The Blackbird Season – *Book Review and Blog Tour*

Hi Everyone! I am super excited to host The Blackbird Season’s Blog Tour today. Thank you so much Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster for inviting me to take part in The Blackbird Season by Kate Moretti’s blog tour! I appreciate the opportunity to read, review, and host a blog tour!

Synopsis from Edelweiss:

In a quiet Pennsylvania town, a thousand dead starlings fall onto a high school baseball field, unleashing a horrifying and unexpected chain of events that will rock the close-knit community.

Beloved baseball coach and teacher Nate Winters and his wife, Alecia, are well respected throughout town. That is, until one of the many reporters investigating the bizarre bird phenomenon catches Nate embracing a wayward student, Lucia Hamm, in front of a sleazy motel. Lucia soon buoys the scandal by claiming that she and Nate are engaged in an affair, throwing the town into an uproar…and leaving Alecia to wonder if her husband has a second life.

And when Lucia suddenly disappears, the police only to have one suspect: Nate.

Nate’s coworker and sole supporter, Bridget Harris, Lucia’s creative writing teacher, is determined to prove his innocence. She has Lucia’s class journal, and while some of the entries appear particularly damning to Nate’s case, others just don’t add up. Bridget knows the key to Nate’s exoneration and the truth of Lucia’s disappearance lie within the walls of the school and in the pages of that journal.

About: The Blackbird Season is a thriller written by Kate Moretti. It was recently published on 9/26/17 by Atria Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 352 pages. The genres are mystery, thriller, suspense, and fiction. Please see below for more information about the author.

My Experience: I started reading The Blackbird Season on 8/28/17 and finished it on 9/13/17. Reading this book is a bit of a push for me. The actions were tame and the story was slow paced. The accusation of student/teacher relationship got my attention as well as birds dropping dead from the sky, but other than that, there isn’t much going on. I do like the reminder of not knowing the truth about people and how the stars shine on the popular while the unpopular is lost in the shadows. I like Bridget and how seeking the truth matter to her. I like the small town where everyone knows each other’s business but I don’t like how depressing it is when everybody yearns to leave.

This book is told in the third person point of view, following Nate Winters, a high school math teacher and baseball coach. Another point of view is Alecia Peterson, Nate’s wife and a stay-at-home mom to their autistic 5 year-old son, Gabe. The third point of view is Bridget Harris, creative writing teacher at the same high school and friends with Nate, still coping with the death of her doctor husband Holden Peterson who died from cancer a year ago. This book started out slow and is a bored to read until 28% later. Change started to occur after thousands of black birds dropped dead from the sky. People in the small town are worried, businesses and schools closed for a week, Alecia has a breakdown, Nate transformed from everybody’s best friend to the most hated guy in town, and Bridget is going through the motions. Then Alecia was questioned by a local reporter about her teacher husband Nate and his affair with a student. The fourth point of view is Lucia Hamm, a senior at the high school, nicknamed “the witch” is a troubling student with a broken home life. Each chapter has a date so it switch back and forth to the past and the present. Nate is the kind of person that helps people even though his family is struggling with bills to pay, he would still help others who are more unfortunate than he is. Everyone loves him and he has many friends so when out of the blue he’s being accused of an affair with a student, almost everyone turns their back on him, except one person..

The mystery in this book lasts a long time. There weren’t much interesting actions happening. Mostly Alecia having trouble with her autistic son and Bridget’s losing herself, taking random turns. Each person’s view is a bit depressing and there isn’t anything interesting reading about them. This book talks a lot and in so many ways about the old mill, an added bored to the adults’ boring lives. I like the ending. I was able to guess who did it. If you are looking for a small town mystery, this book is for you!

Pro: mystery, third person point of view, cover,

Con: confusing when Alecia’s and Holden’s last name are both Peterson, slow start, too much focus on the adults’ boring lives and the mill

I rate it 3.5 stars!

Buy here for free shipping: Book Depository

About the Author:

Kate Moretti is the New York Times bestselling author of Thought I Knew You, Binds That Tie, and While You Were Gone. She lives in eastern Pennsylvania with her husband and two kids. Find out more at KateMoretti.com or follow her on Twitter: @KateMoretti1 or Facebook: /KateMorettiWriter. (Photo obtained from Goodreads and Info obtained from Edelweiss).

***Disclaimer: Many thanks to the author Kate Moretti, publisher Atria Books, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review. I appreciate the opportunity to host a blog tour! Please be assured that my opinions are honest.

xoxo,
Jasmine