If The Train Arrives - Heather Fellin Tierney - ★★★★.¼

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AUTHOR: Heather Fellin Tierney
GENRE: Historical Literary Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE: August 26, 2025
RATING: 4.25 stars.


In a Nutshell: A historical literary fiction focussed on three ordinary people and the way their paths cross with each other. Excellently sketched characters, a complex and thought-provoking plot, a realistic ending. Great use of the 1970s small-town Wisconsin setting. An amazing debut! Much recommended to lit fic lovers.


Plot Preview:
1970. Every morning, one train leaves from Minneapolis to Chicago via Milwaukee. One small stop it makes is at the tiny station of Oconomowoc in Wisconsin.
Lincoln is a forty-year-old ticket agent at the Oconomowoc train station. Though it has been many years since his wife left him, he still struggles to move beyond.
Vera is a teenager determined to look for someone from her past. She is gearing up for her first ever train journey, boarding at Oconomowoc and going to Chicago.
Violet, a single woman in her fifties, has only one major regret from her past, and she hopes that this journey from Minneapolis can help her set right a mistake she made many years ago.
We hear from these three characters’ third-person perspectives, and see what drives them ahead on this ordinary day.


The storyline is much more intricate than what I have written above, but it is best to go into this novel blind. Keeping my review somewhat vague for this very reason.


Bookish Yays:
🚆 The main characters. Layered, somewhat grey at times, very realistic throughout.

🚆 The age range of the key characters, going from teen to eighty-somethings. Each character sound age-appropriate.

🚆 The interconnections across the characters, actual as well as metaphorical. All three are lonely, all have lost people from their past, and all are on some kind of redemptive path, whether they realise it or not.

🚆 The writing. Beautiful without being purple, focussed without being boring, and dramatic without going over the top. Excellent!

🚆 The character-oriented storytelling – effective without compromising on the plot development.

🚆 The setting of Oconomowoc and the nearby areas. I struggled a bit with the geography, but that’s not the book’s fault. It makes great use of the place and time.

🚆 The 1970s feel, whether through clothes or behaviour or attitudes or pop culture references. Very true to life!

🚆 The depiction of Lincoln’s neurodivergence without using that particular term. The diagnosis and approach is kept appropriate to the 1970s.

🚆 The incorporation of the flashbacks within the narrative. Though a tad tricky at times to follow, most are scripted in a really clever manner. I love how they smartly unfurl little details that gain relevance later in the plot.

🚆 The myriad journeys in the book, ranging from actual travel to emotional sojourns. The titular ‘train’ can be interpreted as literal as well as metaphorical.

🚆 Despite the character-oriented approach, the story is quite steady-paced. For just about 240 pages, the book packs in quite a lot.

🚆 The stunning cover – apt for the book, though you’ll realise the avian connection only on reading the book.


Bookish Mixed Bags:
🚂 Too many secrets at the start. This adds to the suspense but the style of keeping the secret wasn’t too convincing at times. It felt forced rather than genuine. This was the only major negative for me.

🚂 Two main characters with names beginning from V - Vera and Violet. I muddled the two many times even though the names and the characters were so different.

🚂 The ending – really smart, but also a bit too complex, especially with all the interconnections.


Overall, I relished this reading experience. It has been many months since I have been so gripped by a novel that I simply didn’t want to keep it aside. Given a chance, I would have read this book from start to end without interruptions. The character development and the writing deserve praise. 

For a debut novel, this hits most of the right targets. I would love to read more by this talented indie author. 

Definitely recommended to readers who enjoy character-oriented fiction. This isn't for those who seek instant gratification at airplane speeds, but to those who savour the chugga-chug-chug of a train and enjoy the view while it moves ahead.

My thanks to author Heather Fellin Tierney and Vine Leaves Press for providing a complimentary copy of “If The Train Arrives” via BookSirens at my request. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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