The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green

by Erica Boyce

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.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Family, Relationships, Book Club, Adult, Audiobook

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2019

About the author

Erica has been writing since she was in third grade. She wrote an illustrated story about an awkward encounter between a Thanksgiving turkey and a hunter and never looked back. Since then, she's written angsty poetry in high school, angsty short stories as an English/Creative Writing major at Dartmouth College, less-angsty legal memos as a student at Harvard Law School, and her first novel, a speculative-ish work of literary fiction entitled THE FIFTEEN WONDERS OF DANIEL GREEN.

She is currently a member of the Massachusetts bar and an Associate Fiction Editor at Pangyrus. For her day job, she works with fishermen and community organizers across the country to help keep small-boat fishing fleets in business. She lives outside Boston with her husband and dog. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling, crafting, reading (of course), and adjectives. She is represented by Eric Smith of P.S. Literary.

Reviews

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Barts is a farmer in a small Vermont town, struggling with drought and attracting young people to stay and work the farms. Sam is dying of cancer and in his final months has come up with a plan to give the town an injection of interest and tourism. He's engaged Daniel Green to design a crop circle that he will secretly make under cover of darkness in Sam's cornfield. Daniel is part of a clandestine group that hires themselves out to make crop circles. He has created fourteen before in other towns, working undercover as a farm hand and then moving on. He has plans for his fifteenth crop circle to be his most intricate yet.

Grieving for the recent death of his crop circle partner and girlfriend, Daniel becomes drawn into Sam's family and offers to help his daughter Nessa in her quest to bridge the rift between her father and her absent brother Charlie.

This is a story about the healing power of family and community and that sometimes what you are really looking for is right under your nose. A beautiful and engaging debut novel about love and family with an unusual look at the mechanics of making crop circles.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher Sourcebooks Landmark for a digital ARC to read.

[Karen R · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed many aspects of the story, especially those related to the crop circles. The ‘circlers’ are based on a real group of people and circle-making is generously weaved into Boyce’s story. Some of the related elements are quite fascinating.

The author introduces a number of fractured and flawed characters and successfully works towards reconciling relationships and quieting demons. I did think that the book was too tedious in parts, especially during Daniel and Nessa’s road trip. A good effort by Erica Boyce. Thanks to Sourcebook Landmark for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

[Chris Conley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is wonderful. Completely original and fascinating story!!

[Tiffany · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Netgalley request was one I made because of all the great reviews on #bookstagram. To see fellow book lovers swoon over a book that I haven't read gave me serious fomo, so I had to have it. I had almost forgotten about this book until the #reviewathon and I'm so glad I picked this one up. I laughed, I cried, and my heart broke while reading about Daniel and Sam's family. This book does contain difficult content, but Boyce did a wonderful job writing it in a respectful way. I honestly adored this book and would recommend it to anyone who loves a good family drama or a sweet love story.

The three reasons I loved this book:

~ I loved how this book handled the family relationships and touched on obstacles that can destroy a family. This was the source of most of my tears while reading and it helped me connect deeply with the characters of this book. There isn't a perfect family out there and the imperfections within the families of this book make so relatable.

~I loved the messages of forgiveness and hope and how it emphasized the importance of accepting people for who they are. You can't cure certain mental illnesses, but you can be there for them while they try to find their balance of daily life.

~The book held my attention from the very beginning and I didn't want to put it down. I enjoyed how unique the plot of this novel was and It was something completely different than what I have been reading. The characters were relatable and I fell for Daniel a bit more with each page I read.

What kept me from giving it 5⭐?

~I would have liked a few more chapters or an epilogue. I know it's a sign it was a good book when you felt it was too short, but I would have liked a bit more at the end.

Thank you Netgalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for a review copy. A positive review was not required and all opinions are my own.

[KC · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. There is a mystique about crop circles. Are they manmade or designed by something more celestial? Daniel Green is part of a highly clandestine group of individuals who design and create crop circles worldwide. Daniel travels to Munsen, Vermont after his talents are requested by a terminally ill farmer and his wife with the hopes that the publicity that these perplexing crop circles may generate will save their dying farmland and rural town. With the familiar prose of Rachel Joyce, Erica Boyce's debut novel will pull at your heartstrings while leaving you smiling.

