Where the Sweet Bird Sings

I was reading along, enjoying this story, and finally realized toward the end that the author had tied her first book (Root, Petal, Thorn) in with this story. It was a great twist!

As with her first novel, this book delves into history, digging up interesting research from the past. Here, Emma is desperately trying to move forward after the loss of her young son. Her husband, Noah, is grieving in his own way, and they are moving further apart in their grief. Added to this, Emma has just lost her beloved grandpa who was a huge part of her life.

In cleaning up her grandpa's home, she finds pieces of a past she knew nothing about. A past that may help her move forward if she can find the answers. A past that can help bring her back to show more Noah.

It's a great story filled with interesting medical information and history, one that is filled with a heartwrenching story and the painful journey of moving on. show less

Emma Hazelton has just buried her grandfather. And she buried her son on the same day one year earlier. She's still grieving her little boy who passed away due to a rare genetic disease and she feels as though her husband wants to move on, to try to have another baby even though there's a 1-in-4 chance that baby will have Canavan's. Emma decides to get out of the house. She needs time and space to think. While going through her grandfather's things, she begins to untangle the web of her family's past and dig into the roots of her son's disease. And she learns that it isn't blood that connects a family, it's love.

I won a copy of her debut novel (Root, Petal, Thorn) and it was really good and, like this one, it has a beautiful cover. So show more when I saw this as a "read now" on Netgalley I had to click the button. But I couldn't get into it then and I tried over the months but it just wasn't holding my attention. I knew it was going to be a good read, so what was my problem? I donno. Anyway, I picked it up the other day and could not put it down. I devoured it. Emma's love for her child and her grief were palpable. It's predictable but that doesn't take anything away from the book. It's beautifully written. And if you've read Root, Petal, Thorn you'll get a nice little surprise in this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Kensington Books for an ARC. show less

I would like to thank NetGalley and Kensington Books for the ARC of "Where the Sweet Bird Sings" by Ella Joy Olsen.
The genre of this book is General Fiction. It also has a touch of historical fiction. The author also talks about researching ones ancestors, genetics ,and DNA research, which I find intriguing and fascinating. The timeline described in this story is in the past and present.
Ella Joy Olsen describes her characters as complicated and complex.
Emma Hazelton and her husband Noah have lost their baby son to a rare genetic disease. Mourning and grieving have caused a strain on their marriage. Noah wants a biological child, but the statistics are not in their favor. Emma doesn't know if she can go through this again, and show more questions everything. Emma is also mourning the death of her beloved grandfather.
As Emma is clearing out her grandfather's house, she finds an old wedding picture of her grandfathers parents. She notices another woman in the picture that has a striking resemblance to Emma.
Emma's brother and girlfriend want to have a baby and decide to have genetic testing to see if they can avoid the illness that Emma's son died from. Emma also has additional DNA testing to see what might have caused this genetic illness from their ancestors.
While doing research, Emma becomes aware of family secrets through several generations. Her mother also seems to have some major secrets.
The author presents the topics of betrayal, family secrets, forgiveness, love and hope. I enjoyed this novel and would recommend it. show less

Where the Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen is a very poignant novel healing and reconciliation.

Emma Hazelton is still deeply grieving the loss of her young son Joey who died from a rare genetic disease a year earlier. Now with her beloved Grandpa Joe's death, she feels quite lost. She is also struggling with her anger at her husband Noah who has come to terms with his grief and is ready to move forward. When her mom asks her to help sort her through her grandpa's belongings as she prepares to sell his house, Emma is delighted to discover a wedding portrait of her grand-grandparents. However, the identity of a young woman and little boy in the picture is quite puzzling. When her grandfather's obituary raises perplexing questions about show more his past, Emma is determined to find out if these two events are somehow related.  Will learning the truth about her heritage provide Emma with a measure of peace and help her regain the sense of self she lost after baby Joey's death?

Emma and Noah had no problem pulling together after Joey's devastating diagnosis. Emma devoted herself to caring for her son until his tragic death and in the aftermath of her loss, she finds herself from pulling away from Noah as she struggles to make sense of who she is. Following her grandfather's death and her subsequent bewildering discoveries about his past, she is even more adrift. Deciding she needs time away from Noah as she tries to put her life back together, Emma temporarily moves in with her mother and starts making plans for her future. However, she is at a loss when attempting to make a decision about her marriage since she and Noah are at an impasse when it comes to having more children.

As Emma tries to decide what to do about her future, she and her brother Ethan try to find answers to their lingering questions from their childhood. Their parents' divorce was quite acrimonious and their unusual custody arrangements led to very strained relationships between Emma and their father and Ethan and their mother.  Will their efforts to mend the rift between mother and son be successful?

Where the Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen is a very emotional journey of self-discovery, healing and moving on after following a heartrending loss. The characters are richly developed with both positive and negative traits that are sometimes frustrating but very realistic.  Emma's search for genealogical information about her family is fascinating and quite educational. A deeply affecting novel that will linger in readers' hearts and minds long after the last page is turned. show less

This is a beautiful well written book about grief and love and family. It looks at a family's response to tragedy and whether they can move beyond it and go back to their lives.

Emma and Noah have lost a child who had a rare genetic disorder. Noah is ready to move on and try to have another child by using extensive testing procedures. Emma is unable to move on and when her beloved grandfather dies on the one year anniversary of their child's death, her grief is compounded. She feels that she and Noah can never try to take the chance of having another child and since he deserves to have a family, she leaves him despite the fact that she loves him. While she is living with her mother, she is cleaning out her grandfather's house and finds show more pictures that make her think that there is a mystery in her family past that may explain where the gene came from that caused her child's disease and she is determined to find out the story behind where the disease came from. My heart ached for Emma as she tried to accept the death of her child and learn to move ahead in her life. It seemed for so long that for every step forward, she took two back but I was cheering her on for her entire journey,

This is a beautiful well written novel about coping with grief and learning that family may not be made up of DNA but of love and shared history.

Thank you to the author for a copy of this book to read and review. show less