WOOD, Karen Rain Dance Allen & Unwin, 2014 293pp $15.99 pbk ISBN 9781743316405 SCIS 1676060
Holly Harvey’s family has been forced to leave their seaside home and move to contract work on a cattle farm in NSW. When they arrive, they find that their accommodation isn’t prepared and the farmer not quite ready for them to start work. Devastated by the whole move, and the selling of her horses, Holly finds it hard to see she has anything in common with the farmer’s son, Kayden, especially as he seems to prefer beautiful rich girls like Chrissie. The fund-raising ball is the beginning of something new, and Holly begins to see how life really is for the hard-working Kayden. Life on the land is unpredictable and unstable, and Holly’s thoughts about how farmers manage their stock and land begin to change. Drought, fire, and financial hardships become reality; and Holly realises that farmers are also concerned with the conservation issues that she is passionate about. As Kayden and Holly work out what Kayden’s new business partner wants with the land, they are able to work together to stop him before it’s too late.
This book has a contemporary central conflict: vegetarian hippies meet beef farmers. It handles the issues from both sides sensitively, introducing concepts important to both sides with an eventual siding with the people on the land. Wood has written another compelling rural romance, with less horsiness and more general issues than previous books. Some repetition of previous book themes comes in but is surrounded by new conflict. For romantic readers, especially those interested in conservation and mining.
reviewed by Pam Harvey