I thought this was an original and really solid debut with a huge cast of characters that never get boring to read.

It was great! I have nothing else to say right now. I need to process my thoughts more. I will update this review once I have all my thoughts gathered and finalized.

Stunning work right here. This book was incredibly good. I enjoyed everything about this story. I literally flew through this one in one sitting and when I finish I wanted even more. I’m so mad that I kept pushing it off for the longest time.

This book confused me quite a bit. I didn't like the first half, I DNF'd this twice and put it on here as "I will not be giving feedback to this title" before powering through and finishing this.

I can't give this a super high rating, purely for the fact that it took me three tries to finish this book. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mindset to read this, and should reread this one to give it an actual fair rating. Who knows?

I haven't reviewed this one on Goodreads or count it as read, I am planning on doing that when I reread this one.

2;5 to 3 stars? not sure yet

I received this free from NetGalley and the publisher for an honest review.
It should really be 3.5 stars, because I am somewhere between liked and really liked. It was an interesting read. Thought-provoking in some ways, a little confusing in others. A young woman is found dead and the weird and sick people in town come out of the woodwork. This more than anything is really a character study. A cop trying to atone for her fathers sins, a wife and mother who doesn't want to know the truth, a brother and sister just trying to make better lives for themselves, an artist who just can't get past his hang-ups, a man realizing that his marriage isn't what he thought it was, and an innocent who thinks his mother is a bird. An eclectic selection of people that are interesting but at times slow the plot. The last third of the book was the most interesting to me.

This book was beautifully written, with an artistic backdrop which belies the macabre plot. What happened to Amber Inglin? That is the question. But the strength of this book lies in the picking apart of each and every character, who all have something to hide.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Birds of Wonder was hard to put down and I ended up reading it in one day. When Jes's mother, Beatrice, stumbles across the body of a young girl who she recognizes as the lead in the school play she's directing, she calls Jes, a police officer, to investigate. With her first murder case as a priniciple investigator, Jes ruffles feathers and comes across many broken people who she feels compelled to help. As the daughter of an ornithology professor, she also knows her birds and the example they set as sustainers of family and community. Secrets, drugs, child porn, and parental mistakes are all themes in this work that make for a captivating story.

I'm a bit conflicted over this one.

I appreciate that it wasn't a typical whodunnit, although it started out that way, with the dead body of a teenage girl found in a field. The story then explores the various connections--some more tenuous than others--that the girl had with others in their small town. These are flawed characters, and some irredeemably so. The character of Jes, a police officer, bothered me the most--too many abuses of power and incidents of bad behavior, which she has justified based on an incident from her childhood.

An interesting idea that didn't fully come together for me.

Detective Jesca Ashton has always had a challenging relationship with her mother Beatrice, which does not improve after Beatrice finds her star actress dead on the property of a local lawyer, with whom Jes had a “drive-by.” Jes has held close a secret about her father since her teens that tarnished the memories of her ornithology professor father, who had buffered her childhood from her picture perfect mother. Now she must investigate for murder someone she has known intimately through an adulterous one night stand. The case comes too close to home and Jes makes life-altering decsions.

Robinson fully explores those implicated in the young girl’s death before their questioning by Jes and her colleagues, so they come to life as individuals and not mere suspects. The girl’s friends, twins Connor and Megan, are shown from various perspectives in all the complexities of children in foster care. Unfortunately, Connor’s story abruptly stops on his way to California—even a quick summary of his introduction to this next stage of his life would have sufficed to satisfy a reader invested in his character. Also left unexplored is the beloved father fallen, as Jes jumps to conclusions on circumstantial evidence, with hints that not all was as it seemed. Even with these minor frustrations, this story ends on a note of hope.

I was fortunate to receive a digital copy of this wonderful story through NetGalley.

I post this review on my blog, Goodreads, Facebook, Twitter, and B&N.

I received a copy of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Very well-written novel about a damaged woman who devotes her life to saving others. Jes is both remarkably savvy and self-destructive. I was rooting for her throughout the book.

A young girl is murdered and left under a bush. The mother of the cop that heads the investigation, finds the body while out walking the dog. The young girl is has been cast as the lead in a play and the director (also the person who finds the body) is devasted and seems to worry more about her play than the girl. Other character include an artist, who paints girls and fantasizes about them. His room mate is odd and has a background of self mutulating. A rather strange story that I struggled to finish.

I received an advanced copy of Birds of Wonder from Netgalley, Standing Stone Books, and author Cynthia Robinson in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts are my own and in no way influenced by those mentioned above.

I like the backbone of this book. This had a lot of screwed up characters to really make this more interesting! I feel like the character could have added much more suspense. This isn't your typical "whodunnit" although each character we meet really does look guilty. I can tell the author wanted to do something a little different and she really did.

I struggled with rating this book because I did like it. It just didn't captivate it like the potential it had to do! Also, I didn't quite understand the whole concept of the birds. I liked it but I have yet to discover the symbolism of all of the birds that are mentioned. I'm assuming right now that it's because each character can be compared to a bird in which she describes, HOWEVER, like I mentioned, I'm finishing up grad school this week so all of my mental analysis has been going right to that. I was reading more for plot (and I'll be honest, I kind of like reading for more of the story anyway) but any analysis I could do I wasted on my school work. Maybe I should have read this when I had more time to think and ponder the words.

