A charming premise, but not charmingly told. I struggled to get into this book as it lacked the warmth needed to really engage me.

I received this ARC from the publisher through Netgalley. Thank you!

Odd Bird by Lee Farnworth is a romance novel. Odd Bird is told from the point of view of David.

Davis is an ornithologist, who studies birds and the mating of birds. He is trying to find the perfect girl. He meets Kim, a woman who attracted him and he wants to be with her. Kim is young and confident.
He wants to be with Kim but things are complicated because she had a boyfriend. But after she broke up with him, she decided to be with David. I liked their relationship and how Kim supported David in his career.

I liked David’s passion for birds and how he tried to do parallels between the courtship behaviors of humans and birds. I think was too much information about birds. It was an ok book.

Thanks to netgalley and farrago for providing an ARC in exchange of an honest review.
That was so haaaard to finish.
The writing was so boring and underwhelming, the protagonist was a nerdy asshole.
The vocabulary was so cringy, words like copulation and pair-bond weren't fun to read in describing human beings relationship.
I started this book with high expectations but it was really bad

This won't be that long of a review because I did not like this book all that much. I didn't find it as humorous as the book claimed to be. While I have no problem with dry humor, this book just didn't do it for me in the humor department. I didn't really like the main characters, they were both very 2D and fell flat. The writing was quite off. The air of misogyny throughout the book is what lead to such a low rating. It had the potential to be a very sweet and cute story with bird references littered throughout; unfortunately, it failed. I will applaud the author for the amount of bird research that had to be done for this book; however, the info-dumping about birds was a lot.

This book was just not for me.

- 1 star -

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book missed the mark for me, i did not like the characters or the story, i was just overall really really bored.

A quirky read that while Simon & Kim had chemistry, you miss a lot of the longing, the pull with the time jumps.

I enjoyed how the author corresponded the courtship of birds to his main couple, but it lacked the flow needed to really dive into it. I did feel a connection to Simon because of the birds being constantly present & explained, but I lacked a connection to Kim & their relationship.

I just didn't love this book. The writing style was odd, and the characters were not very likable. It was a decent read but not memorable.

DNF at 45%

I tried to read this book twice but between the dry writing style and the blatant misogyny I had to DNF it. I'm tired of people writing women as objects just nope.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I'm torn between giving this 2 or 3 stars.. This book was pretty much just ok but i recommend if you're looking for something to kill time and liked the premise..

What Could Go Wrong.....?
Delightful escapism. When protagonist Simon Selwood, an academic- his specialist subject, the monogamous sexual behaviour of bird life - applies his expert knowledge to human relationships what could possibly go wrong? Such fun and a rather joyous read.

I requested this book for the cover and ended up DNFing it. SORRY! I just did not love the characters or writing style.

Odd Bird by Lee Farnsworth is a novel centered around Simon, a nerd who has struggled romantically due to his social awkwardness. He is very interested in birds and at times socializes better with birds, than people, with thee exception of his friend Phil.

I found the premise of the novel and the eccentric characters to be unique. However the novel was hard to read at times since it felt more non-fiction rather than a fiction novel. As another reviewer mentioned, I did feel uncomfortable with some of the views and conversations the characters had about both men and women in the novel and had a more conservative view with males as "dominant" or "animalistic" while women are treated more as objects than humans. I think this may be better suited to individuals who align more with this type of lens that enjoys a bit of a dry read.

Many thanks to the publisher Duckworth Books and Netgalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

This one just never quite clicked for me. I wanted to enjoy it because the premise seemed interesting, but I just never quite got there.

Thank you Duckworth and Netgalley for access to this arc


Told in first person, this story is sort of like Brit Guy Lit. Introverted, avian behaviorist guy lit. I went back and forth speculating on whether or not Simon is mildly autistic or just crap at social interactions. He does view the world through avian specialist eyes and it sometimes appears that he’s studying his fellow homo sapiens as if they’re field specimens in the wild. Where he’s confident and bold is when he’s dealing with science and interacting with his fellow scientists.

Simon is earnest, honest – to a fault – sometimes clueless and oblivious but I was on his side and cheering him on. Simon wants a monogamous pair bond. He’s not a player, he trusts who he’s dating, and he tries. He tries so hard to be a good and supporting boyfriend and also a good scientist. Sometimes he tries so hard at the first thing that he can’t see the forest for the trees but he tries.

