Devoted readers of Leila Meacham will devour this long, juicy page-turner. TUMBLEWEEDS is the story of three young friends-the saint, the sinner, and the angel-growing up together in the sort of small Texas Panhandle town that lives and dies by its Friday night football games. A fateful event casts a long shadow over these three intertwined lives and leaves the reader turning the pages desperately to see how it all plays out.

Recently orphaned, 11-year-old Cathy Benson feels she has been dropped into a cultural wasteland when she moves to a small Texas town where the sport of football reigns supreme. She is quickly taken under the unlikely wings of up-and-coming gridiron stars and classmates, orphans like herself.