Wattle Creek by Fiona McCallum

Wattle Creek Reviews

• 
  Sharon

  Damien McAllister knew people were staring at him as he entered the doctor's surgery. The only time he went to see the doctor was when he injured himself on the farm, but this visit wouldn't require any bandages or stitches. Damien hadn't been himself for awhile, but men never spoke about their problems. Damien knew it was time to push all that aside and get some help. Damien thought the doctor would just give him a prescription for some tablets and he would be on his way. He never thought he would be told to make an appointment to see a psychologist.
  
  After spending over five hours on the road, Jacqueline Havelock was looking forward to settling into her cottage in Wattle Creek. Having arrived a little later than she expected there was instructions for her to collect her keys from the lady across the road, Mrs Ethel Bennett. Jacqueline knew as soon as she met the lovely Ethel, she was going to enjoy working and living in Wattle Creek. Jacqueline would be working in Dr Squire's surgery as the the new psychologist.
  
  Damien was very hesitant about seeing a psychologist and had second thoughts about attending his appointment. He could just imagine what people would say when they found out. Things like this spread quickly in a small country town and that was the last thing he wanted or needed. But Damien had no one else to talk to, so he knew he had to swallow his pride and get the help he needed. With his first appointment over, Damien was left wondering if he'd return for a second one. He'd been asked to keep a a journal where, Jacqueline wanted him to write down how he was feeling each day and what had caused theses feelings. He thought she was expecting a lot and wasn't sure if he would do it. Not long after rescuing a puppy which, Damien named Squish it seemed life was starting to look brighter or was it?
  
  A very enjoyable read which touches on some rather sensitive issues. Recommended.
  
• 
  Brenda

  3.5★s
  
  Jacqueline Havelock arrived in the little town of Wattle Creek tired but pleased to be there. Having driven five hours from Adelaide in South Australia to her new position as psychologist within the local doctor’s surgery, she felt her future looked much better than it had been. As she settled into the little cottage which would be hers, at least until she proved herself a capable addition to Dr Squire’s practice, she was a little disconcerted by the friendliness of the locals, especially Ethel Bennett from across the road. But she guessed Wattle Creek would be a whole lot different to the thriving city of Adelaide.
  
  Damien McAllister was a sheep farmer with no love for the land he had grown up on. His father and grandfather had both been farmers and now they were gone, he was alone and lonely, carrying on the family tradition but wondering why. His mother did nothing but criticise – it was only the dogs that showed him any affection. He had no-one to talk to – but then men didn’t talk about their problems; Damien had learned a long time ago to keep everything to himself.
  
  But when Dr Squire told Damien to make an appointment with the new psychologist, he questioned himself. Why would he need a shrink? When he went to the appointment anyway and Jacqueline explained the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist, he was still confused. The appointment though caused Damien to start searching for answers within himself. Then when he saved the life of a small, excited and energetic puppy he named Squish, slowly but surely his life began to improve.
  
  With a tentative friendship between Jacqueline and Damien forming, and the support of the local townsfolk, the suddenness of disaster was as unexpected as it was shocking. Would Damien push through this latest setback? Could he?
  
  I enjoyed Wattle Creek though I found Damien to be an unlikeable character until around the middle of the book. My favourite character was Ethel, she was an absolute delight! A light rural romance with a little bit of intrigue, this was a quick read. Recommended.
  
• 
  Sally906

  Opening Line:‘…Damien had suicide in his sights …’
  
  
  
  As you can see from the opening line, WATTLE CREEK starts off with a very emotionally confronting scene of a man staring down the barrel of gun wanting to end it all. This is not how you would normally expect a romance to open. From this heart in your mouth opening though, author Fiona McCallum takes us into the lives of the small farming community of Wattle Creek in outback Australia. He is a ‘typical’ Aussie bloke in that he doesn’t talk much and is not inclined to share his feelings. But Damien finds the courage to seek help and he is lucky because the local medical centre has just taken on a short term psychologist and he is her first patient. Jacqueline is a city girl who has her own reasons for wanting to be away in the country. She is determined to help the community however she quickly comes to the realisation that practicing in a small rural town with a bush telegraph that travels faster than a walk across the road to the grocery store poses challenges she had never considered. Nothing is private. How on earth can she convince patients like Damien to visit her without the whole town knowing? Can she change the attitude of the townspeople? Depression and suicide are confronting issues, sadly all too common in the rural areas. It is common in the cities too, but unlike the city dwellers, in the outback access to professional help is not always available. WATTLE CREEK demonstrates what could happen if a psychologist was easily accessible. Damien is the ‘everyman’ of the farming community and his struggles are handled extremely sensitively and are spot in in showing the thought process, or rather the lack of thought process, people on the edge possibly go through.
  
