A powerful book about betrayal, appearances, and teenagers. I could not put down this book, it was part mystery, partly about friendship, and part thriller. The authors words painted a vivid portrait of a missing student, a possibly guilty teacher, and the things that were left behind. Bravo to the author for a wonderful book!

I enjoy this author’s writing and had read “The Vanishing Year” so looked forward to this book. I think it is better than the first and shows more character development which I always look for in a good book.

The premise, however, is not a new one. Teacher in a small town accused of an affair with a student. Set in high school which we can all relate to. A big difference in this story is that Nate Winters is from this town, everyone knows and loves him, especially his students and the kids on the baseball team. He is a great teacher and even better baseball coach. The parents have looked to Nate to help their kids reach their potential and he takes his kids seriously. The kids like him because he cares and lets them know it.

The town is shaken when a student, Lucia, goes missing from class and even her best friend, Taylor, hasn’t seen her. When Lucia is found dead, Nate is accused of her murder. The local press becomes involved, especially since not much goes on in a small town and because someone has shown them a photo taken of Nate and Lucia together.

The story is told from four points of view. Nate Winters the teacher and baseball coach who has been known to get close to his kids, has he gotten a little too close to a particular student? Even his teacher friend Bridget is concerned as she has seen Nate and Lucia together alone in his classroom.

Alicia is Nate’s wife, a stay at home mom to their autistic son. She is somewhat bitter and feels that Nate should spend more time with his son then with his baseball team and star players. She loves Nate and wants to believe him but there are unexplained questions so she remains on the fence for a long period of time.

Bridget is a teacher and widow at Nate’s school. She is friends with Nate and also Alicia and she truly believes that Nate only cares deeply for his students and players. She goes the extra mile for her friend, taking to investigating things on her own. She is the one who will ultimately find Lucia. Does she have enough evidence to clear Nate’s name or is he still a major suspect?

Lucia’s is the final and most engrossing character’s point of view. She has truly had a hardscrabble life, living with an alcoholic father, drug addicted and abusive brother and abandoned by her mother. She had always had her friend Taylor to talk too, but lately that friendship has become tangled with who likes which boy, which boy likes which girl, etc. She relies on her teacher, Nate, when she has no one else to turn to. How much is she willing to give to get his help?

There is lots more going on in this novel but I will let you discover that for yourself. This is a good mystery with some well developed characters. It is well written and will keep you turning pages and I will be watching for Ms. Moretti’s next novel.

Will also post to Amazon upon publication.

This book failed me on all levels. The story is not new, read the papers any day of the week. I felt no empathy for the characters and kept wondering how one group could make so many bad choices, but isn’t that the point being made here. A teacher tries to help but never holds a mirror to his actions and the possible repercussions. A wife chooses her child’s differences over what could be a cohesive family. A troubled teenager decides to share those troubles and in rejection decides destruction works even better. A friend watches, wonders and divines that she and she alone can make sense of the senseless.

Ms. Moretti knows how to write but what she chose to write about just didn’t hold my interest. It was a book I found easy to put down and hard to pick up and finish.

Thank you NetGalley and Atria books for an ARC

This book held me since the scene where Starlings fall from the sky. I liked the questions to ponder at the end. Do things happen for a reason, is it your fate, what you imagine in your mind? Interesting theme of revenge gone wrong. I related with Alecia as a mom wanting her child to be fixed or normal and questioning whether I could have her faith.

Amazingly written and so, so suspenseful. I loved this book!!! Creepy. As. Hell!

This is the first novel I’ve read by Kate Moretti and I look forward to reading more of her work. This book opens at the high school baseball field when a bunch of starlings fall out of the sky. Creepy! Some believe it's an omen of bad things to come, others blame polluted air from the old paper mill. Hmmm?

