Book Description (per Amazon)
Recently orphaned, eleven-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural and intellectual wasteland when she is forced to move from her academically privileged life in California to the small town of Kersey in the Texas Panhandle where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates John Caldwell and Trey Don Hall, orphans like herself, with whom she forms a friendship and eventual love triangle that will determine the course of the rest of their lives. Taking the three friends through their growing up years until their high school graduations when several tragic events uproot and break them apart, the novel expands to follow their careers and futures until they reunite in Kersey at forty years of age. Told with all of Meacham's signature drama, unforgettable characters, and plot twists, readers will be turning the pages, desperate to learn how it all plays out.
Product Details
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My Review
Tumbleweeds starts out very
slowly, to the point that I almost put it down.
I’m glad I didn’t. After plodding
through the dry, obligatory, chapters where Meacham established the adolescent
bonds between the three key characters of the story, I finally made it to the
interesting parts. I was hooked! Oh, the shenanigans those three got
themselves in to as true love developed in a triangle complicated enough to
give Pythagoras a migraine. Not me! I
knew exactly which stud-muffin Cathy would pick. Or, so I thought. I munched on a couple more crackers, turned
the page, and, “Huh?”
Leila Meacham was not following the
script I envisioned at all! She must be an admirer of Poe and Bronte: such was
the angst she created —the plot twists cleverly wreaking havoc— ruining lives
and setting the wheels in motion that led me, like a horse to water, down the
herring-strewn path to the ending.
Meacham tossed so many herrings about that I felt I was at a fish
market. I’ll be squeezing lemon juice on these hands for days! Still, the ending was clever, if a bit
contrived. Dare I say, fishy? The
convenient ending —and, Cathie’s ridiculous choice of man-candy— just irritated
the heck out of me, so Tumbleweeds earned 4 of 5 hearts from this reviewer.
Disclaimer: This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. My review reflects my honest opinion of the work.
