Glendy Vanderah

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.

A heartfelt novel of shedding secrets, facing the past, and embracing the magic of love and family by the Amazon Charts and Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Where the Forest Meets the Stars . After the untimely deaths of her aunt and mother, young Riley Mays moved from Chicago to her cousins’ Wisconsin farm. Here she found solace in caring for her extraordinary adoptive brother, exploring the surrounding wild nature, and gazing at the mystical moon—a private refuge in which she hides from her most painful memories. But ten years later, now twenty-one, Riley feels too confined by the protective walls she’s erected around herself. When a stranger enters her family’s remote world, Riley senses something he’s hiding, a desire to escape that she understands well. Suffering from writer’s block, bestselling novelist Vaughn Orr has taken to the country roads when he happens upon the accommodating, if somewhat unusual, Mays family. He’s soon captivated by their eccentricities—and especially by Riley and her quiet tenacity. In her, he recognizes a shared need to keep heartbreaking secrets buried. As the worst moments of their lives threaten to surface, Riley and Vaughn must find the courage to confront them if they’re to have any hope of a happy future. With the help of Riley’s supportive family, a dash of everyday magic, and the healing power of nature, can the pair let go of the troubled pasts they’ve clung to so tightly for so long?

One unbearable mistake at the edge of the forest. In a moment of crisis, Ellis Abbey leaves her daughter, Viola, unattended—for just a few minutes. But when she returns, Viola is gone. A breaking point in an already fractured marriage, Viola’s abduction causes Ellis to disappear as well—into grief, guilt, and addiction. Convinced she can only do more harm to her family, Ellis leaves her husband and young sons, burying her desperate ache for her children deeper with every step into the mountain wildernesses she treks alone. In a remote area of Washington, a young girl named Raven keeps secrets inside, too. She must never speak to outsiders about how her mother makes miracles spring from the earth, or about her father, whose mysterious presence sometimes frightens her. Raven spends her days learning how to use her rare gifts—and more important, how to hide them. With each lesson comes a warning of what dangers lie in the world beyond her isolated haven. But despite her mother’s cautions, Raven finds herself longing for something more. As Ellis and Raven each confront their powerful longings, their journeys will converge in unexpected and hopeful ways, pulled together by the forces of nature, love, and family.

Po stracie matki i walce z rakiem piersi Joanna wraca do przerwanych studiów i badań nad ptakami. Chce udowodnić światu, że ostatnie trudne przejścia jej nie złamały. Pewnego wieczoru jej rutynę i oswojoną samotność zakłóca tajemnicza dziewczynka. Pojawia się przed jej domem w spodniach od piżamy, bosa i posiniaczona. Ma na imię Ursa. Jak mówi, przybyła z gwiazd, by zrozumieć ludzi i ujrzeć na Ziemi pięć cudów. Joanna pozwala jej zostać, ale tylko do czasu, aż odkryje, kim naprawdę jest mała kosmitka. Nie wierzy przecież w cuda. W rozwikłaniu zagadki pomaga jej Gabriel, młody sąsiad odludek. Im więcej czasu oboje spędzają z uroczą dziewczynką, tym więcej mają pytań. Jak to możliwe, że Ursa nie tylko umie czytać, ale też rozumie Szekspira? Dlaczego w jej obecności przytrafiają im się różne dobre rzeczy? I dlaczego Jo i Gabe przestają w końcu sprawdzać w internecie strony z danymi zaginionych dzieci? Chociaż nawiązała się między nimi głęboka więź, cała trójka wie, że zbliża się czas trudnych decyzji. Kiedy nieubłaganie nadchodzi koniec lata, a Ursa jest już bliska ujrzenia piątego cudu, jej przeszłość ich dogania. Magiczna powieść Glendy Vanderah zachwyca. Jest literacką perełką, przepełnioną nadzieją i miłością, która poruszy serce każdego czytelnika.