3.5⭐
Thanks Netgalley for the E-ARC!

"Odd Bird" starts off following a man named Simon who is very attuned with his primary study, birds, and finds himself pondering a mating pair for life. This book started very slow at first. I had to skip to 3/4 of the way through to see if it got better. It did. So I went back and read it through.
Simon is purposefully obtuse in his human interactions which has a very endearing quality to him. Very fallible but also loveable. Not your typical leading man and not your typical romance. Kim was a character that didn't really wow me. I wanted more from her. I found myself oddly attached to Simon (what can I say? I have a huge heart for the misfits).

Overall the story was quaint and likeable. Not your typical romcom but I found it had enjoyable moments.

Thank you to the author, Duckworth Books and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise here was intriguing, but the execution got old fast. Much too much detail on birds and their mating habits, and way too off-the-scale for weird behavior by oblivious nerdy and needy protagonist. Although I don't necessarily have to like a protagonist to find a book good, I found this one downright creepy.

*1.5 rounding off to 2 stars

I struggled to complete this book. It's a romance story told by the perspective of Simon, who studies the mating behavior of birds. He tries to draw parallels between that and human relations and while this was intriguing at first, I felt there was just too much information about birds dumped in this book and because of the textbook feel of writing of this book, I couldn't develop enough interest to fly through this book *pun not intended 😅*

Simon is in search of a girl to develop "pair-bond" with and in his course, his eyes fall on Kim and it is love at first site for him. From there, various complications arise and the reader is left yearning for some romance time between Simon and Kim. Enters, Charlotta, a colleague of Simon and things get all-the-more complicated. Certain instances in the book definitely made me smile and I admired Simon's passion for his field of study. He gave me a lot of Sheldon vibes from The Big Bang Theory.

Despite all this though, I felt the book could have used some editing so that the reader does not feel like information is being dumped on them. I feel, all that info took away the limelight from the actual romance and in the end the story kind of, took a backseat.

DNF

This book had such a great premise. After reading its blurb I was pretty excited. Sadly, it fell short. It's very long and very dry narrative had me reading, then skimming, then giving up. This one just was not for me.

The blurb sounded wonderful but unfortunately i did not love this title. I did like the characters since I always love reading about awkward people. Ornithology was cool but overall I would not recommend this book.

The central conceit of this book was quite cute. Simon is a clueless guy who lives for his observations of bird social behavior. He just doesn’t understand people, particularly women. He’s very attracted to Kim and she seems maybe to be attracted to him, but he can’t decipher her behavior.

The entire story is told from his point of view and the author carries through his commentary using scientific allusions. It’s all very cute, but I got a bit tired after a while. I think the book could have been trimmed about 25% without losing any of the plot or style. I was very amused for the first couple of hours, but after a while it seemed like the same joke about Simon’s cluelessness and bird references over and over.

I voluntarily reviewed an advanced reader copy of this book that I received from Netgalley; however, the opinions are my own and I did not receive any compensation for my review.

DNF
As a bird lover, I was very excited for this book and hoped it would show the public that birding is exciting and interesting. However it was boring, the writing was odd and stilted and I could not get into it or care about the characters at all. Unfortunately this means I could not finish the book.

At first put off by the quirky character involved, then on realising that it was about an autistic character; verything fell into place. What a brilliant portrait of an autistic expert ornithologist Simon and his relationships in which he is hopeless. After breaking up with a relationship he then becomes besotted with an engaged woman. After her engagement breaks up, she seizes upon Simon who adores her, on which she revels. His friend Phil tries to warn Simon off the narcissistic woman whose fiancé had abandoned her due to her infidelities. The story of Simon’s research work and his social relationships with colleagues and friends and how aided and abetted by his friends he is able to finally overcome his innate inhibitions to find true love provides a fascinating insight into the strange distorted world and handicaps of being autistic. A most life affirming and uplifting story.

