This is another fabulous story from Aussies author Meredith Appleyard, her characters are so very easy to like and she opens so many emotions this one is heart-felt and heartwarming, when fifty eight year old Beth arrives home to the small town of Miner’s Ridge after her marriage of fifteen years falls apart dreadfully her life changes so much when her mother has a stoke and Beth finds herself with the help of her father caring for the mother she never had a close relationship with.

Her mother dies soon after and Beth is left thinking about her past and all of the things that happened when she was a very young sixteen year old but she is determined to move forward and takes on her mother’s role on the committee for the local town hall she forms new friendships and renewed others, but she is still not settling into her new life really well.

While researching the history of the town hall Beth discovers secrets that her mother has kept and her own past life is haunting her, is it time to look back at what happened or should she let the past stay in the past and will she ever find the happiness that she does deserve?

This is a lovely story that I highly recommend, it is moving and emotional I thought Beth was wonderful she had been through so much and there are some fabulous characters in this one, one not to be missed.

My thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy to read and review.

An unforgettable heartfelt story of family and friends and becoming your true self. I enjoyed the relationships and getting to know Beth and her deepest feelings. Meredith writes great stories from the heart and I love that her characters are always older generations. Love love love.

This was the first novel by Meredith Appleyard I have read and enjoyed the small town setting.

I enjoyed the sense of community that was portrayed in the story.

I struggled a little to connect with the character of Beth, I found it hard reconciling her age with her actions and behaviour.

As a new to me author I am interested to read her previous and any upcoming novels.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for gifting me this book to read and review.

Meredith Appleyard writes amazingly heartfelt stories, with a message and all the feels! Becoming Beth is a wonderful book about starting to live and not just exist, rediscovering your happiness!
Beth returns to her home, to mourn her mother’s passing and her failed marriage. Beth becomes involved in the community, helping others, her father and in turn, finding out some truths her mother kept hidden!
As Beth uncovers family and community secrets, she undoubtedly finds her own part
and place within the town.
A perfect storyline that reveals friendships and truths, whilst also finding where you belong. The emotions of forgiveness and acceptance give the reader plenty to consider!

Thanks so much to the publisher, NetGalley and wonderful author for the opportunity to read this very special book.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

In her 50s, Beth finds herself single and grieving the loss of both her marriage and her mother. After moving back in with her father in her old hoemtown, she starts to deal with the secrets from her past that she kept hidden and finds out who she is.
A great read

Beth has returned home, and at present is living with her elderly Dad, after the death of her mother. Becoming Beth by Meredith Appleyard begins languidly in the post pandemic era in Miner's Ridge, Australia. It presents Beth in a bit of a rut, her marriage has fallen through, her husband left her for a younger man and now divorced, Beth is forced to start asking herself a few questions.

She slowly finds herself becoming a part of the local community and makes some good friends. On the town hall committee she becomes part of a hard working team who want to keep the town hall alive so that it can be used by the community. It needs a new roof and that means a lot of fund raising.

Beth has a back story that eats away at her and it feels to her that there is at present no resolution. Step by step though she is facing it and finding the ability to share about it with some significant people.  She begins to pick up her life again, finding purpose in some work and the possibility of a new relationship.

I liked the characters, although not really Beth's mother, even though at the opening of the book she has died. It is her part that has been at the root of difficult situations. Beth's dad though is someone special.

Beth is on her way to finding her feet again, I did feel the book ends rather abruptly, I felt it could have been rounded out a little more but that's probably a debatable point.

“Rudderless, I drifted through the days. There was no other way to describe it. Reflecting on the past was something I’d always meticulously avoided, and I couldn’t conjure any energy to contemplate the future.”

Becoming Beth is the seventh novel by Australian author, Meredith Appleyard. In the late autumn of 2020, Beth Harkness has been back in her rural South Australian hometown of Miners Ridge for some months. Her return was prompted by the split with her husband of fifteen years, but it put her in place to help out when her mother had a stroke.

Some six weeks after Marian Harkness has died, Beth is looking out for her beloved but very independent dad, Alan, and filling a vacant spot on the town hall committee, just to keep herself busy and useful. When her husband left her for a younger man, she quit her job and has not seriously looked for anything else. Instead she’s helping out a widow on the committee with transport and chores. Beth finds Shirley Schubert a lot easier to talk to than her mother ever was.