Nate Winters, a popular teacher and coach is accused of having an affair with one of his students. Told in 4 different points of view, Nate, the teacher that is accused, Alecia his wife and mother to their autistic 5 year old son, Bridgette, a teacher that works with Nate but also a close friend and finally Lucia, the young girl at the center of all the trouble and rumors. Soon after the rumors are out about Nate and Lucia, she disappears. Did Nate cheat? Did he kill Lucia to keep her quiet?

I didn't really connect with Nate and although Alecia seems very bitter and angry, I understood her resentment. There are a lot of secrets in this small town that are slowly revealed. This was a well written, engaging read and I look forward to more by this author.

Thank you to Kate Moretti and her publisher and NetGalley for allowing me an advanced copy of this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti is "the story of a scandal-torn Pennsylvania town and the aftermath of a troubled girl gone missing." Mt. Oanoke is a small town where nothing ever happens. One day, a thousand starlings fall out of the sky, their bodies landing on the school's baseball field. Many believe this to be an omen, and a series of disturbing events follow, giving cause to their belief. Nate Winters is a high school's popular teacher and coach, and he's accused of having an affair with a student who's gone missing. Has he murdered the girl, or is there something more sinister happening?

The Blackbird Season is a fast-paced psychological thriller, as well as my first Kate Moretti novel. Told from the alternating points of view of Alicia, Nate, Lucia, and Bridget, The Blackbird Season effortlessly weaves shifting time frames, complex characters, and dark themes to create a truly riveting read. I highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers.

I found myself skipping through too much detail to get to the important parts. Also it seemed to skip around too much from different points of view at different times. I finished it to get to the truth. I did like the ending and the characters of Tripp and Bridgette.

The Blackbird Season is the perfect fall read! A fantastic atmospheric story that had me turning the pages on the Kindle as quickly as I could!

Nate Winters, a teacher at the small-town high school where he grew up, loves to be involved in his students lives--befriending them on social media, knowing the ins and outs of all the gossip, and even going so far as to give them his personal cell phone number to call any time. Then he's caught hugging one of his students late one night out of a hotel room, and the student--Lucia--says that they are engaged in an affair. Even Nate's wife, Alecia, doesn't know what to believe. Only Bridget, another teacher and a long-time friend, believes that Nate is telling the truth about being innocent. But when Lucia goes missing, everyone has to question everything they've believed.

This book is a smartly written domestic thriller. The author pays close attention to details, and everything all came together perfectly in the end. This is my second book from Moretti, and it definitely won't be my last.

Blackbirds mysteriously fall from the sky, and a small-town teacher is accused of sleeping with one of his students. Are the two events linked and how? Is the student, Lucia, a witch or a lonely misunderstood kid? Is Nate a naïve teacher with a bit of a savior complex, or has he taken advantage of his position of power? Does everything have a logical explanation, or is there some dark magical force behind it all? "The Blackbird Season" is a slowly-revealing puzzle told in the perspective of four different characters, uncovering bits and pieces from different angles and at different points in time. As seemingly disparate pieces of the puzzle come together, it all starts to make sense, but you have to wait until the final piece is in to see the whole truth.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an advice copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There are so many things going on in this book. It has everything needed for a Lifetime movie. Birds falling from the sky, literally. Missing girl. Teacher student relationship. Small town drama. You name it, they got it.

But as much as I love all of these things, this book was just okay for me. It kept my interest. I was intrigued by the summary, minus the birds. The birds was weird for me. But I understand why it was there, pre birds, post birds and all. But I didn't love the book.

First line: "<I>The day the birds fell, I dealt the tower card.</I>"

This was an interesting novel, although I found it took me awhile to really get into it.

The characters were compelling with interesting backstories. I had many feelings of mistrust of certain characters, and annoyance or disappointment in others. There were also moments of happiness and hope.

I saw the major twist coming just before it began to unfold, but seeing the reasoning behind it all added more allure.

In reality, I would like to give this novel a 3.5 star rating, firstly, because of how long it took for me to really get into the story. Secondly, I really enjoyed the aspects of superstition and its symbolism, tarot cards, etc. and I would have liked to learn more about that. Regardless, I did enjoy reading this novel and would consider reading more of Moretti's work.