With a blurb that sounded right up my alley, and a perspective from a male which usually is hard to come by in romance books, Odd bird really didn’t work for me. I struggled to feel anything towards our protagonist, Simon, and couldn’t root for him, but did enjoy some of the minor characters such as Phil and Charlotta more so. Ii think I struggled so much to find it enjoyable was the sheer detail displayed around the comparisons to that of bird behaviour. Whilst I knew going into this book that it would be centred on behavioural ecology, due to Simons job,, there was too much science for me to understand and I felt on every page I was being bombarded with facts I simply did not feel interested in. Though it added to the plot, i felt there was too much for me to get to grips with and it had me skimming over by the end of the book. I appreciated the plot, the humour and the minor characters, but overall this book was a bit of a let down for me after being drawn in by the plot and cover

I didn’t like how detached Simon is. Scientists understand the difference between avian mating rituals and how humans work. It seemed gimmicky.

Odd Bird follows Simon, an academic ornithologist who uses his knowledge of the mating rituals of birds to try and navigate his way through his romantic life.

The humour in this book appealed to me and did tickle me on several occasions. I particularly liked the character of Phil, Simon’s long suffering friend.

However, Simon’s continued application of academic terms to real world romance started to grate and went beyond the believable. The character of Simon himself felt a little muddled. He was supposed to be socially awkward and saw the world through his ornithology lens but then at times he seemed perfectly capable of navigating through social situations so I never felt completely sure of who he was supposed to be. Plot wise, I found the resolution of the relationship with the main love interest frustrating. After we follow what happens, the matter concludes almost off screen. I didn’t like the direction the plot took towards Simon’s flirtation with a career in media either as, again, it felt at odds with the characterisation. Some characters could have been better used and developed, Pippa for example, whilst a vehicle for Simon to meet Kim, was also supposed to be a friend of his yet was dumped and not heard of again until the very end.

This was an enjoyable enough read but I didn’t feel like it stood out amongst its contemporaries.

The cover got me but the book ended up being a bit disappointing.

The humor (if you can consider it as such) was dull. The writing style was TOO descriptive to the point of boredom. There were 65 chapters and no character development. And all the talk about zoology? don't even get me started talking about it...

I just couldn’t get into it. I really tried to power through, but ended up skimming to the end (which kind of happened abruptly). The hero was so naive about women, it was so frustrating to see him being taken advantage of. I dunno, the whole thing just kind of made me mad. Definitely not what I was expecting based on the description.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Odd Bird by Lee Farnsworth follows the efforts of Simon, known as Bird, to find love. Simon is an ornithologist, and filters all of his interactions through the lens of birds and natural habits. This is his quest to find a "pair bond".

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book at all. It is told in first-person from Simon's point of view, and I could not sympathize with his character at all. Additionally, the prose is very inflated with a lot of "fluff" that isn't really relevant to either the story or the characters. The way that Simon interacted with women was very off-putting, focusing almost solely on their attractiveness or lack thereof.

I liked the cover of this book, and was disappointed that I didn't enjoy the story more.

This was great, a socially inept bloke falls in love with an alpha woman, loathed by his best friend and conscience. It all resolves itself in the end and brought a smile to my face.

This was a really sweet and unique romance. I loved spending time with the characters as well as learning a bit about orinthology.

This book was not for me. I am certain that there are readers who will be interested in Simon and his journey. I struggled with rooting for him as a character, and ultimately has to DNF Odd Bird.

It's clear that Farnsworth is smart. His writing is sarcastic, but sometimes difficult to follow.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Duckworth Books, and the author for my ARC in return for an honest review

This is a quirky book with plenty of humour, most of it provided by our ‘odd bird’ hero, Simon. He’s an ornithologist who knows all there is to know about the mating habits of birds, but when it comes to humans then he’s lost. He hampers himself even further with his somewhat complicated systems of dealing with the world and people.
Helped, but occasionally hindered by pal Phil, Simon tries to get over the break-up of his marriage and find a new relationship. Easier said than done with our gauche and over-thinking protagonist.
It’s an easy read, with short punchy chapters, lots of dry wit and humorous episodes, and plenty of interesting snippets about birds. Refreshingly different.

I am not sure why I as someone who is terrified of all birds decided to pick up this read but it intrigued me. Let's just say my fear of birds held me back from enjoying it. The characters are well written and modern the parallels made between courtship in birds and dating in people is a really interesting take. The writing at some points confused me a little there were a few paragraphs I had to read a few times to get my head around but that could just be me. I guess check it out if you aren't scare of birds, I suggest my fellow ornithophobes give this one a miss.

Though the protagonist was charming, I found there wasnt enough from the female characters to keep me engaged