her childhood really was and make amends with someone she has long done without in her life.

Caitlin is looking to give something back to the small community, the way her respected doctor father did. Taking over the local practice while she’s spending her required season in the house, Caitlin is about to uncover a well kept secret that will bind the 4 girls even more tightly together…and give them the strength they need to decide what to do with their legacy.

I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time now. Following authors and publishers on twitter means you hear about things often long before they arrive and the wait can sometimes feel like forever. You hear details of books going through drafts, edits, etc. It’s much different to when you just walk into a bookshop and see whatever happens to be on the shelf, published already.

From the inside out, this book is beautiful. From the very beginning, when we meet our four women as adults in their mid-to-late thirties, you know that something has happened to make them no longer friends. It isn’t just that their lives have changed and grown, they’re all carrying feelings connected to their hometown that have made them want to forget. Gypsy, the former owner of the house has used their connections to it in order to bring them back and make them face what happened in the town twenty years ago and also help them assess their lives and what they really want and need. Each one of them is dealing with something, or many things. Alone (with no contact with each other during their season ‘stay’) they each have no choice but to really examine themselves and their lives.

Each of the women are very different, some were harder to connect to than others but I found that I had little trouble immersing myself in their lives. Sara, the first to spend time in the house, was easy to like but it wasn’t hard to see just how much of herself she was holding back, scared to fall in love again after her husband betrayed her and left her when she was most vulnerable. I liked her blossoming friendship with Will, a man who had also been dealt numerous blows as well. I loved the way that Will was portrayed, a man who was trying to make the most of his situation, but sometimes exhausted by the effort it took. The optimism and frustration was very well done.

I didn’t love Amber at first, but I think she’s the character who experiences the most personal growth. I think her journey was the one that touched me the most, even though I didn’t relate to her as such. We have nothing in common and she wasn’t entirely likable but watching this Sydney Potts Point lady who lunches settle back in to a quiet country town and realise that the woman she saw in the mirror for twenty years wasn’t really her was fascinating. The only thing about that storyline that did have me raising an eyebrow was the forty year old surgeon who wanted to marry a seventeen year old girl. That was a bit weird, even if I did like the character of her husband. But it was probably weirder that Amber’s father agreed to it. In some ways I found Poppy’s story similar to Amber’s – Poppy was also being someone that she didn’t realise wasn’t really her and a lot of her issues were all hung up on someone she had a difficult relationship with. In order for both Poppy and Amber to become the people they really were inside, they had to obtain some sort of closure or reconnection with the parent relationship and allow themselves to move forward in a new way. Caitlin was probably the only one that didn’t seem to be undergoing the same amount of emotional upheaval as the other three and her story felt much shorter and not quite as intense as the stories of the others. Her stay though, was crucial as it was the way in which the secrets were uncovered.

I really enjoyed this book – I read it in less than a day. It kept me turning the pages, drawn into the journey of these four women and their guilt and sadness over what had happened twenty years ago. It’s beautifully written, a story that sweeps you in and holds you there. There’s a little bit of magic in this one. ...more

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