  Don’t be put off though, this is not a self-help book, and the story is not a depressing read; if you will pardon the pun. There is a lot of joy and laughter and, of course, the romance. Watching the city girl getting drunk on her first Friday night in town with the girls, dealing with a boss who thinks women should stay at home and nurture the men, and learning how to fit in a community are all portrayed well. Like any community Wattle Creek has a variety of characters that might fight like cat and dog during the day – but when danger threatens they all pull together. And anyone who has been to a CWA afternoon tea will understand the vast array of food that is available there. Special mention needs to go to the smallest character – Squish. Anyone who has a Jack Russell in their life will relate to this little dog, and anyone who needs a friend who is always willing to listen needs one of these in their life – or any dog!!
  
  WATTLE CREEK deals very well with how depression affects those who work and live in the land. And Fiona McCallum has dedicated it “…to all those who have suffered depression and will suffer depression in the future: a problem shared is a problem halved…” and given a list of web addresses and organisations for those who think they need help to contact, including:
  www.beyondblue.org.au/
  
• 
  Steve

  3.5 stars. While the first half of this book grabbed me and made it very easy to get into, and incredibly hard to put down, it seemed to lose its way about half way through. Some of the plot twists were rather out of left field, but the most jarring thing for me was the abrupt changes characters would go through for the sake of the story, which rather disappointed me. I think I may have to keep my eye out for more work by this author.
• 
  Kathy

  As I think I have mentioned before, I do tend to avoid the rural lit’s a bit only because I also live on the land and sometimes find I just cannot read more about the land and prefer to venture elsewhere on my reads! But I must say that I have come to really like Fiona MacCallum - she is a very talented writer that I enjoy and if you like the rural reads and haven’t tried any of Fiona’s books before, I do recommend. I did enjoy her previous novel Nowhere Else a little better though – this one was a bit slower paced. This one delves into the emotional issue of rural men and the high rate of suicide between 25 & 45 as we follow Damien through his journey – there is also the pretty young psychologist with her own drama’s that has moved from the city to the country also - will say no more…… If you like the rural Australian reads that seem to be becoming extremely popular, this is a good one!
• 
  Meegz Reads

  ARC kindly provided in exchange for honest review.
  
  Initial thoughts - this one might take a while to get into.
  
  50% - Still not the best writing style, or maybe I should say not the writing style I like the most. Is anything remotely interesting going to happen in this book?
  
  60-65% - All of a sudden they're in love? Wait, what?!? The storyline is too jumpy in this one.
  
  90% - Some good things happening but there's still no proper structure or exploration for some of the things happening in the story.
  
  100% - Abrupt ending but good gestures from the townspeople showing the true country spirit in Aus.
  
  Overall this one wasn't my kind of novel. The story jumped too much and I felt that Damien and Jacqueline didn't have enough interaction to all of a sudden be in love in the way they were. The idea of the story is a great, its just not my kind of writing style.
• 
  Lauren K

  Although this book turned up unexpectedly for review, i was excited to review it as i’ve become a big fan of rural lit. I also share the same profession as the protagonist, Jacqueline Havelock, a young psychologist.
  
  Jacqueline moves to Wattle Creek for a twelve month contract as a private psychologist in the local medical practice. She is immediately intrigued by one of her first patients, Damien a shy farmer with depression. Jacqueline works hard to fight the barriers of people seeking professional help in this rural town and develops a close friendship with the elderly widow Ethel who lives across the road and takes on Jacqueline as a project to infiltrate her in the town.
  
  Unfortunately I did have some issues with the plot in this story. It was a little slow, I know it was character-driven, but I didn’t really feel like I ever knew Jacqueline very well, though Damien seemed well developed.
  
