Hometown hero Ana Leigh Watkins ventures to Bitter End, Tennessee, to help her great-aunt get her house ready to sell. Bitter End seems an ironic place for Ana to refresh her weary spirit, but she’s desperate for respite from her community’s attention and unwarranted admiration. While on a hike in Roan Mountain, a ragtag group of amateur bird watchers take 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 quest to study Appalachian birds becomes a transformative journey that binds together two women who, though they live on the same street, have been estranged for sixty years.
Immerse yourself in the lyrical prose and layered plotting of award-winning novelist Amanda Cox as she offers up an engaging story of finding belonging, reconciliation, and new beginnings in the most unexpected places.
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Summary
"Sometimes things don't come to a tidy conclusion. Words are left unsaid. Things are left undone. But this life is not the end. . . . . Our present circumstances, our perceived failures, they are not final."
Her days feel like an ending, at the very least an epilogue of life as she has known it and the beginning of a life she no longer recognizes. After surviving a harrowing experience with her students, Ana Leigh Watkins closes up her kindergarten classroom for the summer, and drives to Bitter End, Tennessee to spend a few months with her great aunt Cora, never envisioning for one second that she is entering a world where the past; her own family's past, has never been resolved. Besides, how could traipsing along trails with a group of amateur bird watchers, an adopted dog, and a way too interesting sheep farmer transform her nightmares back into dreams?
Exceptional characters, elegant word flow, and one of the most beautiful settings imaginable intersect with wisdom, wit and delicate timing to deliver a story that doesn't wrap up perfectly, but finishes perfectly for those who read it.
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of this book from Baker Publishing through Interviews and Reviews.