Loni lives a satisfying and ordered life as a bird artist at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. Summoned unexpectedly by her younger brother, Loni must make a trip to her small hometown in Florida to help care for her mother, packing up her childhood home, and getting her mother settled into a nursing home. Soon after Loni’s arrival in the sleepy town of Tenetkee, secrets surrounding her father’s untimely death and its long-standing affect on her family’s life come seeping back into her world. As Loni packs up her mother’s belongings, scraps of information begin to appear, forcing Loni to consider how much she really wants to know about her father’s passing. All the while, her life in D.C. keeps calling her back, forcing her to confront her true aspirations

The slow pacing and unique prose of the story kept me at a distance for the first half, but the mystery kept pulling me back in. There were a number of questions I could not stop thinking about! Some of Loni’s choices were frustrating or even astounding, but also in-line with the person she was - the artist, the estranged daughter, the outsider returned. I didn’t know how I wanted the book to end, but as I was turning through the final pages I felt satisfied with the conclusion, and pleased with the characters and their choices. To me, that feeling of satisfaction is one of the best things an author can give to a reader.

I enjoyed this book about Loni Mae, the Smithsonian bird artist. It was a different style of book for me. The pace was very slow and it built up to quite a bit of action in the last chapters.
Loni Mae goes back to her hometown in Florida to help her brother settle their mother in a Care Center. Their is animosity between Loni and her mother. Her mother is getting senile. Her Brother and sister-in-law rent out the family home and Loni must sort through things . The long ago suicide of their father becomes a mystery to solve as questions and clues appear that things are not as they appeared.
There is a budding romance for Loni and a local man. There are enemies and mysterious neighbors. Loni has done personal growth by the end of the book as she mends fences with family members.
I would of preferred a faster pace but I enjoyed the southern atmosphere of the book Thanks to NetGalley, Gallery Books and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion

Loni Murrow lives in Washington, D.C. working at the Smithsonian as an accomplished bird artist. Her life is structured, contained, without close friends and fits her to a tee. When her younger brother, Phillip, asks her to come home as their mother has had an accident, Loni returns to the South to a home and a life she left many years ago. Loni will face her past including her father’s death, the lingering questions that haunt her and renew her uncertainty about the events in her past. Digging into her father’s death will bring up more than just feelings; it will expose long buried secrets that someone wants those secrets to remain hidden.

This story is about family, about choices, about seeing things from a different perspective and about being your true self. This is the first time, I’ve read the author. She does a good job of telling a story, pulling you in with tibits just enough to intrigue you without giving away the entire mystery. The story builds at a gradual pace, learning the history of the characters, seeing how the characters interact. I especially like the friendship between Loni and Estelle. Estelle is the kind of friend who calls Loni on her self-sabotaging ways, she is also the friend who will answer the 1:00 am phone call without hesitation. We all need an Estelle in our lives. The writing is enjoyable and the mystery kept me turning pages. Overall, this is a very enjoyable read and I look forward to reading the next book by Virginia Hartman.

I love this book! And I love Loni and her struggle to make sense of and reconcile her father's death and her mother's indifference and hostility. She comes home from her dream job as bird artist at the Smithsonian in DC to her small hometown in the Florida marsh when her mother falls and injures herself. Her brother asks her to come, but hasn't warn her that he has placed their mother in a residential facility due to increased memory issues, and is clearing out their childhood home. Loni is determined that she will stay no longer than a week. She left and hasn't looked back. But events conspire to keep her in the marshes. She is driven to solve the mystery of her father's death., which brings back memories, both bitter and sweet. She also must deal with her mother and the hurt left from her childhood. Of course her mother's memory loss complicates this.
Enter into this emotional turmoil, the handsome outdoorsman who runs the canoe rental Loni uses to search the marsh for examples of birds she is tasked with drawing.
Can she resolve her relationship with both of her parents and her brother, and her complicated feelings for the Adlai or will she, once again, run away?

