⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Southern Stars

What a beautiful story

I have to say that I tried to listen to this one...twice and struggled, I'm not sure what it was but it just didn't grab me straight away.

This time I forced myself to carry on and listen, and I'm so glad I did because this book was just GORGEOUS!

The descriptions that the author uses are just stunning, I want to hug them all

“The morning burned so August-hot, the marsh’s moist breath hung the oaks and pines with fog.”

Kya is a happy child mostly, she lives in the Marsh area and is 'at one' with nature, she lives in her shack with her parents and siblings and doesn't really see the bad in anything...until her family starts getting smaller.

One by one her siblings leave, and then it is her Mothers turn, she just leaves one day without looking back.

After a while she realises that it is because of her fathers alcoholic and abusive ways, and she is left to look after him.

She learns to live with her father, and they even become 'friends' for a while, but most of the time she is left for days at a time to fend for herself, while he goes out spending money they don't have, and drinking to excess.

She learns that you don't get 'nothing for free', so starts to sell what she can to the storekeeper in town, and soon makes a firm friend in him and his wife.

Kya is an incredibly knowledgeable girl, she could tell you what the weather was going to be like, just by the sound of the birds, but the one thing she cannot do is read, or write, until she meets Tate.

Gahhh, the friendship between Tate and Kya was just lovely, he really took the time to know her and help her, and I was really disappointed in him at certain points in the book!
Friends are something that Kya holds very dear, because she doesn't have any, most of the townspeople are snobby toward her and look down their noses at her.

In 1969 Chase Andrews a local football legend is found dead in the marsh area, the rumours start to fly, and The Marsh Girl's name keeps being linked to his, but why?

This was an absolute joy to listen to, and the author Delia Owens certainly knows her stuff, she is a wildlife scientist, and this shows in her beautiful poetic writing.
I'm not at all surprised that Reece Witherspoon has chosen it to be in her Sunshine reads club, or that it will be coming to a movie theatre soon, I can't wait to see it!!

🎧🎧 - Totally AMAZING narration by Cassandra Campbell, she made this listening experience even better.

Save a credit for this one it is a cracker

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