Great Read

Mt. Oanoke is a dying mill town where nothing happens—at least until opening day at the high school baseball field, when a thousand starlings fall out of the sky. Some blame the polluted air, others believe it’s an omen. Whether the dark rain is man-made or supernatural remains a mystery, but a series of disturbing events soon follows. A troubled teenage loner accuses Nate Winters, a popular teacher and coach, of having an affair with her. Not long afterward, she disappears. Is Nate an adulterer and a killer? Or is Lucia Hamm, the white-haired girl who finds dead blackbirds and reads tarot cards, exactly what her classmates say she is: a real-life witch who uses her power to ruin lives?

The Blackbird Season is a fast-paced, well plotted psychological thriller that kept me reading. The shifting time frames and points of view added a certain edginess to the story that I liked. The characters are complex, each with their own struggles, weaknesses and doubts. Though there were fewer chapters written from Lucia’s POV, her character drew me in more than the others. Alecia, Nate’s wife, who has left the corporate world to care for their autistic son, also appealed to me. At times Nate’s character seems too obtuse to be believable, but by the end of the book I wondered if those closest to him, and even Nate himself, may not understand who he really is. Finally, Moretti’s depiction of the town is richly drawn (no irony intended…). I grew up next to an old mill town and much of what she describes—the lack of jobs, the environmental damage, the drug issues, the longing to escape—rings true.

This is the first novel I’ve read by Moretti and I look forward to reading more of her work. Much thanks to Atria Books and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 stars

This was the first book of Moretti's that I have read. I found that I was sucked in to the storyline immediately. I wanted to know the truth between Lucia and Nate. I did find it a bit confusing that the story jumped forwards and backwards and changed voices frequently. I believe there is validity to Bridgette's belief that too often we turn a blind eye to what is going on around us. As a teacher, she realized that there were problems and no one was doing anything to try to right the situation. I will definitely read more of Moretti's books in the future.

Hundreds of starlings fall from the sky in a small town. Some people blame the pollution from the old mill. Other people search for a more supernatural reason.

And then a teenage girl accuses her teacher of rape, and disappears shortly after. What happened to Lucia? Did Nate really rape her?

This is an interesting premise, but the way this novel is laid out makes it less compelling. We get a handful of POVs, all coming from random times - before the starlings, current day, years before. Usually with great time gaps, it feels deliberate, a vehicle for pushing the plot along, but here it feels jumbled and accidental. Neither Nate or Lucia are likable, nor most of the other POVs. The town was the most interesting "character," with the closing of the mill causing extreme poverty, drug use, and hopelessness. I wish I had been more invested in the lives of these characters, but sadly, I was not.

In a Pennsylvania town, a catalogue of events have the community agog. A baseball coach, Nate, is observed with a student, Lucia, outside a motel, sending tongues wagging. Lucia says that she is having an affair with Nate. Alicia, Nate's wife wonders if she actually knows her husband at all. The story is told through the perspective of Nate, Alicia and Bridget, a colleague of Nate who believes in him. This is a wonderful tale of suspense and intrigue and what lies behind the strange disappearance of Lucia. A gripping read!

This book was really good and I got swept up into it from page 1. I loved the fabulous cast of characters and the twisty plot. It was super suspenseful as well and I couldn't put it down. I really wanted to find out what happened at the end so I just kept reading. I will definitely look for more books from this author. Definitely a must-read book for the fall!!!!

The opening of The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti creeped me out, as it was designed to do: “The day the birds fell, I dealt the tower card.” Based on the title, you might infer the birds mentioned were blackbirds, yes? But no, we learn at the start of chapter 2 that “A month before Nate was fired, nearly a thousand starlings fell from the sky. Not fluttering to the earth like snowflakes, but plummeting, like quarter-pound raindrops.”

So I was already thinking maybe I was just not reading carefully enough (happens more with each passing year, but I went back to resolve my ornithological confusion). TBH at the end of this excellently written and paced mystery/thriller, I was still not clear on the whole bird thing. But a fun read!

