Léonie Kelsall: Why I wanted to write about second chances and first loves

The Path Through the Coojong Trees is available online and in store now.

There’s something undeniably potent about the pull of a first love—especially one that ended without real answers, as I guess they do for so many of us. Perhaps it’s because we’re often emotionally immature when we encounter that first love that the lingering ache, the what ifs, and the yearning for closure can haunt us long after the relationship has ended.

In The Path Through the Coojong Trees, I wanted to explore what happens when life doesn’t go to plan. When a love that once promised everything disappears, and you're left not only with heartbreak, but the need to find the quiet strength it takes to rebuild.

Natasha’s journey was inspired by a simple question: How do we ever truly move on when the past hasn’t let us go? The loss of love leaves emotional scars. We can become afraid to care, wary of allowing vulnerability, mistrustful of those who would offer love.

For Natasha, that question is more than emotional—it’s her lived experience. It was her first love who provided hope and grounding and a sense of self-worth; losing that love leaves her mourning not only the man, but the person she believed she was capable of being only with him.

As a single mother, Natasha embodies the grit and hope so many women carry in silence. But that doesn’t make her immune to the longing, the suspicion that perhaps life might have been better if she’d taken another path. I think that is true of anyone who remembers a first love: What could life have been? Time softens painful memories; we cope by letting the hurt recede and the moments of love shine more brightly. It becomes easy to allow ourselves to romanticise that first love and to build a deep yearning for not only the person, but who we were ourselves in that moment.

But I wanted the The Path Through the Coojong Trees to not only be about the heartbreak of first love, but about healing. About how connection can grow in unexpected places, and how love can take root again. I believe in the redemptive power of love—not just romantic love, but the love we grow for ourselves, and for the lives we create from broken beginnings. Sometimes, the bravest thing we can do isn’t just to love again—but to risk opening our heart to someone who once walked away.

Léonie xx