Glendy Vanderah

Jo is a researcher working towards her PhD after taking a break to care for her mother and herself after cancer diagnoses. She lives in a forest cabin, and one night, a young girl comes out of the woods. Jo tells her to go home, but the girl tells a story that she is from the stars. A neighbor, the egg man, Gabe, also falls under the girl's spell, allowing her to spend days on his farm.
They attempt to call the police, and scour sites to see if anyone has reported the girl missing. However, the girl, Ursa, runs each time. She wears them down. There is a secret but Jo and Gabe don't know what the girl is hiding.
This is a story of love, family, fear, and forgiveness. A sweet story.… (more)

Jo(anna) Teale, a graduate student studying ornithology, is spending the summer in rural southern Illinois where she is renting a cabin and furthering her bird studies. One night a young girl arrives outside the cabin, claiming to have arrived from "the stars", in another galaxy. Despite the almost certain impossibility of this story, the girl ("Ursa") is extremely smart and charming, eventually warming Jo's heart. Jo is convinced that Ursa fled an unsafe home situation somewhere nearby, but she's unable to find any information regarding a lost child fitting Ursa's description, and when she tries to contact the police, Ursa flees. Ursa returns, but continues to threaten to run away if the police are contacted again. Jo eventually lets Ursa stay with her while she tries to figure out a solution. Meanwhile, the somewhat eccentric next door neighbor Gabe is also pulled into the mystery of where Ursa came from.

The title and cover art of this book initially sort of pulled me in, but I kind of expected the story to be lukewarm. Enjoyable enough, but not one that I really fell for. However, I was pleasantly surprised. This was really well-written for the most part and as a reader, I honestly was on the fence and went back and forth as to whether Ursa really was or was not from another planet, thinking there was a good chance that there could be a paranormal aspect to this story. I won't allude one way or the other except to say that I felt that the conclusion was satisfying. I liked the character development, though will admit that Jo's character did start to get on my nerves in the latter part of the story. But overall, a good read. I'll certainly look for more of Glendy Vanderah's books.… (more)

I'm not an ornithology nerd I swear but I loved the parts in this book where they just studied about indigo buntings and their nests. I still can't figure out if Ursa is an alien or a human and I think I would prefer it that way. This book also portrayed two characters that grow through their own trauma and honestly, it was so amazing.
Jo's struggles of fitting into the world after her surgery and Gabe's secrets, the way he dealt with them were very heartbreaking and gosh, Ursa broke my heart into pieces. This was a book where I loved all characters- the friend, the lesbian house owner, Gabe, Jo and Ursa. literally everyone. I can't wait to read more of Glendy Vanderah's books.
However, there were a few aspects this story could have done better like Gabe and Jo's chemistry. Though I liked them as characters, I still think they missed chemistry and Jo was a little ignorant of Gabe's issues.… (more)