Here is the basic premise: there is a small town in the east where the high school has a beloved high school teacher, who is also the baseball coach in a town where baseball means WAY more than either football or basketball. We are led to wonder about his possible involvement with the disappearance of a female student as we learn that Nate, the teacher/coach, “…always had a soft spot for her and those like her: the damaged, pretty girls.” When the police become involved, Nate is less than fully honest about his involvement with Lucia, the missing student. While being questioned, he “…had no way of knowing that this moment would become the linchpin, the moment that all the moments after would hinge upon. The papers would call him a murderer; …ex-friends, his gym buddies…would say, Nate was the last one to see her alive, right?”

Really nice way she reveals information about the four main characters who tell the story in alternating points of view: Nate, his wife Alecia (who is a frazzled stay-at-home mom to their autistic son and maybe is inclined to suspect Nate’s involvement; Lucia, the missing student: and Bridget, a co-worker and buddy of Ned who was part of the two-couple friendship with Nate and Alecia before her husband dies (and was the only character I REALLY liked). Not everyone in the story is likable or smart. In fact, Nate seems like quite a dolt and Alecia sure was quick to suspect her husband of possibly killing a student with whom she is sure he was having an “inappropriate relationship” and she was awfully bitchy to Bridget. I wanted to like her, but found her annoying as her frustration with Nate, their child, and the marriage in general kept moving her actions along.
Again, some great writing, as in this passage where we learn a great deal about both Lucia and Bridget: “Lucia tackled pain and death clinically, a biology lab discussion. As if Bridget’s hurt could be pulled apart like little frog’s legs, pinned back to the wax, sliced clean down the middle and simply exorcised.”

Okay, there are lots of clichés here, in the small town, star athletes, rocky marriage, beloved teacher, etc. But Kate Moretti is a GOOD writer and my only thought was some editing of the narrative about the woods/mill etc. might have helped. Overall, it’s a fairly quick read, and quite well written. I’ll definitely check out Kate Moretti’s other work, and I appreciate Atria Books and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review. Four stars.

IMG_0609The Blackbird Season is a dark thriller that is hard to put down. I recieved an advanced e-copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I give it ⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5 stars.

••••

Out of nowhere, hundreds of birds fall dead from the sky onto a small town without explaination. With everyone in town rattled from this event, a teacher at the local high school is accused of having an affair with one of his students. The teacher, Nate, swears its not true but the girl, Lucia, says that it is. As the rumor mill gets going, Lucia's behavior gets stranger and stranger. Some students accuse her of being a witch while the teachers try to defend her and her broken home. When the sitatuon is as bad as it can possibly get, Lucia dissappears. Now Nate, who was questioned for having an affair with Lucia, is now being questioned for the murder of the missing girl.

•••

I read this book fairly quickly, it was addicting and hard to put down. I liked the plot twists and the ending. I would have given this four stars out of five but knocked it down half a point for two reasons: the first reason is that each chapter had a date at the beginning and the dates jumped all over the place. They went forward and backward and forward and backward in time, in a way that didn't quite make sense to me. I was constantly flipping to the chapters before to figure out when the current chapter was happening. I was confused but that's just me, somebody else may have no problem with that. My second issue is with the characters. While they were all well-developed, I didn't personally like any of them. The story is told from alternating points of view, those being Nate, his wife Alicia, and their friend Bridget. If they were real people in real life I would not like any of them, so it made reading from their points of view less enjoyable. Again, this is a problem I personally had but many other readers may not have. Overall, it was a strong thriller that I would recommend.

I was incredibly captivated by the characters in Moretti's world. I wanted to hear more from each perspective and was upset when perspectives shifted. HOWEVER, as I met each new character, my disappointment turned to enthusiasm over meeting the next great character in this story. What a great novel, Moretti really created a powerful, relatable world. This was not my first of her wonderful novels and will certainly not be my last. 4 stars!