[Cori · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book's central theme was unexpected but super enjoyable. The crop circles topic was so unique but it worked well and the relationships that were built out of that were well done. The different points of views that picked up right after each other was also an enjoyable part of the book.
Without over explaining, one part that I bookmarked to reread in the future is about the pebble in the shoe. The example is a great explanation and claififier and was an important part to the book. The intensity of what happened hooked us readers as well. I liked the small town vibe of this book and respected Sam so much that he kept fighting regardless of how he felt and how others reacted when the challenges became bigger.
This book had good relationships and bad relationships between characters and it was good to see how some grew and changed. The parent and child expectations was something that was touched upon more than once and brought up great discussion at Book Club. Nessa and Daniel seemed to be the favorite characters and storyline. One member of book club asked if we thought there should be a sequel that focused more on any relationship and we all decided that no this book is best as a stand alone novel and what was developed is all that is necessary.
Thank you to Judy with the GalleyMatch program(bookclubcookbook.com), Sourcebooks, and Erica Boyce for the opportunity to read this great book!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't really know what to expect when I started this book, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I had no idea that there existed a secret group who could be hired to make crop circles. But the story is more about family, farming, small towns, and legacy. It also delves into Obsessive Compulsive behavior and finding the tools needed to manage the symptoms. The characters were well developed and likable, drawing you into their stories. Give it a shot!

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a great, unusual read! I hadn't known what to expect from this novel but I know that I loved its title and the alluring front cover, both of which caught my attention.

This sweet and engaging story begins with Daniel Green who has a fascination with crop circles. He, along with other members of a secret organization, travels across the country creating strange works of art that leave communities mystified. But when a dying farmer hires him in a last-ditch effort to bring publicity to a small Vermont town, loner 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 change his life forever.

“The Fifteen Wonders of Daniel Green” by Erica Boyce explores the unexplainable bonds of family, the everyday wonder of love, and the strange mysteries life provides that help humanity light up the dark.

The story is told through multiple viewpoints and peppered with characters’ back-stories. The characters themselves were richly portrayed and the way that their stories were interwoven was a credit to this début author. There were moments of difficulties in the tale when I felt close to most of them, however, for me, there was no recognisable plot to the story, as such. Even so, I still very much enjoyed the novel and I was interested to see whether the crop circle would be finished.

The ending was both fulfilling and satisfying. Overall, this was a great read for me and one that I would definitely recommend, especially if you are looking for something a little different!

{Thank you to #NetGalley and Sourcebooks Landmark for the free copy of #Fifteenwondersofdanielgreen and for giving me the opportunity to provide an honest review.}

[Penny (Literary Hoarders) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now don't let the 3-star think this was not a good read for me. It's a very good story, and I liked it a great deal, it was just that I felt there was a lot going on inside. It felt like it was just too much sometimes.

There was plenty inside too to remind me of The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend, a book I just finished before reading about Daniel Green. The small town that is petering out with the absence of the younger people to sustain it and in The Fifteen Wonders' case, it's old Sam that is desperate to save it, make something miraculous happen so that the young kids come back and see it's potential and grow to love it as much as he does. The rom-com Hallmark movie love story as well.

Daniel Green is Sam's hope to create a stir in his small town. Daniel comes at his request to make a crop circle in his field. Sam is also dying from cancer and as the story progresses through the three perspectives (Daniel, Sam's wife Molly and their daughter Nessa) time is running out and the need to complete this circle becomes urgent. There's plenty of emotion inside and it did make for a lovely reading experience, there was just too much, I think, being thrown out there to read through to get to the real heart of the story.

Sorry for the ramble. Thank you Netgalley for access to this debut. Boyce is releasing another novel in 2020 and I am interested in reading it.

This also works for the Reading Women 2019 Challenge - a book with a woman with a mental illness.

[Karen ⊰✿ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Barts is a farmer in Vermont who is watching his small town decline while his health does the same. As a last ditch effort to attract people to his town, he comes across an underground group called "The Circlers" who are volunteers that create crop circles. Sam hires them and Daniel Green is assigned to the job.

