This was such a great, unexpected read! Small-town trouble, failing farms, complicated relationships, and crop circles all rolled into one. Boyce does a phenomenal job creating relatable characters, illustrating real difficulties, and pulling at the reader's heartstrings. The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green raised a lot of interesting questions about survival, love, loss, the healing power of forgiveness, and what family really means. I highly recommend this for fans of Phaedra Patrick, any book clubs, or just for a heartwarming, enjoyable story. You won't be disappointed!

Description
Sometimes wonder is found not beyond the stars, but a few feet from your own front door... Daniel Green makes crop circles. As a member of a secret organization, he travels across the country creating strange works of art that leave communities mystified. He's always been alone; in fact, he prefers it. But when a dying farmer hires him in a last-ditch effort to bring publicity to a small Vermont town, Daniel finds himself at odds with his heart. It isn't long before he gets drawn into a family struggling to stitch itself back together, and the consequences will change his life forever. For readers seeking the warmth of The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend blended with the creative spark of Rachel Joyce, The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green explores the unexplainable bonds of family, the everyday wonder of love, and the strange mysteries life provides that help humanity light up the dark.
** Thank you, NetGalley for the advance copy for honest review.
Oh, what a little diamond this was. The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green. I was totally in from the start. How could I not pick everyone as a great person? It had moments that you felt it was a beautifully written poem.
Until the end, it was not the ending I expected. I loved the book , until it stopped.

4.5 stars

What an absolute gem of a book. This story took me a while to get into, I kept reading a few pages at a time and not really connecting with it but I finally sat down today to give it a full hour and I was sucked right into the story.

This is one of my favorite kind of novels. There's some plot but really what carries the novel is the rich, layered, 3-dimensional characters. The story is told in rotating chapters from three different characters' points of view. And they all felt real, complicated, and wonderful to me.

There are so many sweet, quiet moments in this book. Moments of everyday life. Beautiful descriptions:

Nesssa was always like her father, all emotion and action bundled together by translucent skin. She's a cluster of raw nerves shooting pain and joy alike straight to her heart, and it was my job to sheathe them all, to shield her.

It was long and wordy in places but by that time, I didn't mind at all because I had grown to love these characters and wanted to spend as much time with them as possible. All the interesting crop circle plotline was icing on this beautiful cake.

Absolutely loved this one.

huge thanks to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

This is not my usual genre of books but the crop circles drew me in. The idea of saving a dying town with a artistic miracle was unique. We really got to know all of the characters and root for the town as the book went on. A very sweet, emotional book.

I am only giving this interesting novel 3 stars because several times throughout the book, the story was bogged down with way too many details. However, the necessary details were beautifully written and I could feel the love, the joy, the anguish, the sorrow most keenly, of many of the characters. I felt that the story lagged when the attention was turned to the history of the making of the crop circles, and of the storyline that involved Ray, as well as Daniel's past girlfriend.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and publisher, for an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

A well written story about family, love and forgiveness. Centered around a man who makes crop circles in secret but about so much more i highly recommend

This book had me crying like a little baby. There were times when I had to put my phone down and stop reading because I couldn't take it. My eyes were blurred with tears and I couldn't see anything. I feel like I survived reading this book with only half my soul left.

This book dealt with everyday things while introducing new and interesting aspects, which was very fascinating. The characters felt so real and I was hurting for every single one of them. If you're not prepared to love this book with all your heart and also hate yourself for going through all that pain, then don't read this book.

My only complaint, though, was the ending. I don't think it necessarily fit the story and it left me a bit confused, to be honest. I could guess what happened/who that was, but I feel like cutting it off there made it weird.

‘The farm is beautiful at this hour, before the fog has lifted and you start remembering the ways it has betrayed you.’

The small town of Munsen, Vermont is in trouble, a land full of collapsing barns and dead fields await Daniel Green who has been requested by a farmer named Sam. In a plan to bring publicity with his mysterious crop circles, Sam thinks it will be enough to get the ‘young folks’ to stick around, maybe create enough interest to bring outsiders in who will stay to help work the farms. At least, that’s his desperate wish! His plan is a ‘circlers dream’, how can Daniel resist? Daniel knows how to blend in and go unnnoticed until he gets his job done, undercover.

