Glendy Vanderah

Glenda Vanderah - amazing writer. She is a thoughtful, precise wordsmith who weaves thoughts into a painting of relationships blended into nature. She is a spinner of images, she is a story teller extraordinaire. This is a complicated story with diverse and interesting characters and personalities and switchbacks between them. We are told that there is magic and bits of stars in the dirt and it translates into the stories - you can smell it and see it. “The sky was a deep drink or black show more cola, an effervescence of stars that tingled all the way down.”

Vanderah writes about damaged people. She writes about abuse and neglect but also about support and kindness. She swivels the mirror from the the ugliness to the beauty and back again. She never lets the reader forget that there are damaged people who are trying to heal and find their way. Much of the backstory is about the abusers and the protectors who propel those in the here and now to perfect their cover. There is an “age-old battle of good and evil” that persists throughout the story.

This story is so well conceived, plotted, planned and executed the hurt is all the more powerful. Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for a copy. show less

A girl called Ursa Major, a dog called Ursa Minor, an ornithologist and an egg-seller… together they form, not a family, but a family grouping bound by those curious feelings that just might be love. The girl—a runaway perhaps, or an alien as she claims—is here to find five miracles. The woman needs a miracle to heal her wounded heart and body. And the man lives safely sealed away from anything miraculous. But those quarks just might have their way.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a show more story of nature, love and forgiveness, tinged with teeth and claws not entirely natural, and flavored with hope. The child just might be an alien after all. But human mysteries are as deep as her alien ones. Kittens and dogs, birds and insects, marriages broken and whole, all combine to reveal that the best intentions can go awry, the worst intentions can be thwarted, and the in-between can be healed.

Eventually, love hides in the in-betweens, and the beauty of this story is its revelation of love, somewhere between the forest and stars.

Disclosure: I got this book on a deal and couldn’t stop reading it once I’d started. show less

Every once in a while a book comes along that is simply the perfect read for you at that moment. Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah was such a book for me. The enchanting story of how a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again totally captivated me.

Jo is a recovering cancer patient, she is also recovering from losing her mother to the same disease and adjusting to her new body after having a double mastectomy as well as her ovaries removed. She is show more spending the summer doing her graduate research on nesting birds in a remote corner of southern Illinois. She is at first annoyed when her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a little girl who arrives barefoot and covered in bruises. The girl calls herself Ursa and claims that she is an alien who has come to Earth and must experience five miracles before she can leave. Slowly Ursa wriggles into Jo’s life and all her efforts to find out more about the child prove fruitless. She and Ursa do meet the neighbour, Gabriel Nash, who is helping his invalid mother and recovering himself from a bout with depression. Jo, Ursa and Gabriel bond together but Ursa’s dangerous past suddenly changes everything.

I found Where the Forest Meets the Stars to be an emotional, heart warming, and poignant story. I was a little worried that it would be a little too sweet but the author used humor to keep that from happening. This debut novel was a delightful surprise that would have been a five star read except that I had a few concerns over how Gabriel’s depression was treated. show less

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah has an engaging premise. A young girl wanders from the woods barefoot and bruised into Joanna Teale's world, appearing to be a runaway or escaping from an abusive situation. Single and recently recovered from breast cancer, Jo studies the nesting habits of birds in rural Illinois and is ill equipped to deal with the mysterious girl who refuses to leave.

The young girl calls herself Ursa Major and claims she's an alien in the body of a dead show more girl. Ursa says she's visiting earth to understand humans and she'll only leave after witnessing five miracles.

"By miracles I only mean things that amaze me. When I've seen those five things, I'll go back and tell the stories to my people. It's like getting a PhD and becoming a professor." Page 21

I can sense some readers rolling their eyes right about now, but the author does a stellar job (pun intended) on the dialogue and plot development from this point on. Ursa is incredibly intelligent and Jo reacts sensibly and takes the steps you expect her to. Together with Jo's neighbour Gabriel, the two of them muddle through the awkward and uncertain days that follow as they try to find out where the changeling is from.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah was a birthday gift from family and a five star read, right up until the romance angle became too much. Jo moved too quickly and went too far, and just two words - cutting ties - resulted in the loss of a star from this reader. The passive aggressive kissing scene in front of Gabe's mother didn't sit right with me, nor did Jo's lack of boundary recognition and quick dismissal of Gabe's trauma and depression. Until this point, the entire book had me enthralled and was a clear five star reading experience.

Whether you choose to believe Ursa's story or not, the narrative can be enjoyed both ways and I found myself looking forward to returning to Ursa's world and of course seeing what the miracles - if any -might be.

Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah was a feel good read with a satisfying conclusion. Recommended! show less