Tumbleweeds

Author: Leila Meacham
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2013
Pages: 480
Rating: Recommend

Synopsis: 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.

Review: Full disclosure, while Leila Meacham is one of my favorite authors, I struggled three times prior to read this novel. I just couldn't get past the first chapter, for whatever reason. I decided 2022 was my year. 

For some reason, it clicked this time.

In typical Meacham fashion, this is a family saga, though it doesn't cover the breadth that Roses, along with it's prequel and sequel do. We meet the main characters when they are 11 years old. However, it wasn't until they turned about 18 that this novel really took off, and I was hooked.

It took time, but these characters worked their way into my thoughts throughout the day, always the sign of a good novel.

Sadly Leila Meacham passed away from cancer in 2021 with an unpublished manuscript. From what I've read, her family plans to release this novel as well, which I also cannot wait to read.