After losing her mother to cancer and fighting her own devastating battle with the disease, Joanna Teale needs a distraction.  The 26-year-old graduate student finds it in Southern Illinois' Shawnee Forest, where she spends all her time studying the nesting success of indigo buntings.  Renting a cabin on an isolated stretch of road, she lives a quiet, lonely existence that suits her just fine.

When a young girl appears on Jo's doorstep out of the blue, the busy biologist shoos her away.  The child, who insists she has no Earthly home because she came from the stars, is barefoot and covered in bruises.  In spite of herself, Jo lets the waif in—just until she can decide what to do with her.  The police seem uninterested in a wandering country kid and Jo doesn't see the girl's picture on any Missing Children sites.  Not knowing what else to do, she cares for the odd child, who continues to insist she's an alien sent to Earth to study human beings.  Increasingly concerned about the girl's obviously turbulent home life, Jo enlists the help of Gabe Nash, her handsome, reclusive neighbor, to help her solve the problem of the girl who calls herself Ursa Major.  

The more the adults bond with the special child, the more inclined they are to believe Ursa's crazy origin story.  When the happy bubble Jo, Ursa, and Gabe have created eventually pops, though, they will all be faced with some hard questions.  Who is Ursa Major, really?  Where did she come from?  And how has the strange little girl managed to steal their hearts so completely?

Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a luminous debut novel by endangered bird specialist Glendy Vanderah.  It features an intriguing premise, a cast of likable, sympathetic characters, and a slow-building plot that kept me turning pages nonetheless.  Although the novel deals with some tough subjects, overall it tells a hopeful, touching novel about the power of love in a world that has too little of it.  I enjoyed this lustrous tale and will definitely be watching to see what this talented author does next.

for language (a dozen or so F-bombs, plus milder expletives), violence, sexual content, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received a finished copy of Where the Forest Meets the Stars from the generous folks at Lake Union Publishing via those at TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

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