Her relationship with Marian was always fraught, and Beth has been avoiding sorting out her mother’s things. When she eventually begins, she learns that while her mother was a powerhouse for attracting funding and getting things done, she wasn’t universally popular in town. Efficient, but not empathetic, as Beth well knew from her youth.

When the town hall committee needs Marian’s documents for a new roof campaign, a search of her laptop yields a timebomb: an unwelcome reminder of something she’d rather avoid. “I could bury an unpleasant experience so deep as to almost forget it’d ever happened. Unsurpassed self-deception: now that was one of my strengths.”

At the same time, Committee meetings mean encounters with someone from her past: Ashton Tiller, now a local high school teacher, is the twin brother of the boy on whom Beth had a secret crush. Ash seems to be the polar opposite of Richard, considerate and kind, and is also dealing with elderly parents and their problems. He and Beth can certainly relate, but Ash has his own emotional baggage, and a nuisance female colleague to diplomatically deter.

This is a novel that will strike a chord with readers of a certain vintage: those with ageing parents succumbing to dementia and/or physical deterioration, those caring for grandchildren, and those facing their own issues of work-life balance, unexpected redundancy and seeking employment at a mature age. Not to mention frustration with their own ageing bodies.

Appleyard’s protagonist might initially not endear herself to the reader: a bit “poor me” and sometimes a little uncharitable and judgemental, for which she soon enough admonishes herself when she learns the true situations of the objects of her criticism. But it is satisfying to see her gradually woven into the fabric of the Miners Ridge community.

We could all wish for a wise and kind father like Beth’s, though: “Beth, you have not and never could disappoint me. Life is difficult and full of challenges. We end up doing some things for all the wrong reasons. We make mistakes. The trick is to learn from them and move on. Forgive others, and forgive yourself.”

Appleyard renders her setting and era with consummate ease. Miners Ridge and its residents could be any small Australian rural town. She gives them plenty of wise words and insightful observations. And she seamlessly and realistically incorporates the COVID spectre into her tale, without allowing it to cast a pall.

The story explores the long-term damage that can be done by a parent who thrusts their own unrealised ambition and expectations onto their child, and saddles them with their disappointment at perceived failure. It also emphasises how unhealthy repressed emotions can be. A moving and thought-provoking read.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Harlequin Australia.

Beth returns home to Miners Ridge after her marriage ended. Not long after her return her mother dies and Beth stays in the family home with her father. Beth clears out her mother’s emails and computer files and discovers family secrets.
When Beth’s mother’s sister Heather comes to stay Beth is forced to remember things she would prefer to forget.
This was about families, grief, secrets and identity. I loved the way Beth took over her mother’s roles in the local community as she tried to unravel her mother’s secret.

Another great read by this author and one I thoroughly enjoyed. This is a story about family, about finding yourself and what your life means. It is about trauma, secrets and finding out about the past.

Beth is a wonderful character for this book and has been well thought out as is the whole story. It is a heart-warming story about Beth finding herself and her own life even though it is through the history of her mother and what happened in the past.

This is an emotional read that will make you smile and frown, you will immerse yourself in the community and the friendships made. I love the small town setting as it is perfect for this book. So much of this book is true to life and that is why you can connect to it. I think that is what the author wants us to do, connect with the story and the characters and she has succeeded.

Great book by a great author.

Told from Beth's point of view, Becoming Beth is her own journey of self-discovery. Set in the small Australian town of Miner’s Ridge, this is an emotionally engaging story that I found both intriguing and captivating. I loved the characters, particularly Beth, who has lived under her mother’s domineering shadow for he whole life. As the weeks progress following her mother’s death, we get to see Beth’s own personality beginnings to shine, rather like watching a butterfly emerge from a chrysalis. The story is beautifully told and was a delight to read.

‘It had been a filthy day. Hot, even for mid-November.’

When her marriage broke down, fifty-eight-year-old Beth returned to her parents’ home in the small South Australian town of Miner’s Ridge. Shortly after her return, Beth’s mother Marian suffered a series of strokes. Beth and her father Alan nursed Marian until her death, and Beth stayed on unsure of what she wanted to do next. Yes, Beth was busy enough: helping her elderly father and becoming involved in the local town hall committee. But what did Beth want from life?

