Where Butterflies Wander

** 2.5 Stars **

A beautiful premise for a story but the execution didn't work for me.

We're introduced to the Edgie Family as they're in the middle of moving on following a tragic accident that resulted in the loss of their eight-year-old daughter Phoebe (Bee). So, the mother decides they need a new start in a new location and decides the family should move. To be able to afford this move they need to sell the family estate in New Hampshire. So, Marie and her husband pack up the three remaining children Hannah, Pen, and Brandon, and travel to the estate to spend the summer renovating and preparing it to be sold.

However, there's one little hitch. Davina Lister, a disfigured army veteran, resides on the property in a small off-the-grid cabin. She received permission to live there from Marie's deceased grandfather and has done so with no issue for over twenty years. The problem is for the Edgie family to sell the estate Davina must vacate the premises. But Davina doesn't want to move.

This private battle quickly becomes public as sides are chosen within the community and the family. Tension reaches a fever pitch until a fateful event decides the future for everyone involved.

Ok, my main issue was that I couldn't connect with the characters. This was perhaps for two main reasons. First, there are too many alternating first-person viewpoints. Every family member had a viewpoint and then we also got Davina's viewpoint. While I love first-person narrative I would've preferred a third-person narrative for this particular story since there were multiple characters.

Second, I didn't like the characters. I know some stories create unlikeable characters intentionally because they serve a specific purpose. But, I don't believe the goal of the author in this story was for me to hate almost every character.

I detested Marie and felt she was a raging bitch for 90% of the book. The reason the conflict with Davina reached the epic levels it did was because of her excessive aggression, anger, and attitude when speaking with Davina. I understand she's grieving and not healthily processing her grief but that doesn't give you a pass to be unnecessarily rude in delicate situations and expect a positive outcome.

The husband was a wimp and allowed his wife to walk all over him. He wasn't active in the decision-making process for example when she brought up moving he just went along with it even though it would stretch their budget and he didn't want to move. He was weak and ineffective when he spoke with Davina about relocating. And he had absolutely zero authority with the kids it was always Marie. I had no respect for him.

Brandon was a spoiled, disrespectful child. He got a pass on much of his poor decision-making and horrific actions.

While I empathized with Davina's situation she also was problematic. You're on someone else's property illegally. You don't have a leg to stand on. Digging your heels in and being difficult because of a promise from a deceased man that wasn't written down is ludicrous. She could've worked towards finding a way to ease the tensions of this situation as well but instead played the victim.

The ending was not truly satisfying either. Marie's character arc felt fake. Davina's happy ending was ok I guess. However, the aspects of how certain things went down involving the relocation didn't feel plausible.

Overall I just didn't like these people and didn't fully enjoy my time in this story.