Where the Forest Meets the Stars

By: Glendy Vanderah

Narrated by: Lauren Ezzo

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 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.

©2019 by Glendy Vanderah. (P)2018 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Critic reviews

“A heartwarming, magical story about love, loss, and finding family where you least expect it. This touching novel will remind readers of a modern-day The Snow Child.” (Christopher Meades, award-winning author of Hanna Who Fell from the Sky)

“In Where the Forest Meets the Stars, Glendy Vanderah weaves a deft and poignant story with well-drawn characters, including clever Ursa. With an unexpected and heart-racing climax, readers will wait breathlessly to find out what happens. A beautiful story of love, resilience, and the power of second chances.” (Susie Orman Schnall, award-winning author of The Subway Girls)

“A powerful story of the way in which hearts are mended by love, compassion, and everyday miracles. Cleverly plotted and building to an intense crescendo in the final chapters, Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a beautiful and unforgettable debut.” (Julianne MacLean, USA Today best-selling author)

Awesome Story About Love and Redemption

What an amazing novel and to be a debut blows me away. This story is so beautiful and so intense that it will make you cry because it is so nice. Jo is a bird specialist, and it monitoring the nests in a rural southern Illinois area. She is recovering from a serious illness and has recently lost her mother to cancer. She is vulnerable but also very strong. Her neighbor is somewhat of a recluse. She only sees him when he is selling eggs so she calls him ‘egg man.’ One night, a girl appears at the end of the country road leading to the cabin Jo is renting. The girl says she came from the Pinwheel Constellation and she must stay on earth until she sees 5 miracles. The entire story is about love, caring about others, and how sometimes you just have to do the unexpected to get to the best result. The story includes a child’s faith in life and knowing when someone is just perfect for her. It involves accepting yourself as you are even if the world sees you broken, and it involves love and how love can heal the impossible situations and bring about life affirming results. This is a terrific novel. The little girl is a wonder. The adults she has found are confounded by her but do everything they can to keep her safe. I listened to this mostly in audible and enjoyed the voices portrayed by the narrator. Even the constant and annoying, ‘said Jo’ or ‘he said’ or ‘she said’ following the character speaking at the moment could not take away from the joy of reading/listening to this book. I hope the author writes more books. You can be sure I’ll be reading them. Lauren Enzo is perfect as narrator.

captivating

this stunning performance will help you fall in love with each and every character. a true love story.

One annoying problem

The story was good, the performance was good. BUT there are so many other ways to tackle dialogue heavy text that don't involve saying "said" so much. Jo said, Gabe said, Ursa said, the girl said, he said, Ursa said, Ursa said, Ursa said ..... It was distracting!

The writing could use some polishing

The author repeatedly overused the dialogue tag [ "*", ___ said ] and it negatively impacted the flow of the story. By the middle of the story, I was so distracted by the number of times ", ___ said" was repeated I at times couldn't follow the action! Even when a character was asking a question, ", ___ said" was often the chosen dialogue tag. The are so many word choices in the English language, this feels like a primary school mistake. Maybe it wouldn't have been so noticeable if it was read differently? Aside from that, the premise of the story was good but predictable.

Not my favorite

Story was OK. Kept me interested overall. I didn’t care for the performance much, the way she did the dialogue always made everyone sound either angry or whiny.

nice story, cheesy ending, said said said

it was a nice story. the ending became extremely cheesy, so if you want something with happy ending love then it's great. what ruined it for me was the amount of "saids" in the story. if you start noticing it , it will drive you nuts.

Narrator's choices distracting

This was an OK book that kept my interest. I wanted to find out what would happen with the little alien girl who was obviously hiding a pretty big secret. My main complaint was with the narration. The narrator did a fine job of modifying her voice to show the different characters, however her performance of the little girl, Ursa, was hard to listen to. She has the little girl upset much of the time, and when she was upset or not getting her way she whined. It's no fun to listen to kids whine and I feel sure that at least some of time Ursa could have been played as angry, or serious, or frustrated without whining. Nearly drove me to distraction and I almost considered not finishing the book. I suppose it's a testament to the story that I stuck with it, whining and all.

I love how Glenda had me guessing the whole time whether the girl was an alien or not

I love how the writer made you really feel like you were there. All the nature scenes were so real and the characters were all realistic and unique

Could I have a synonym, please?

The story was good but all the 'he saids and she saids' were grating. The writer seriously needs other ways to represent 'said'.

Great story...great narration but...

No need for the constant “he/she/ said. If you do the voices, why the need for specifying the character???