Rating: 4 ♥’s
Published: August 14, 2018
Genres: Historical Fiction, Mystery
Pages: 384
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet fishing village. Kya Clark is barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when the popular Chase Andrews is found dead, locals immediately suspect her.
But Kya is not what they say. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes life’s lessons from the land, learning the real ways of the world from the dishonest signals of fireflies. But while she has the skills to live in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world—until the unthinkable happens.
I have been wanting to read this book for a long time. I heard about it from Reese’s bookclub and also just all of my friends who had been reading and saying I needed to read it. I have been trying to get into audio book and this one was available and I thought I am going to try it. I actually really enjoyed listening to it while I worked and while I was cleaning and making dinner. I was surprised I was able to follow along, usually before when I tried I would get distracted and have to keep rewinding it.
This book was a lot of fun to read. I like that this was historical fiction and mystery but also just so much more to it. I loved how Kya learned all of this stuff about the environment and taught herself all of this stuff and became this author that made it on her own no matter how many times people left her. I did feel for her because she was very naive and Chase definitely took advantage of that and even Tate kind of did, but he stopped himself and did care for her.
I thought that the fact the book goes between two timelines was actually really well done and it flowed nicely. It then met up with itself at the end and that also flowed well. I like that there is a natural story going on and then in this story is the mystery so it is almost like you have two different plots going on. You are seeing Kya grow from a child to a woman and how her life is shaped by her being alone and then at the same time you are seeing this mystery of what really happened to Chase Andrews. The characters were well written and I felt you really got into Kya’s head and how she was feeling.
The ending had a little of everything, I was happy with her and Tate having some of their time, I was sad that it was cut short with Kya, and the ending where you find out the twist of the ending was well done. I did have my suspicion on what happened in a way but not how it actually played out. It was definitely a well written twist.
Overall I really enjoyed this book and am glad that I finally got a chance to read it!
Book Challenges:
- Around the Year in 52 Books #19 – 3 books related to “past, present, and future”
- 52 Books in 52 Weeks #29 – Featuring the environment
- Popsugar #22 – Set mostly or entirely outdoors
- Magic in the Books #47 – With a character death
- Linz Bookworm #54 – That takes place in the 1920s
- NJM Challenge #21 – Nominated for an award
- A-Z Title – W
- Reading is My Happy Place Currently Reading #8 – Someone desperately wanted me to read
- Booklist Queen #27 – Bookclub favorite
- The Nerd Daily #52 – Recommended by a friend
- Two Books a Month #21 – An audiobook
- Wizarding World Tour #13 – That includes a troublemaker
- Mount TBR, Virtual Mount TBR, Cloak & Dagger, Historical Fiction, & Library Love
I liked the way that Kya teaching herself everything without help turns out to be a key to the mystery.