PRAISE FOR WHERE THE FOREST MEETS THE STARS
“Vanderah’s beautifully human story reminds us that sometimes we need to look beyond the treetops at the stars to let some light into our lives.”
—New York Journal of Books
“Enchanting, insightful, and extraordinary.”
—Novelgossip
“Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a magical little gem of a book filled with lots of love and hope.”
—HelloGiggles
“A captivating fantasy tale of mystery and intrigue . . .”
—Fresh Fiction
“A skillfully written and thoroughly entertaining novel by an author with a genuine gift for originality and a distinctive narrative-driven storytelling style . . .”
—Midwest Book Review
“Though the novel appears to start as a fantasy, it evolves into a domestic drama with murder-mystery elements, all adding up to a satisfying read.”
—Booklist
“Where the Forest Meets the Stars, by Glendy Vanderah, is an enchanting, heartwarming, not to be missed novel that is bursting with love and hope.”
—The Patriot Ledger
“A heartwarming, magical story about love, loss, and finding family where you least expect it. This touching novel will remind readers of a modern-day The Snow Child.”
—Christopher Meades, award-winning author of Hanna Who Fell from the Sky
“Where the Forest Meets the Stars is an enchanting novel full of hope and the power of love that will pull at your heartstrings. Perfect for fans of Sarah Addison Allen.”
—Karen Katchur, author of Spring Girls
“Where the Forest Meets the Stars will grab you from the very first page and surprise you the whole way through. This is an incredibly original, imaginative, and curious story. Glendy Vanderah has managed to create a world that is very real and, yet, entirely out of the ordinary.”
—Taylor Jenkins Reid, New York Times bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six
“In Where the Forest Meets the Stars, Glendy Vanderah weaves a deft and poignant story with well-drawn characters, including clever Ursa. With an unexpected and heart-racing climax, readers will wait breathlessly to find out what happens. A beautiful story of love, resilience, and the power of second chances.”
—Susie Orman Schnall, award-winning author of We Came Here to Shine
“Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a lovely, surprising, and insightful look at the way bonds are formed—both the ones that we choose and the ones that seem to choose us.”
—Rebecca Kauffman, author of The Gunners
“Where the Forest Meets the Stars is an enchanting novel . . . Readers will be taken by Glendy Vanderah’s rich and relatable characters and the way in which she weaves their stories together. At its core, Where the Forest Meets the Stars is about having faith, nurturing hope, and trusting your heart above your head, because when you do, miracles are possible.”
—Janis Thomas, bestselling author of What Remains True
“A powerful story of the way in which hearts are mended by love, compassion, and everyday miracles. Cleverly plotted and building to an intense crescendo in the final chapters, Where the Forest Meets the Stars is a beautiful and unforgettable debut.”
—Julianne MacLean, USA Today bestselling author
ALSO BY GLENDY VANDERAH
Where the Forest Meets the Stars
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2021 by Glendy C. Vanderah
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.
Published by Lake Union Publishing, Seattle
www.apub.com
Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Lake Union Publishing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.
ISBN-13: 9781542028103 (hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1542028108 (hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781542026208 (paperback)
ISBN-10: 1542026202 (paperback)
Cover design by Shasti O’Leary Soudant
First Edition
For my family
CONTENTS
Prologue
PART ONE DAUGHTER OF THE WILD WOOD
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PART TWO DAUGHTER OF RAVEN
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PART THREE DAUGHTER OF THE WILD WOOD
1
2
3
4
5
6
PART FOUR DAUGHTER OF RAVEN
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
PART FIVE DAUGHTER OF THE MIRACULOUS UNIVERSE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Prologue
The first words Ellis wrote to the woods were Please come back. She was nine years old, sitting on the bank of the river in the Wild Wood. Zane had named it that. When she came home with muddy shoes and wind-tangled hair, he’d say something like, “Has the hobgoblin been to her Wild Wood again?” And she’d reply, “Yes,” because it was wild and it was hers.
No one but Ellis went in the forest that bordered the trailer park and stretched far beyond the other side of the river. Other people thought that bit of water and trees was just a lot of nothing. They couldn’t see how pretty it was. To get in from the trailer park, they would have to know how to crawl through a thicket of rose and blackberry thorns. Ellis knew the exact spot. It was like a magic door.
The day she wrote the first note, she’d gone straight in from the school bus. She’d done that most days for the last few months since her mother had gotten worse. She liked to sit by the river to do her homework, but that day the math problems sat unsolved in her lap. All she wanted to do was watch the river.
The water was high from spring rains, all kinds of stuff floating past fast. Leaves, branches, a paper cup. A ghostly white cloth that might be a T-shirt slithered over a riffle of rocks. It caught on a submerged branch for a while, but the river worked at it, pulling and fretting, until the cloth jerked away from the branch. Ellis sat up to see if it would get caught again. But the ghost shirt disappeared, sucked by swirling currents into the deep black water. For some reason, she felt as if her insides had sunk down with it.
She ripped a
