Review: Bird After Bird (The Byrds of Birdseye #) by Leslea Tish

Title: Bird After Bird
Author: Leslea Tish
Series: The Byrds of Birdseye
Publication date: April 6th 2014
Pages: 290 (kindle)
Source: Netgalley








Dear Birdy, Princess Birdzilla von MuffinStuff, Keeper of Dreams, Lover of our Fine Feathered Friends, queen of my life and light of my world, I hope this letter finds you well. If you are reading this then I am gone, and sweetheart, I am so sorry.

Chi-town professional Wren Riley is 25 and a rising star in the business world. She can eat a man alive and laugh about it to her girlfriends in seconds flat - and she does, on the regular. Behind the power suits and the flashing, flirty eyes, however, Wren has a secret, vulnerable side. Following a devastating loss and the discovery of a bird journal she and her father made together years before, Wren sets out to seek peace, closure, and something she just can't name. Is that something tied to her little paper cranes she keeps finding along the way? 

Laurence Byrd grew u a lanky Hoosier kid with the good/bad fortune of having the same name as the state's perennial basketball legend. With a better affinity for dogs than sports or school, he ends up in the Army instead of the Chicago art school of his dreams. Still, his service to our country is something he can be proud of - until an argument with the girl who means the world to him results in a series of events that blow his life apart. With no one left to understand him, black sheep Laurie pours out his heart into letters and drawings he never intends to send - then he folds them into paper cranes that he leaves behind like messages in little winged bottles. He never dreams someone might be finding them. 

God damn it, Sylvia, for a few moments I tricked myself into feeling really alive. I cut it off before anyone got hurt, but just for a moment or two, I really thought I might feel something again - something like trust. Something like love. Not the kind of love we had, but something new. Something like hope.

Spoiler alert: Wren and Laurie are going to meet. And when they do, their lives are never going to be the same.

- Goodreads -

Bird After Bird sounded like a perfect sweet read. And in some ways it was but in others it wasn’t. There were certain things that annoyed the hell out of me while reading but in some way I wasn’t able to book the book down either.

Lawrence Byrd is a sweet young men who couldn’t imagine living anywhere else than in Birdseye. He has had a rough life, he was sent to a warzone, his mother doesn’t support him in anything he does and he has lost is fiancé in a tragic accident. Wren has had a rough life too, she has lost both her parents to cancer. But unlike Lawrence she escaped Birdseye a long time ago, living in such a small town is not for her. There worlds seem miles apart but somehow they collide. And when they do fireworks explode.

I loved how the author developed the characters, she did so through a unique way. Laurie wrote letters to his fiancé to find some peace of mind and fold them into origami birds. Wren finds peace with her father’s death through their bird book. Even when he was not around anymore he opened Wren’s eyes and made her see what’s important to her. Laurie himself was a huge positive aspect in this book. He was good hearted and so sweet, maybe too sweet for his own good.  He was willing to make some sacrifices in his life in order to be with Wren. And he never failed to help out his friends when they needed him.

What annoyed me in this book was Wren. She was so selfish at times that I still can’t believe it. I get that she is ambitious and that she wants a good comfortable life, but she never even tried to let people in. And when she finally let Laurie in she doesn’t communicate with him when she makes a big decision that will influence both their lives. All she could do was think about herself and think about all the opportunities she would get. But she failed to look how all her decisions would influence Laurie. Thank god she finally got some sense at the end of the book. Don’t get me wrong, Wren could be a sweet girl too, she stood up for Laurie at times and she was quiet admirable at times. But for a boy like Laurie she has to be so much better.

Overall a good debut book by Leslea Tish. It was more than enjoyable and some very unique aspect could be find in this book. Bonus point all the bird facts I now know by reading this book.

El