The Marsh Queen is set in the marshlands of Florida where Loni, our main character goes back home to take care of her mother and begins to spend time in the marshes and becomes intrigued with finding out what really happened to her father.
This book will be a favorite for those who love strong descriptions of nature within a book almost making nature another character in the storyline. There is also a bit of mystery around the death of her father which creates a little bit of suspense for the reader.
For me, the book was a too much of a slow-burn making the book feel like it was dragging on and I felt the strong descriptions of nature was a little bit of overkill, but reading about nature isn't a favorite of mine, so others might love it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers of this book for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This was a very slow moving book. I had a hard time picking it up to finish it each time. I enjoyed learning about the Florida marsh and the animals and birds in that area, but the storyline was a bit lacking.

This was a wonderful book and I would recommend it to every library patron or book purchaser!
Well written and a great story.

The Marsh Queen is a debut novel for Virginia Hartman. It’s being compared to Where the Crawdads Sing which I’m assuming is because of the Marshland. I feel the two books are very different, this one is well written and has more of a mystery feel to it. I like that the Marshland was in Florida and not in the Carolina’s it felt very descriptive when it came to the location.
I did enjoy the plot although around 60% in I felt I was losing interest in the story, I finished and thought the story and writing was beautiful.
Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book has a little bit of everything going for it. There are family secrets, an old mystery to solve, and a little bit of romance. The main character, Loni, works for the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, where she draws and paints birds. She grew up in the Florida marshland and returns to help when her mother is placed in a nursing home. This results in her looking into the death of her father. I loved the passages about the location and wildlife, as well as her mother’s relationship to it. I also enjoyed some of the quirky characters. It was a good story that ended up exactly the way I thought it would, but I enjoyed reading it to get there. This is Virginia Hartman’s first book, and I look forward to reading the next one. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in return for my honest review.

Loni is brought back to her childhood home in Florida (reluctantly) from her successful career at the Smithsonian in Washington because of her mom’s failing health. Interwoven with this story of her mom’s health is the mystery of her dad’s death many years ago, the beginnings of a new love, and lots and lots of information about birds.

The author very effectively links Loni’s memories of days gone by with today. Sometimes too much remembering within a story can get annoying; this did not. Also effective were the many facts about birds introduced throughout the pages. Sometimes too many facts within a story can get to be ‘textbook’; this did not.

I enjoyed so much about this book, including the characters, the story itself and its development, the well-researched information, as well as the ending. This was a very enjoyable read, and I can easily give it five stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review The Marsh Queen. Well done, Ms. Hartman. Well done.

Ever since reading Where the Crawdads Sing, I've loved reading books set in marshland. They are so mysterious and atmospheric. I loved that The Marsh Queen is set in the swamps of Florida, instead of the Carolinas as it gave a totally different vibe.

The Marsh Queen follows Loni Murrow, an accomplished bird artist for the Smithsonian, as she returns home to Florida to help with her mother. She uncovers old journals and books and finds a note that may suggest her father's death was not suicide after all. She begins a pursuit to uncover what really happened.

I really wanted to love this book, but there were times it just moved too slowly for me. I wanted more action. That said, it was still a good book. If you like a good slow burn, you will probably love this. I did love the storyline and Loni's character.

Overall, a good read.
4/5 stars

Thank you Gallery Books and NetGalley for the digital ARC in exchange for my honest review!

Virginia Hartman's debut novel is a must for Florida fiction fans who enjoy uncovering small town secrets. The Marsh Queen tells the tale of Loni Morrow and her family in the small town of Tenetkee near Tallahassee. Loni returns from Washington D.C. and her job as a natural history artist at the Smithsonian to help care for her mother Ruth who is now in a nursing home. While cleaning out her family's home, Loni begins to question her father's mysterious death. Loni's brother, Phil, an accountant who is searching for additional funds to pay for his mother's care, is questioning if his family has collected all the money due to them since their father's death was reported to occur when he was on duty as a fish and game officer. Especially interesting is Loni's work as a bird artist and how she grew from a child who visited the library to learn about birds to an accomplished professional.

I loved this book! Very well researched. The author was very skilled and excelled at taking what could be a dry subject matter to many (study of birds in art) and made it really interesting! The characters seems so real that they continually helped advance the storyline. I loved everything about it! 4.5 stars!