  But the biggest issue for me (and maybe I’m a little biased here on this area!) was Jacqueline’s role as a psychologist. She had some serious boundary issues and some of her behaviour was quite unethical. One major no, no, that is drummed into psych students throughout their 6 years or so of training is to NEVER have a sexual relationship with a client. Although Jacqueline and Damien’s relationship didn’t become physically intimate until therapy was finished, she certainly crossed the boundaries when she was his psychologist. Firstly, she turned up at his home with his Aunt when he missed his second or third appointment= breach of confidentiality and not within her role as a private psych. Then telling him that she is not just his psychologist, but also his friend=also a no no. She also asked locals about his personal life= need I say no, no? They began to develop a friendship where it was obvious that they were both attracted to each other, yet she still encouraged him to come and see her professionally. This made it difficult for me as a reader to be vested in the romantic relationship between these two characters. The reason there shouldn’t be a personal relationship between client and therapist is because the therapist is in a position of authority and the client is vulnerable. There is a clear power imbalance. The therapeutic relationship is emotionally intimate and the therapist’s role is to provide an environment of trust and safety. In some ways I felt Damien was manipulated because of Jacqueline’s feelings for him and I don’t think it was really clear how he felt about her separate to how she helped him professionally. Maybe I’m harping on a bit but I just found it quite unrealistic and silly that Jacqueline thought once he was ‘fixed’ she could just start dating him a week later. If memory serves me correctly, a psychologist can’t have a personal relationship with a client (preferably ever) until at least 2 years have passed.
  
  Anyway, despite all these issues I think if the ethical conflicts were captured in the story and actually used within the plot or if they had quit therapy after one session and then developed a friendship then the storyline would have been more believable.
  
  Despite my reservations about the protagonist, I did feel the author captured Damien’s emotional state early in the book quite well and also his hesitation in seeking professional help. I felt that he did grow and develop some skills to cope with the circumstances and got a better grasp on his ambitions in life.
  
  Aside from my issue with how the protagonist’s profession was managed, I did enjoy the story when I ignored these aspects and thought Wattle Creek was a sweet story about two different people relying on each other in a small country town and trying to find their place in the world. I do also have Paycheque by Fiona McCallum sitting on my TBR shelf and I intend to read this for the AWW2012 challenge- so I haven’t ruled this author out just yet.
  
• 
  Bookish Enchantment (Katherine Quirke)

  I would give this book 3.5 stars but the fact that I think this writer needs a thesaurus stops me. She uses the same descriptive of "steaming" far far too much for me and made me want to scream. Other than that the story was very good. Covering people in a country town was interesting and a good and enjoyable read. I can only hope that the books this writer published after this one developed in style.
• 
  Angela Maher

  3.5 * A good Aussie tale, which is an easy read, despite touching on some very deep and serious issues. It's good to see those issues addressed in a respectful manner, although the solution for the male main character was too quick and easy to be fully plausible. A more realistic portrayal would have dampened the lighter moments and lengthened the book considerably, however.
  If you enjoy rural tales, you will like this book.
• 
  Bettina

  Liked how the author discussed depression in rural areas in depth and also gave us an insight into the psychologists view point too. Depression is a common illness that a lot of people are not aware of.
• 
  Anne Cassar

  Story about life in a country town, relationships & nature of small towns where everyone knows each others business but where underlying issues depression etc go unnoticed and unattended.
  Predictable ending but enjoyed the characters and issues raised of loneliness and isolation
• 
  Caroline

  Just kept reading, ignored the family!
• 
  Amanda - Mrs B's Book Reviews

  *3.5 stars
  Read in preparation for the sequel and McCallum's latest book, Standing Strong.
• 
  Tim Arundell

  Fiona McCallum highlighted the benefit of psychologists through the young psychologist Jacqueline moving to a country town that had never had a psychologist there before. Her early patient Damien benefitted greatly by sharing some of his personal problems and as they got to know each other in the community they actually fell in love and made each other’s life so meaningful and happy. Their parents also benefitted from their relationship.
• 
  Maria

  I plodded along through the first few chapters wondering when it would get exciting. Finally it did! I ended up crying at one point, (onions of course......) and found it endearing. Looking forward to reading the next book after this one.
• 
  Wendy Forsyth

  This is a holiday read, a little corny and predictable. I almost gave up on this novel in the first half. The plot was slowly going nowhere. But the second half was a big improvement and I look forward to sourcing the sequel to it, 'Standing Strong'.
• 
  Maddy Smith

  all wraped up in a nice little bow.
• 
  Sherryle

  Another great story. Thanks Fiona x
• 
  Rowlie

  I really enjoyed this book. I really have enjoyed reading these outback romance books since discovering several writers in the last year.
• 
  Sandra

  I'd say this was more a 3.5 star book. I enjoyed it and liked the characters way more than the last of her books Kos that I read - Leap of Faith.
• 
  Chrystal Hansen

  Found this book terribly predictable but the story was great and the subject matter respectfully spoken of. Looking forward to more from Fiona McCallum
• 
  Barbara Bosher

  Another great novel by Fiona McCallum, I didn’t want to put down.
• 
  Suzanne

  Loved this book. It was a good easy read. I loved the characters and the storyline.