Returning to her childhood home meant that Beth had to confront her memories of the past, as well as facing the fact that her mother, while a supreme organiser, was not well liked. Beth makes new friends amongst the community and becomes involved in raising funds for the new roof the town hall desperately needs. However, as she sorts through her mother’s belongings, Beth is overwhelmed by both her own secrets and her mother’s. And when her aunt moves in, providing her father with companionship closer to his own age, Beth needs to work out how to establish her own life. Is a new start possible?

I enjoyed this novel, with its depiction of life in a small community where everyone knows most of everyone else’s business (and is happy to speculate where they don’t). Beth is not the only person within the community dealing with marriage breakdown, family secrets and ageing parents. There are some lovely characters in this novel, particularly Shirley, Lucy, Alan and Ashton. I finished the story imagining a much happier future for Beth (as well as for several other characters).

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

I love Meredith Appleyard’s books, there is something so comforting about them.
Beth has returned home to the place she grew up after her marriage fell apart, she ended up helping her father nurse her mother after she had a stroke and passed away and now she’s finding it hard to move on….especially as some secrets are being revealed.
This book has a slight melancholy feel to it but I really feel that’s just real life.
I loved the relationship Beth had with her father and all in all this book had such a great sense of time and place, it really was just like I was there listening to everyone and everything.
Some great secondary characters which really make the book.
Highly recommended and thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy to read.

EXCERPT: My laptop sat on the kitchen table where I'd left it. I eyed it with apprehension. How should I respond to Andrew's email? You'd think in the five hours I'd tossed and turned in bed thinking about it, I would have come up with something. But no, I still hadn't moved past the bit about Andrew casting me adrift in favour of a man called Rodney.

How had I missed that about my husband? The person I'd shared a home and a bed with for fifteen years. Was I stupid or what? Had there been subtle hints along the way that had slipped right by me? Obviously. Blind and clueless, that was me.

What was even worse was when I'd discovered that a few of our friends, who were also work colleagues, had worked it out. It also explained why, towards the end, I'd sometimes catch them watching me with a strange mix of compassion and bemusement. Stupid, clueless Beth.

Tears burned at the back of my throat. I sniffed, loud and unladylike. Would the shame ever go away? Thank God I'd had Mum and Dad and Miners Ridge to retreat to.

ABOUT 'BECOMING BETH': Since adolescence, 58-year-old Beth has lived her life with blinkers on, repressing the memory of a teenage trauma. Her mother, Marian, took control of that situation, and of all else in their family life - and as much as she could in the small town of Miner's Ridge as well.

Now Marian is dead, and Beth, unemployed and in the middle of a humiliating divorce, is living with her gentle-hearted father in the family home. Beth feels obliged to take over her mother's involvement in the local town hall committee, which becomes a source of new friendships, old friendships renewed, and a considerable amount of aggravation.

Researching town hall history, Beth finds photographs that show Marian in a surprising light; sorting through Marian's belongings, she realises that her mother has left a trail of landmines, cruel revelations that knock the feet out from under her supposed nearest and dearest. Beth struggles to emerge from the ensuing emotional chaos ... in middle age, can she really start anew?

MY THOUGHTS: I'm always excited by the appearance of a new Meredith Appleyard novel, and Becoming Beth doesn't disappoint.

'Life is difficult and full of challenges. We end up doing some things for all the wrong reasons. We make mistakes. The trick is to learn from them and move on. Forgive others and forgive yourself.'

Becoming Beth is an emotional and, at times, heartbreaking story of a woman in emotional turmoil following the breakdown of her marriage and the death of her mother.

Beth's relationship with her mother had never been an easy one. Beth feels like she has never measured up to her mother's expectations, and now Marian has died, still disappointed in her daughter.

Beth has carried around her secret for all her life. She has never shared it with anyone, not even Andrew. As far as she is aware that secret was kept between herself, her mother and her mother's sister. Now, nearing sixty, her life in freefall, Beth is discovering that her mother wasn't the woman she'd always thought her to be.

Is this just another burden for Beth to bear? Or will it finally set her free to find her own place in life?