Molly is Sam’s wife, struggling with old shame and fear for her husband, not always thrilled about the prospects and ideas Sam has for their farm, but ‘he has a way of sweeping you into his enthusiasm’, this is his biggest project yet. It’s not the struggling farm alone that she and Sam are facing, there are problems that can swallow them whole. Their son Charlie took off for the West ten years ago, bursting in his skin to be free of small town life and all its confines, to shed his father’s expectations, nay- demands. At odds with his father, not interested in farming, choosing a medical career instead, much more befitting his academic success and plans, he knows he doesn’t fit in. Sam sees his choice as a defection to the life he and Molly worked hard for, as if it isn’t ‘good enough’, but it’s a different truth about himself that Charlie believes is the real cause of their rift. Daughter Nessa is home again, wanting nothing more than to work the farm. She and Daniel draw close to one another and soon, both are revealing their pasts and deepest secrets, a relief after keeping hurts close to their hearts for too long. The very things we are shamed into hiding from the rest of the world.

Daniel has been a loner for quite some time now, healing from the wounds of a past relationship, he couldn’t have imagined just how much these strangers and their life struggles will come to mean to him. Nessa may be a bridge that guides him back to his own parents, simply for want of helping her. Is salvation possible? Or is it too late in the game? This is about more than crop circles or farms, it’s about family, love, marriage, illness, fear and hope. It’s how we alienate ourselves and each other simply because of our expectations. Sometimes we assume things about our own loved ones and how they relate to us, running with a fiction that could be wrong. It’s about changing direction and the possibility of staying in one place. These are imperfect people dealing with life altering circumstances. Sometimes the most alien thing is our own feelings.

Publication Date: April 2, 2019

Sourcebook Landmark

The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green is a story about crop circles. It sounds odd, I know. Daniel and his friends are part of a secret society who travel the country and create crop circles. Daniel is asked to go to Vermont. Here, he meets Sam, the dying man who wants a crop circles. He also meets Sam's wife, Molly, and their kids. As the story unfolds from here, it's a thought provoking poignant narrative about family, love, loss, hope. It's beautifully written and flows smoothly. The characters are sympathetic, loveable and complex. The interactions between these characters are meaningful and dynamic. It's a lovely story, and I enjoyed it. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 29%. You need to be interested in crop circles to enjoy The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green. I am not interested in crop circles and wasn't invested enough in either the characters or plot to continue.

This is a wonderful book and an enjoyable read. I knew little about crop circles except from pictures. It was fascinating to learn about those who make them. The characters were believable and the premise poignant. I loved the author's descriptive writing and the way she portrayed farm life. Highly recommended.

I really enjoyed Erica Boyce's debut novel, The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green. I have seen images of crop circles, but never gave any thought to the people, process and symbolism behind creating them. It was fascinating to learn about how they are created, and the lengths with which the secret society would go to remain hidden. The characters were all believably lovable and flawed ... except Zach. Zach was delish in all the best ways.

Congratulations to Erica on her impressive debut, and thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful story of love and family. Daniel Green is a loner and he belongs to a secret society that travels to various communities to create works of art that amaze and confound the public. He is hired by a farmer who knows he's dying and hopes to save his farm and his small home town by having a crop circle appear in his field. He hopes the publicity will bring young people to the area who want to stay and work. Daniel becomes involved with the farmer and his family and it changes his life. Heartwarming and a story to savor. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green is a beautiful story of family, forgiveness and love.

Daniel makes crop circles. He travels across the country, creating intricate patterns in farmers' fields that baffle people. Though he belongs to an anonymous group of crop circle artists, he prefers to work alone. He has come to Vermont to fulfil a dying man’s wish: create a crop circle on his farm.

There, we meet Sam, his wife Molly and their children; Nessa and Charlie. We follow their journey as Daniel sets out to create the crop circle. Soon we are drawn into the lives of these characters.
As the story progresses, we observe the change in family dynamics and it’s not long before Daniel gets drawn into their family struggles.

The story is told through multiple viewpoints and interspersed with backstories of the characters. The characters are genuine and sympathetic and there were moments of difficulties that made me feel close to them. I enjoyed the suspense in this book and I was left wondering whether the crop circle would be finished.
The ending was quite satisfying and lifted my spirits. Overall, a very enjoyable read and I would highly recommend!

Thank you to Erica Boyce, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

To say that this book was breathtaking is almost not fair to the author and her story. I hadn't known what to expect but I liked the title and the cover. Those drew me in immediately.

This lovely sweet story begins with Daniel who has a fascination with crop circles. He and his friends, who are anonymous to most, create crop circles as art for farmers mostly while taking intererant farm worker jobs in nearby places. When Daniel receives a request to draw a crop circle from Sam and his wife, he agrees and goes to Vermont. While there we are introduced to Sam and Molly, their son Charlie and daughter Nessa and their friends in this small community.

This is a beautiful written story about family, our place in our family circle and it's dynamics, about small town life and its struggles. Characters are richly drawn and how their stories interweave made this a joyous work of fiction for me, normally a genre reader. What a gorgeous breath of fresh air!

Thank you.