The characters are all sincerly messed up. Each and every character is really dishonest and hard to like, besides Beatrice for me who I felt so very bad for! There are many different points of views in this story and it can become easily confusing. I stuggled with the characters at first because of this.

I think I expected more of a crime story and didn't quite get just that. I may have enjoyed this more at a different point in my life.

The discovery of a young woman's body is startling. For her teacher Beatrice to find it whilst out on a ramble with her dog was earth shattering. Amber was her star performer in a drama laid out in school and why would anyone want to murder her was beyond understanding.

Beatrice's daughter Jes is the lead detective on the case and facing demons of her own. Told in several narrations, the story is complex with several strands which have to be unified if we can get to the bottom of this mystery.

The characterization was intense so much so, that I was suspicious of them all and disliked practically all of them!

Goodreads and Amazon reviews posted on 30/4/2018. Review on my blog will appear in June 2018.

Birds of Wonder was not the type of book I expected and isn't usually the type of book I would seek out to read. Jes is a detective on the police force in upstate New York. A foster-family teen girl is found dead in the fields next to the home and vineyard of a wealthy family. There are two main suspects and plenty of other illegal activities going on in the area to raise suspicion. Jes also deals with her widowed mother, who appears to have her head in the sand about her past with Jes's father. I enjoyed Birds of Wonder because it was different than a lot of the books I read and was very suspenseful. Sometimes, I felt as thought the "leads" on the possible killer were too obvious, but the story moved along at a nice pace. Also, as a main character, Jes is not the typical cop who is a saint, just trying to do the right thing for the dead girl. I would recommend this book for any fan of crime fiction, family drama or teen drug and foster family issues.

Frankly, I picked up the book because I loved the cover. But after reading it I found the writing beautiful as well. Somehow, all the emotional drama of these people are captured without being overly dramatic. It was a good read, though I wouldn't give the mystery part of it any due. Birds of Wonder is a book that knows how to focus on humans and their flights of fancy. You will be disappointed if you are waiting for an "Aha!" moment because this book really is not a thriller. Pick it up for the writing and the characters, their lives and the aftershocks following a death.

There are plenty of dysfunctional characters in Robinson’s novel. Beatrice Ousterhout is a high school English teacher who is excited about the upcoming production of the school play, which features her student Amber Inglin. Imagine her shock when, while walking her dog, Beatrice stumbles over Amber’s dead body.
Beatrice calls the police, which actually means her daughter, Jesca, a detective. Jes and her mother have a complicated relationship that dates back to the death of Jes’ father.
Suspects abound, including Liam Walsh, a local vintner; his brother-in-law, Edward; and a few others.
Robinson has plotted a compelling story with characters you both love and loathe.

I am not the right target market for this book so I have decided not to finish it. Life is too short and my tbr grows by the minute.
The characters seem flat and exaggerated. The way Beatrice describes her daughter is infuriating and the Jes we meet at the opening does not fit the Jes her mother sees. Obviously, life has happened in between but the gulf is too wide; she used to study biology and theatre and now she's a cop investigating murders?
The moment that made me close the book was when Edward admits to spying on his sister in the bath when they were younger... ugh.
Also, what's up with the title and the cover? I can see something brewing about Jes and her dad watching birds but it all seems like too much that I have to take on good faith and so far... lazy writing.

i'm really really angry at myself and the reason behind it is that i should have read this book on my kindle. but the kindle book that i got from here is not at all good and the text overflows. i had so much difficulty in reading it. and i think that's the reason i didn't enjoy this book as much as i expected.

i think i will give it another chance with paperback copy.

Well, I must say I took a lot of time reading this book. I had a hard time specially around the first 93 pages, I didnt like the characters "non" I hated J the most tho at the end I understood her "in away" but thought-out the book I wanted to kill her myself!! she's so annoying + a complete idiots. her mom was no different so naive and kinda creepy "why would you think about the food the role play when the child was JUST found dead, that's messed up!".. Despite my hatred, I refused to leave it half way. On a very positive note it's well written, the description and the attention to details of the character was amazing specially Ed..
this was given to me in exchange of an honest opinion.

I enjoyed the Birds of Wonder by Cynthia Robinson. Thank you to Netgalley and Standing Stone Books for the opportunity to review this book free in return of my honest review. Cynthia Robinson crafted a unique style of intertwining six separate points of view of the same tragedy and the days that lead up to teenager, Amber, being discovered dead in a field. One such voice, Beatrice is walking her dog one morning and discovers the body of a teenage Amber, who was to play the leading part in her production of 'The Duchess of Malfi'. Beatrice is devastated. She immediately calls her daughter Jesca who is an investigator with the local law enforcement. Jesca is in herself a complex character with mother-daughter, father- daughter and other issues that she tries to work through as she is leading the investigation in Amber's death. Additionally, Liam, Conner and Edward are all voices with their own individual self-loathing, drama that add to the mystery of what happened to Amber. I enjoyed this story yet feel that so much more could be written about each of the characters that could add to the story. #birdsofwonder