I loved this story of an older woman's 'coming of age'. This is a story of family secrets, set in a small South Australian town. It's also a story of kindness and friendship and community spirit. Meredith Appleyard excels at this genre, and I read this in a day, invested in Beth's dilemma.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.1

I: #meredithappleyard @harlequinaus

T: #MeredithAppleyard @HarlequinAUS

#australianfiction #contemporaryfiction #familydrama #romance #sliceoflife

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: I was born and raised in a farming community in the Murray Mallee region of rural South Australia, and my heart will always be in the country, and when I’m not physically there, I yearn to return. These days home is the Clare Valley wine-growing region in South Australia.

Before following my dream to become a writer, a career as a registered nurse gave me the opportunity to experience many country health practice settings – lots of ideas and inspiration!

My ongoing fascination with the complexities of small country communities, the characters I’ve met and the experiences I’ve had, are all reflected in the novels I’ve written, and the ones I’m planning.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harlequin Australia, HQ and MIRA via Netgalley for providing a digital ARC of All About Ella by Meredith Appleyard for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review is also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

When Beth arrived home to the small town of Miner's Ridge after her marriage imploded, she was distraught. She stayed with her elderly mother and father, both in their eighties, but when her mother, Marian, suffered a stroke, Beth and her dad cared for her until she died. The two events coming close together saw Beth at a crossroad - having quit her job in Adelaide when she left, there was no job, no marriage and no mother. She loved her gentle natured dad and was happy to live in the old home, making sure he was alright, as he pottered around his vegetable garden, which he loved.

When Beth half-heartedly joined the town hall committee, following in her mother's footsteps wasn't her thoughts at all. But gradually she became friendly with the local women and it wasn't too long before she felt at home. She assisted the elderly Shirley when she broke her wrist, supported Lucy who was a struggling hairdresser, and helped with the fundraising to put a new roof on the town hall. But Beth had secrets that she'd hidden for over forty years and they were a burden. She couldn't find her way out of the mire she was in - had no idea where her life was going...

Becoming Beth by Aussie author Meredith Appleyard is a heartwarming, but heartbreaking story of emotional struggles, of aging without a compass and with finding oneself amid what life throws at you. Most of the main characters were in their late fifties and early sixties and I was immersed in the turmoil that was worked through. Set near the beautiful South Australian wine region not far from Clare, the journey through what is fairly familiar country was satisfying. Highly recommended.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my digital ARC to read in exchange for an honest review.

Beth returns home to Miners Ridge when her husband informs her he’s met someone else, around the same time her mum Marian suffers a series of strokes, and she stays to help her dad Alan look after her mum. Sadly Marian passes away, Beth remains living with her dad, and he’s in his eighties and needs her support. At fifty-eight Beth has lost her mother, husband, house, job, and confidence.

Marian was a member of the town hall committee, Beth decides to attend the meetings in her place and see if she can help. Like most country towns, the hall was the venue for school concerts, Christmas parties and wedding receptions. Unfortunately the hall isn’t used as much as it once was, it needs major repairs and the roof is leaking. Beth knows some of the members of the committee, others are new people to the area and it’s a real mixed group of personalities. Everybody has ideas of what needs to be done to bring the hall back to it’s former glory and how to raise the money, and they don’t always agree and the meetings can get rather tense. Beth becomes friends and is reacquainted with members, Mrs. Shirley Schubert, the new hairdresser in town Lucy Colac and the school principal Mr. Ashton Tiller.

With her father’s permission, Beth starts going through her mother’s possessions, she’s looking for information about the history of the town hall, she’s shocked when she discovers her mother has been keeping secrets, and it triggers memories of a really traumatic time in Beth’s life.

I received a copy of Becoming Beth from NetGalley and Harlequin Australia in exchange for an honest review. I always enjoy reading Meredith Appleyards’s books, she has the gift of making you care about the characters in the narrative and I certainly felt this way about Beth.

The story revolves around the main character Beth, her complicated relationships, the outcome of her mother making poor decisions and how it effects her loved ones years later, regret, and how important it is do deal with the pain of the past. Beth learns a lot about herself in the process, she changes her mind set and is open to the possibilities of what the future holds for her. Five stars from me, I love stories set in small country towns, and this one is a real beauty.