Where the Sweet Bird Sings
4/5
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About this ebook
People respond to tragedy in different ways. Some try to move on. Some don’t move at all. A year after her young son’s death due to a rare genetic disease, Emma Hazelton is still frozen by grief, unable and unwilling to consider her husband Noah’s suggestion that they try to have another child.
As the future Emma once imagined crumbles, her family’s past comes into sharp relief. Searching for the roots of her son’s disease, Emma tries to fit together the pieces in her genealogical puzzle. Hidden within an old wedding photograph of her great-grandparents is an unusual truth Emma never guessed at—a window into all the ways that love can be surprising, generous, and fiercely brave . . . and a discovery that may help her find her own way forward at last.
Praise for Root, Petal, Thorn
“Root, Petal, Thorn mixes history and genealogy into a believable novel.” —RT Book Reviews, 4.5 Stars Top Pick
“Olsen’s ambitious debut is full of heart and hope.” —Lynda Cohen Loigman, author of The Two-Family Home
“Five women. Five complicated lives. One house where they all live over a period of one hundred years. In this story, the walls talk. Wonderful, compelling saga!” —Cathy Lamb, author of My Very Best Friend and The Language of Sisters
Ella Joy Olsen
Ella Joy Olsen lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, in a century old brick bungalow with her husband and three children. She spent nearly a decade on the Board of Directors for the Salt Lake City Public Library system (and even more years browsing the stacks), and is a member of Tall Poppy Writers, Women's Fiction Writers Association, and the best book club ever (SLC Bibliophiles). Visit her website at www.ellajoyolsen.com, follow her on Twitter at @ellajoyolsen, and find her on Facebook.
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Reviews for Where the Sweet Bird Sings
12 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Emma 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 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. - Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This 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 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.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I 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 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.