So begins this lovely story which is all about love, family, and community. It was just as interesting to me in terms of the descriptions of a small town farming community as it was to learn about the Circlers (loosely based on circlemakers.org). I fell in love with all of the characters and appreciated how the author was able to draw out their past and flaws in a real way that had a nice build up and never felt forced.

Highly recommended to those who enjoy character driven novels and are looking for something with a unique base story. (Yes, I went and researched crop circles as soon as I finished the novel! lol)

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

[Carolyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this novel, people are more important than plot. Daniel Green is a young man who has devoted his life to making crop circles, a secret activity he can't even tell his parents about. As far as they know, he began a life as a roaming farm hand right after high school and has no ambition or drive to better himself. In fact, Daniel works hard all day on a neighboring farm, then spends most of every night down the road designing and building intricate crop circles. It's a form of art to Daniel and he loves to linger in the background, enjoying the wonder and awe of those who gather to stare when the circle is revealed. This circle is for Sam, an elderly farmer who is dying of cancer. Sam hopes the attention the circle brings will help revitalize his community and maybe bring back some of the young people. The story is told from several points of view, including Sam's wife and daughter, and every character is a real person you come to know and like. This is a novel to savor slowly and save to read again.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

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.

[Linda Quinn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Green has spent his adult life making crop circles as part of a secret society that travels the world doing so. When he is hired by a farmer in a small Vermont town to make his 15th circle, his life is changed forever. Great characters and a really satisfying ending make this my new go-to book for people who are looking for a good read to escape their own problems for a while.

[CindySR · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was so much going on in this story I'm not sure why it was such a slog to get through it. Also the title should have been The Fifteenth Wonder of Daniel Green.

[Lolly K Dandeneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
‘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 unnoticed 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

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book as an E-ARC from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
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While I enjoyed the underlying aspects of the story, I did not love this book as much as I hoped. It is a story told from multiple perspectives, and all characters working through inner demons and how they overcome them. Through this storyline there were many heart warming moments of forgiveness and redemption, along with many heartbreaking moments that truly made you feel for the characters. So, while the characters were very dynamic and unique, the overall story did not cut it. There were many dull points and not much action took place. There were many places I lost interest while reading due to the slow moving plot. Despite that, the book was still beautifully written, just not my cup of tea.
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Thank you Erica Boyce, Sourcebooks Landmark and NetGalley for the free E-ARC

[Seema Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming ~ Enjoyable ~ Touching

tl; dr: Small farm town uses crop circles to cause a stir.

Boyce's freshman efforts starts with a young man using a board to create crop circles. A small town in New England is struggling, and they are hoping for a little press. This well-written book introduces the readers to numerous characters, told in three voices. I found the book charming but not groundbreaking. I will say the crop circles was novel, and that was what drew me to the book. That said, this book is a solid read, sort of like Chocolat or Fried Green Tomatoes in its use of multiple interrelated characters to tell a complex story of how people engage problems differently. Well=written and enjoyable.

[Chris Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

The novel centers around a farming family in Vermont; the dying father hires Daniel to make a crop circle in his fields, as a last act of impact on the town he loves. The characters deal with the tough reality of their present and their past; there is love, loss, beauty, and flaws. This book has some powerful lessons and will give you "the feels" for sure. The characters draw you in; despite the surreal setting of crop circles, it all feels *very* real.

I loved many parts of this book; picking one thing I can say without spoilers, I was fascinated with the idea of studying how one might leave a legacy and what that means, especially to those who truly knew you.

[Cassie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The perfect amount of weird and quirky and quiet and emotional.

[Rachel Fleischman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book took me forever to read. While the premise was really interesting, it was slow and I didn’t enjoy the chapters changing from multiple perspectives.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

[Colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam Barts owns a small farm in Vermont and is part of a rural community that is slowly dying out as all the young people leave to pursue a living in more urban areas. Sam is also dying of cancer, and has decided he needs to do something to save the town. He hires Daniel Green, who is a member of a clandestine group that makes crop circles, to come make a crop circle in his field, in hopes that this will inject some tourism and general interest to his community. While Daniel works on creating a circle for Sam, he gets to know Sam’s family and friends and ends up becoming intertwined in their lives.

