July 25, 2011
In Freeman's debut novel, Emma Blaxland-Hunter, a prima ballerina from London, must re-evaluate her life after doctors declare her knee unfit for dancing. At the behest of her mother, Emma returns home to Sydney, where she discovers her affluent and loving grandmother, Beattie Blaxland, has left her an inheritance: Wildflower Hill, an old sheep farm in Tasmania. When Emma settles in temporarily to clean out Wildflower Hill and sell it, she discovers a photo of her grandmother with a mysterious child. Determined to discover the girl's identity, Emma is pulled closer to Wildflower Hill's sordid history and ultimately, her grandmother's untidy secrets. In this sentimental narrative, readers learn the answers to Emma's questions just as she begins to ask them, which makes for a fairly predictable read. The novel's strength instead lies in Freeman's complex charactersâcapable of love and hate, shame and redemption. Both Beattie and Emma find themselves having to start over, and it is for these two women that readers cheer and sympathize.
July 1, 2011
When Beattie Blaxland finds herself pregnant in 1930s Glasgow, she thinks the worst that can happen is that her married lover, Henry, will abandoned her. Instead, he runs away with her to Australia, where he drinks, gambles, and abuses her, all the while doting on their daughter, Lucy. Determined to have a better life, Beattie runs away to Tasmania, where she and Lucy make a rocky start at Wildflower Hill, a large sheep ranch badly managed by a sinister English gentleman. In present-day London, Beattie's granddaughter, Emma, a driven ballet dancer, suffers her own setbacks, which propel her home to her family in Australia. There she learns her grandmother left an unwelcome inheritance that changes her life. Despite its length, this first novel moves swiftly through secrets, forbidden love, and heartbreak, revealing two strong female protagonists and appealing secondary characters, especially the two men who work at Wildflower Hill with Beattie. Fans of multigenerational family sagas (like those of Kate Morton and Colleen McCullough) who are attracted by hardscrabble, romantic settings will eat it up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)