Atmospheric mystery with great descriptions of Florida, and a realistic portrayal of family strain and complications. However, the pace was a little too slow for my taste. I would see this more as a cozy type of mystery than a suspense novel. If you love Florida and stories about complicated family relationships, you will enjoy this book. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I liked the premise and the book overall but it felt a little slow-moving in the middle. Some of the clues felt pretty obvious. The information on the birds was interesting.

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

The Marsh Queen is a beautifully written and descriptive novel set in the marshlands of Florida. It tells the story of Loni, a bird artist at the Smithsonian, who is called back home to Florida to help care for her ailing mother. While there, she spends time in the marshes, drawing birds of the habitat, and she meets someone who becomes important to her.

While in Florida, Loni tries to find out what truly happened to her father, who drowned when she was a child. It had been whispered that he committed suicide, but Loni finds that there is possibly more to that story. As she reaches into the past, she finds herself threatened by someone who doesn't want her to know the truth.

This was an interesting book in many ways. I enjoyed the mystery surrounding the father's death; however, the book dragged for me at times, especially in the detailed descriptions of birds, plants, and the marshes. I do think the book was lovely, and those who are interested in the details of nature will probably love it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Loni leads a quiet life in Washington D.C. drawing birds for the Smithsonian Museum. She receives an unexpected phone call from her brother that her mother's health is failing and they need her help back home in rural Florida. It's not a place she likes to go back to, ever since her father died when she was 12 years old she has not been happy there.

Once there she finds that her mother's memory is fading, but even with her memory fading she still acts very resentful towards Loni. Because of the age gap, Loni and her brother have very different memories of their father and his death. He now wants to try to get more money from the state since their father was on duty with the Florida Department of Natural Resources when he died, but Loni knows her father was not on duty that day, and from all the rumors that went around town she thinks her dad committed suicide that day. However, her brother has uncovered new information that Loni had never heard, and now she is wondering what really happened that day. However, there are forces that are working against Loni finding out the truth.

I’m reviewing on the writing I experienced, as this book was not really my cuppa. I will say it was written in a beautiful, emotional, and descriptive way, but a little too slow paced for me! It also made sure to really show the emotions the characters and you should feel, through the amazing writing! If you’re on the search for an emotional, beautifully written, pull at your heart strings book, this is definitely your book!

I had a hard time relating to this book. From the description I thought it would be one thing but it went in several different directions, which were somewhat difficult to keep up with.
My interest kept waning as the boom progressed. This book just wasn’t for me.

When Loni Mae Murrow finds out her mother's health is quickly declining, she goes back home to help her brother take care of her. She plans to stay for just a couple weeks, until she finds a mysterious note among her mother's belongings.

"There are some things I have to tell you about Boyd's death."

Her father, long dead from a presumed suicide, is the subject of this note. What could it mean? Was his death more than a suicide? All while battling her mother's long-time coldness, working on projects for work, and a love interest that she isn't sure she wants to pursue, Loni must put together the pieces of her father's death. This means lots of dead ends from people who don't want to bring up the past. When intimidation attempts to get her off the trail become serious, Loni must decide whether the truth is worth uncovering....

Before I begin, this is a slow paced thriller. If you're looking for an adrenaline filled, fast paced suspense, this is not it. That being said, I felt small parts of this book dragged due to this. The larger part, though, was enjoyable. I specifically enjoyed how Hartman wrote about Loni's past in a way that was almost poetic. The strained family relationships felt extremely real to me. Hartman's descriptions of Florida's marshes and wildlife were beautiful, making me nearly smell and see these sights while reading. Her writing style is wonderful! Also, the plot twist and suspense at the end had me totally hooked. I was really invested in seeing how this all ended up. Add in a sweet romance? Winner! Overall, I thoroughly liked reading this novel. I would recommend it to everyone who is in search of a cozy, well written, slow paced thriller.

Content Warning: Mild use of language, non-graphic death of unborn child, mention of suicide and other crime-thriller related deaths