An Amazon Charts, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post bestseller, and a Goodreads Choice Award finalist.
In this gorgeously stunning debut, a mysterious child teaches two strangers how to love and trust again.
After the loss of her mother and her own battle with breast cancer, Joanna Teale returns to her graduate research on nesting birds in rural Illinois, determined to prove that her … rural Illinois, determined to prove that her recent hardships have not broken her. She throws herself into her work from dusk to dawn, until her solitary routine is disrupted by the appearance of a mysterious child who shows up at her cabin barefoot and covered in bruises.
The girl calls herself Ursa, and she claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles. With concerns about the child’s home situation, Jo reluctantly agrees to let her stay—just until she learns more about Ursa’s past.
Jo enlists the help of her reclusive neighbor, Gabriel Nash, to solve the mystery of the charming child. But the more time they spend together, the more questions they have. How does a young girl not only read but understand Shakespeare? Why do good things keep happening in her presence? And why aren’t Jo and Gabe checking the missing children’s website anymore?
Though the three have formed an incredible bond, they know difficult choices must be made. As the summer nears an end and Ursa gets closer to her fifth miracle, her dangerous past closes in. When it finally catches up to them, all of their painful secrets will be forced into the open, and their fates will be left to the stars.
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Is Ursa an alien? Hmmmm, I’m not telling but I can almost guarantee that you’ll want to find out. Interesting characters determined to complicate their lives kept me engaged and eager to know what was going to happen next. I liked it so much I can almost forgive Vanderah for Little Bear.
Delightful story that will keep you guessing about where the child came from until the very end. Well done. Creative and original with likable characters.
This novel has a fascinating premise.
This story drew me in and kept me awake. I could never predict the next thing, and I believed it all. I want more of Ursa!
Favorite Quotes:
As always, words fail when you most want to say the right thing… I’ve decided language isn’t as advanced as we think it is. We’re still apes trying to express our thoughts with grunts while most of what we want to communicate stays locked in our brains.
He was teaching her how to play poker, and they were using oyster crackers as betting chips. “First guns, now gambling,” Jo said. “You’re a bad influence.” “Not for long,” he said. “We can’t stop eating our money.”
And I know what you’ve been through—how it could have …influenced what you did.” Why did everyone think that? She kept her mouth shut, but she wanted to say that she wouldn’t have done anything different if she still had her mother and her breasts and her ovaries. She would love Ursa just as much.
Did she tell you she once snuck a lamb into the hospital? … She knows I love the baby farm animals she works with, so she packs the lamb in her car with its milk, drives up to Chicago, and sneaks it into my room two days after my breasts were removed. She takes this tiny lamb out of a shoulder bag, lays it on my bed, and hands me the bottle. There, she says, who needs tits anyway? There are other ways to give milk.
Before his life fell apart, he’d wanted to be an astrophysicist. He named his daughter Ursa for the Big Bear in the sky, and he’d taught her the names of stars and constellations. When Ursa was afraid of the dark, he would open her window a crack and tell her good magic that fell out of the stars was coming in her window. He said the magic would always keep her safe. After he died, Ursa opened her window wide every night, trying to let in lots of good magic.
My Review:
This captivating book bewitched and enthralled me. I delighted in the unexpected and stealthy hits of clever wit and levity that was surprisingly tucked into the most unexpected places. I gleefully endured the prickling and tauntingly enticing mystery that relentlessly beckoned to me to continue reading and ignore anything and everything beyond the screen of my Kindle.
Ms. Vanderah’s writing was alchemy and I was ensorcelled. I was repeatedly taken with the layered depth of the fascinating and quirky characters as well as the thoughtful creativity of the storylines, which were complex and beautifully textured with cleverly amusing and cringe-worthy details.
I waffled in my theories of whether the girl’s fantastical explanations and alien assertions could be true as she was oddly intelligent and insightful, and far more advanced than many adults in her ability to absorb knowledge or sketch, yet she was a small child with an estimated age of nine. My curiosity was as unabating as Ursa’s quarks. I reveled in this stunning and cunningly crafted tale from beginning to end and was absolutely staggered once aware it was the author’s debut. Glendy Vanderah is definitely one to watch. A Five-Stars rating is not enough by half.
This is a strange book. It starts off as fantasy/science fiction, then turns into romance, then crime novel, and ends as a family drama. The writing is awkward, the characters loosely drawn (how old are they, what do they look like?), yet the story is captivating and easy enough to get drawn into. I only wish the story had stayed more fantastical as the novel seemed to promise in the first chapters.
Where the Forest Meets the Stars is an enchanting novel full of hope and the power of love that will pull at your heartstrings. Perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen.
Where the Forest Meets the Stars is an enchanting novel… Readers will be taken by Glendy Vanderah’s rich and relatable characters and the way in which she weaves their stories together. At its core, Where the Forest Meets the Stars is about having faith, nurturing hope, and trusting your heart above your head, because when you do, miracles are possible.
Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a lovely, surprising, and insightful look at the way bonds are formed — both the ones that we choose and the ones that seem to choose us.
This is a beautiful, touching story with truly original characters. It will be one I’ll remember for a long time and will relish re-reading.
I adored this heartfelt debut by Glendy Vanderah. With the underpinnings of magical realism (with a twist!) and a page-turning family drama, this story had me captivated from the start. Set in rural Illinois and told through the eyes of a curious naturalist, this beautiful tale of overcoming odds to find love and family is one I highly recommend!
A Gem of a Story!
For mature readers
Unusual plot
One criticism:
Rarely, unnecessarily strong language is included. Most of these interjections could have been deleted without even bothering to replace them with euphemisms – the story sequences would have retained their impact.
Some violence:
Warning: a sequence of near-rape is included. It is in no way gratuitous; rather, it is necessary for understanding both the character and her subsequent actions.
Sex: in a loving relationship handled maturely and without undue detail.
Plot-no spoilers:
Seemingly out of nowhere, 9-year-old Ursa dressed only in her pajamas but also bearing bruises shows up at the cabin of an ornithologist (Jo) who is doing her summer fieldwork. Ursa will give no information about herself other than that she’s from another planet. Whenever Jo or her friend Gabe try to get authorities involved, the little girl runs away into the woods again.
Additionally, Ursa never wants to go into town. We readers suspect there’s a reason, and we’re right.
Characters: All are well-developed and believable with both strengths and weaknesses. Even several of the minor ones have clear reasons for their actions.
Highly, highly recommended.
It is to be hoped that author Glendy Vanderah will continue gifting us with her work.
Excellent read! What a terrific debut novel, very impressive in it’s balancing of characters and their emotions. I also found it to be quite realistic – especially in regard to how law enforcement and social workers can become so hardened to their jobs that they lose sight of the forrest for the trees. (excuse the cliche, it fit though, lol.) I’ll be watching for this author’s next novel.