Tumbleweeds

Tumbleweeds by Leila Meacham
Publisher - Grand Central Publishing
Publish Date - February 2013
Genre - Southern Fiction
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads















My Rating:

If you read my previous post on Roses, then I think you know what you are in for with this novel. I LOVE Southern Fiction. There is something about the grand, family dramas and the very specific world that Southern novels generate that just transports you through time and space and makes you feel happy. Good Southern novels should make your couch feel like a front porch swing with the sun on your face, wildflowers in the distance, crickets chirping and a cold glass of sweet tea on the table next to you. Feels good, right!?

It’s hard to create this feeling through writing and only the best of the best can do it. *cough* Margaret Mitchell *cough*.

Tumbleweeds is another epic Southern family tale that transports you through time. It tells the tale of Cathy Benson who is orphaned at the age of 11 and forced to uproot her California lifestyle to go live with her grandmother in a small town in the Texas Panhandle. Cathy’s grandmother, Emma, was not close with her son and his wife and is hesitant to take on the role of Cathy’s guardian. Their relationship starts off rocky but they eventually find common ground in their grief.

 Like most towns in Texas, football is life. Cathy meets John and Trey Don who are also both orphans and (after some initial coaxing) they take her under their wing. Of course, this all results in a complicated love triangle with tons of twists and turns that determine the fate of all three of them. The story takes you through their years growing up in Kersey, graduation, and into their adult lives until their eventual reunion at the age of forty back in Kersey, Texas.

Let me start off by saying that I did not love Tumbleweeds as much as I loved Roses. While the characters in Tumbleweeds were dynamic and interesting, the plot was not so much. It started off captivating much like Roses but lost some of its gusto as the story went on. Many of the twists and turns, while unexpected, were a bit too unbelievable. The way that the story all wrapped up in the end was too neat and perfect for my taste. Certain points in the story that should have been truly dramatic turning points were glossed over and some that didn’t seem so important dragged out for too long.

I think that if I had read this novel before Roses, I would not have been as disappointed. But, since Roses captivated me in a way that a book hadn’t in a long time, my expectations were high. Unfortunately, Tumbleweeds fell short of meeting that bar.

Pair This With: Hunt's Vineyard Rose

This is one of my favorite local VA wines and it pairs perfectly with this novel. It's light, crisp and easy to drink but not too sweet. A perfect hot summer day sipping wine!