Yet I have read reviews which fault Simon for being “flat,” “unemotional,” “off putting” and the like. I loved the humor but it is dry and at times very sarcastic. There is a lot of information about birds but since this is Simon’s forte and how he views the world, it made sense to me. There were a few subplots in the second half of the story about non-science projects that Simon gets involved in which went on a bit too long for my taste and which I struggled to stay interested in. But when things focused back on him and his relationships, I was hooked again. Then came the finale which, with Phil’s help, wins Simon the pair bond he’s always dreamed of. The scene is hilarious yet also true to the characters. Still, maybe Simon would be better off avoiding karaoke from now on. B

Reading this book put me in the mind of 'The Rosie Project' by Graeme Simsion and Eleanor 'Oliphant Is Completely Fine' by Gail Honeyman. All three center around an atypical protagonist who initially has trouble maintaining relationships - both platonic and romantic. You can't help but feel for them as they suffer heartbreak after heartbreak.

In 'Odd Bird', the protagonist is Simon Selwood - an Avian Behavioral Ecologist who seems more comfortable around birds than other humans. While he is clearly brilliant, its obvious he is lacking in basic socialization skills - to the point where he is all but oblivious when three separate women come on to him.

His relationship with Kim - a woman he meets through a mutual friend - seems initially perfect, but it doesn't take long for red flags to appear, even if Simon completely misses them every time.

I found the writing to be well done, scientific when needed and conversational when not, and I really liked the secondary characters - especially Pippa & Phil.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much, and look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

This quirky read is brimming with humour, endearing characters & references to our feathery friends.

I loved that this was a male lead romantic comedy, I haven't read many so I was interested to read from this perspective, I found it to be a refreshing take on the genre.

Simon himself is a fabulous character amusing and well-drawn, he is very easy to root for. There are some laugh-out-loud exchanges between him and his well-meaning but often hinder some best friend Phil.

I really enjoyed the bird references Simon is constantly comparing his love life to what he knows the courtship behaviour of birds. Which is fascinating & surprisingly similar to our own in places.

Overall, an uplifting debut perfects for fans of The Rosie Project.

A huge thanks to Farrago Books & NetGalley for gifting me a copy in return for an open & honest review.

⭐⭐⭐⭐

I didn't finish this book. I really wanted to like it, but I just couldn't get into it. The characters felt so flat and the dialogue was dry. A great idea and a great effort, though!

This was a DNF for me, unfortunately. I really wanted to like the book. The premise is amazing and I enjoy quirky characters. Unfortunately, the writing style was dry, with dialogue that sounded like a lecture rather than quirkiness. While I usually enjoy Britishisms in books, in this case I felt like the dialogue was one long private joke, and I wasn't privy to it. Plus there was the casual misogyny of starting out the book with a long back-and-forth discussion about whether the main character's ex-girlfriend was unattractive, as well as a reference to the human species as "man" instead of "humans." Clearly I am not part of the intended audience for this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley, and this is my honest review.

This book was, well, kinda odd. This is written and advertised to be a romance but to be honest I felt like it was way too information heavy for the reader to ever feel the love. I applaud the author for not only taking a risk and writing a romance from a new and unique view point, but also clearly A LOT of research was done before hand. While the little details do count, you always have to remember 'less is more sometimes'.

I simply loved this book – it was a like a cross between BBC’s Springwatch and Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine. It’s quirky, original and refreshing, and yes, birds do come into it but as far as I am concerned this only added to my enjoyment. I learnt something, and I love stories that allow me to do that.

Told from Simon’s point of view (which is also a novelty when it comes to this genre), the main character is an intelligent nerd who is socially awkward, hasn’t had much experience with women, and has a novel and quite endearing way of relating human relationships and behaviours to the natural world he has a better understanding of. He is naïve, self-effacing and totally lacking in confidence when it comes to anything other than birds. He is endearing and eminently loveable and his friend Phil is a perfect foil in his typical bloke-ishness.

As a reader, I could see the issues Simon was facing when it came to his love-life, but the way he failed to see the issues for himself because of his innate niceness, made me want to give him a great big hug.

This could have been a typical rom-com if the protagonist was a typical male lead. But it isn’t. It’s so much more and all the better for it. Don’t expect cute cafés, bakeries, or sweet village communities. Instead, expect to be entertained by an unexpectedly fantastic protagonist with a tone and style all of his own.

Oh, and it’s funny too.