Walland


Fiction - Chick Lit
240 Pages
Reviewed on 04/02/2017
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite

India Evans had everything she could ever have dreamed of. A fantastic job on one of the nation’s highest ranking television new shows. A gorgeous fiancé who even exceeded her notoriety. They were the beautiful couple followed by an adoring audience who shared in the plans for the wedding of the century. But in the face of a potentially fatal flight, Jack proved himself as the narcissist that she had tried so hard to overlook. Jack was not the man for her. Making an unfortunate public announcement that her decision to marry him was a monumental mistake, India finds herself picking up the pieces on a much needed retreat with her college roommate. When Julia Haupt has to renege in a last minute decision to care for her sick daughter, India discovers that maybe it is for best to take this time alone to heal. Little does she expect to fall helplessly and hopelessly in love with one of the guest photography instructors, making her question her life’s plan.

Rarely does a novel provoke the ear to ear smile that I found forming with every word I read by author Andrea Thome. As India fights to maintain any sense of decorum, the reader is lulled deeper into the realities of love at first sight. Between the obvious attraction between the main characters and the magical setting of the story, this book is certain to remain firmly in the reader’s mind. A surprising first novel by a former broadcast journalist and amateur photographer, Walland is a sensitive, tightly written story of love and discovery with the flair of a seasoned author. This is a beautifully told story and I am so glad to have read it.

Jack Magnus

Walland is a chick lit fiction novel written by Andrea Thome. India Evans was getting over a disastrous breakup when she and her friend Julia arranged to meet up in Tennessee where they would be spending a girls’ week together at the famed Blackberry Farm in Tennessee. The thick layer of snow on the ground at LaGuardia Airport in New York had her seriously reconsidering the wisdom of this trip, but realizing that Julia had made a special effort to be there for her and would be on her own otherwise, made her keep to her travel plans. India had become understandably nervous about flying after a disastrous flight she and her at-the-time fiance were taking out of Iceland. When the flight attendants actually buckled themselves in, announced that the plane had depressurized and instructed the passengers to don their oxygen masks, India was, like most of the other passengers, in a bit of a panic. When she turned to her fiance, however, she was stunned to see that he was tweeting the situation to his thousands of followers. Granted, they were a celebrity super-couple, she an anchorwoman and he a beloved meteorologist, but his behavior during that flight soured her feelings towards him. How could she have fallen for such a shallow man? India was frozen into inactivity by the publicity and their superstar status and delayed acting until the last minute. When she turned him down on their wedding day, he used that rejection to get even more coverage. She became a reviled woman, and her bosses had actually demanded she take some time off to let things cool down. This trip was her cool-down. When she arrived at the Nashville airport, she was greeted by a number of text messages from Julia, who was begging out due to a sick child. India was at a total loss, but then she met him. He was impossibly good-looking and just happened to be driving her way. And while she was definitely not interested in another relationship, he was not at all hard to look at.

Andrea Thome’s contemporary romance novel, Walland, is a heartwarming and lovely tale about second chances and the risks one just has to take to be truly alive. As I read this tale, I began to wish I could visit Blackberry Farm myself. It sounded like a marvelous place to stay or even get a job at. Wyatt and India are compelling and believable main characters who each have to overcome painful pasts and learn to trust again. Their romance is beautifully poignant as they have to deal with the fact that India is there for only a week and will be going back to New York City when it’s over. Thome gives the reader a real sense of what the natural environment is like in that part of the United States, and her own professional experience as a photographer makes that aspect of the story also feel authentic. Can you fall in love in a day or two, or a week? Wyatt and India’s experiences seem to indicate that it may just be possible, even if that week does fly by extraordinarily quickly. Walland is highly recommended.