This is a wonderful story about what it takes to make a family, the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation, and why we should open our hearts to others. The whole “circling” theme seemed a bit strange at first, but it actually turned out to be quite interesting and really helped “make” the story. This is a story that will leave you smiling at the end.

[Ronnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Our kids are home."
"I know," he says, his words muffled in my neck. "Things must be getting really bad."

This book is about crop circles only a little more than Tom Sawyer is about painting picket fences. It's mainly about families--dysfunctional ones, that is (as if there were other kinds). For that matter, dysfunction in general is a central theme, but so are friendship and community. Parts do read like a first novel, particularly the plotting of the roadtrip at such a crucial juncture of the crop circle's development. Up to that point, everything we've been told about title character Daniel and his fascination with and devotion to the work makes it hard to buy that he would step away from the project for weeks. Meanwhile, the OCD element, while hinted at in the first half of the book, pretty much dominates the second. The fringey, cultlike secret society of "circlemakers" to which Daniel belongs seems unlikely as presented, but Boyce says in her author's note that her fictional group (of sort of misfits) is based on a real-life UK duo who cropped up in the 1970s, which I found the most interesting part. Still, the book is rich with colorful characters, all flawed in their own way. Their reactions to one another occasionally seem a little off--e.g., someone might guffaw with a "meaty laugh" when it seems like, at best, a chuckle is warranted. Of the major players, Daniel struck me throughout as somehow the least intriguing. Really liked the ending, though.

First line:
"Most people don't bother to think about crop circles until one shows up in their neighborhood."

[Eileen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Likable novel about an odd subject: people who secretly make crop circles. The story really focuses on the characters more than the circles—a farming family in which the father is dying of cancer and a young man who hires on to make the circle, in hopes of drawing traffic to the moribund community. Decent read.

[Nan Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

I appreciate the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of this book and wish to thank NetGalley and the publisher for that in exchange for an honest review.

I also appreciate the impetus to learn more about crop circles and the people (not aliens!) who made them. Yes, I remember back to the 70s when they began to appear and were quite a mystery and a hot news topic.

The format of the book was difficult for me. Each chapter was written in the first person by a different person – probably 8 or 10, in all. And each person not only spoke of the current time (and their feelings), but of the past. The ruminations of each character’s memories certainly served as background information for a particular quirk in the current personality, but quite frankly, overshadowed whatever the plot was.

And what was the plot? What was the purpose of the book? Well, we had lies and secrets. We had all sorts of different psychological issues. We had infidelity. We had the obligatory gay issue. We had family “issues” (and non-family “issues”!). The plot was definitely secondary to the issues.

There are a lot of 4 and 5* reviews which make me wonder what I missed (besides a plot). The author’s use of the English language was beautiful. Her exploration of love and hope and forgiveness and neighborly help was certainly commendable. Her characters are kind and well meaning. Her explanations of various psychological problems were nicely done. And thankfully, each chapter had a heading of the name of which character was speaking.

Best wishes to this new author!

[Jenny K · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up on a whim at the library. It’s a beautiful telling of how messy yet wonderful life can be.
Content considerations include, cancer, mental illness, divorce, homosexuality, addiction, and adultery.

[R.L. Maizes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so fortunate to get an Advance Review Copy of this book. It’s a moving story, beautifully told, about family and love and friendship, about a dying town and way of life, and the young man who’s recruited to save them. Pick it up. You’ll be so glad you did.

[Kelli Estes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this story!

[Doug Showalter · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have great admiration for anyone who can write a novel and get it published. But when I read a debut novel as good as this one, I'm truly impressed. I've had this book around for a while, but the fact it had something to do with crop circles kept me from starting it. I'm glad I finally did. This book is NOT about crop circles, at least not in the way you're probably thinking. This book is about family, friendship, heartbreak, recovery and forgiveness. Erica Boyce is a fine writer. I was especially impressed by the ability of a young female author to get inside a cast of characters of both genders and all ages and make each and every one of them believable and relateable. She says this book was nine years in the making. I, for one, hope book No. 2 comes out much quicker than that.

[Marilyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about this book when I picked it up, but it immediately drew me in. I loved the characters and their stories and found myself not wanting it to end. Congrats to this brand new author.