The Bitter End Birding Society

Description: 

A forbidden romance, a fractured family, and one woman's journey to piece it all together

Hometown hero Ana Leigh Watkins ventures to Bitter End, Tennessee, to help her great-aunt prepare for retirement. A town called Bitter End seems an ironic place for Ana to refresh her weary spirit, but she's desperate for respite from the attention and unwarranted admiration of her community. While on a hike in Roan Mountain, a ragtag group of amateur bird-watchers takes her under their wing--a little against her will. However, she quickly warms to these genuine souls seeking solace in the great outdoors.

But when Ana's adventures in Bitter End lead her to a severed branch of her family tree--one that involves the forbidden love between a moonshiner's daughter and a preacher's son--what began as a getaway to help her great-aunt becomes a transformative journey that binds together two women who, though they live on the same street, have been estranged for sixty years.

My Review: 

I absolutely loved this book! It has complex characters, an interesting plot, endearing characters, and romance. I loved how Ms. Cox had things that were wounded appear throughout the story. I was able to see the correlation between them and the brokenness in people and relationships. There was also humor of the mobile wedding chapel that had me chuckling and shaking my head as it was used for more than its original intent. I loved that Marilyn created a birding society, which ended up being more than looking for winged creatures (although I was interested to see what each member picked for their bird of the BIG Month). Marilyn asked people to join her who needed to have time to just relax in nature and observe the small things, which in turn helped Ana and Sam recover from their hurts and look forward to the future. Things to love: small town Appalachian Mountains teacher bird watching Pip mystery humor book mobile stories of the town’s name faith message forgiveness Some favorite quotes: “I want to plant seeds in the lives of my students that blossom into flowers, not thorns.” “Real sacrifice don’t happen cause you wanna be appreciated. It’s done cause it’s what’s best for somebody else.” I highly recommend this book. I cried at several points because of the things the characters experienced and the message that God really does care for us just like he does the birds. This is the first book of Ms. Cox’s that I have read, but I plan on reading her other books and look forward to reading more what she writes in the future. I received a copy of this book from the Baker House/ Revell and NetGalley. All opinions are my own.