I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you NetGalley!

This book was an emotional and touching story about a woman searching for her past in an attempt to move on to her future. During a period of uncertainty, Emma questions who she is, who her ancestors are, and how to move forward after a set of significant losses. Details on the Salt Lake City Family History Library were very exciting and interesting, as I have studied my ancestry and have some long-unanswered questions myself. The emotions in the story felt real, and the epilogue was very satisfying. The resolution was quite believable. Recommended reading, although it might be painful for those who have gone through a recent loss.

Though such a sad story, it is also a story of loved family and hope. I find it fascinating that today we can research family history and learn so Mich.

A moving and thought provoking story that is bautifully written

WHERE THE SWEET BIRD SINGS is a beautiful story about loss and forgiveness. I'll admit I found the first few pages difficult. I had a hard time getting into the story because Emma is just so, so sad, grieving not only the loss of her son about a year earlier, but also her grandfather's more recent death. However, once she finds the wedding picture, the story really picked up for me. Emma suddenly had a purpose and I was glad to be on the journey with her, anxious to find out what would happen next. Emma's research is fascinating and her relationship with Noah, with its ups and downs, seems very realistic. I was rooting for them to find their way back to each other and to create a family together. The epilogue, while a little long, wraps up the story in a very satisfying way. I love how Olsen in both her books so far manages to combine past and present in a particularly meaningful way, showing us how lessons from the past can inform and enrich our present. Kudos to this author and I look forward to her next book.

To me this book was just ok. I can definitely understand some of Emma's feelings having lost a child myself due to genetics. There are many excellent books out there on this topic. This one, however, didn't do it for me.

The mixing of present and past served no purpose other than determining where the gene had originally come from. The research done to solve this puzzle was way too detailed and unnecessary for the story line. It really slowed down the story line (to me).

I totally missed where the title of the book came from because it doesn't fit this book as far as I can tell. In all, just an ok read.

Emma and Noah's young son Joey died from a genetic disease. Emma has been frozen in grief ever since. She barely leaves the house. Her Grandfather Joe dies and she helps her Mom clean out his house to get ready to sell. Emma finds some interesting things in her search. She has always wondered about where the disease that killed Joey came from on her side of the family. Both parents must be carriers and she starts a search of the past. She finds many secrets in many generations of her family. As her search for the truth continues, she needs to find herself again and decide if she can move on from her grief and make a commitment once again to her marriage. This is a story of grief, loss, and family. It is also a story of love and what makes a family. Thank you so much to NetGalley and Kensington Publishing Corporation for an ARC of the book for an honest review.

When I find a book that taps deep within my emotions, resonating in me similar memories of love, loss, grief, heritage, and age old secrets, my heart lives in it till the last page and beyond. I felt so excited to have been given an advanced copy of this extraordinary and beautiful book by the author, and I knew I would love it as much as her book Rose, Petal, Thorn. The loss of their child brings excruciating heartbreak to Emma and Noah, and each grieves differently, and the rift they experience is palpable. The passages of history, the research for answers is a journey that is brilliantly written and genetic questions are sought that weigh heavily on hope that can bring healing for the future. The events that play out kept me wondering, and guessing as I went through many emotions that brought tears, heart stopping moments and I hurt for Emma, yet cheered her on in her fiercely brave drive to find the key to who she is, and who she will become. I was totally absorbed in wonderful descriptive details of keepsakes found in letters, closets, and keepsakes of long ago that add such richness to this evocative story. I loved this book, and Ella Olsen is an author I recommend highly, she is not to be missed, and deserves more than 5 stars.

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It is a love story about family secrets and the effect they have on future generations. It is also about grief and loss and the ability to move on. The story moves slow and keeps repeating the same emotions and mistakes that we all go through when dealing with the loss of love ones.

A beautifully written story about family, love, loss and secrets. I laughed and cried and was totally captivated by this story the whole way through.

This almost felt like two books, with not much to tie the two parts together. The first portion with Emma struggling to overcome her grief, and Noah's incomprehension had good potential, but didn't seem to link well with the second portion of Emma researching her family's history. The second portion - researching family history - seemed more like a lesson in how to do so, couched within a thin veil of story line. In addition, I do not understand Emma's distress at the family's stories she uncovered, feeling betrayed by the "lies."

Good potential, but ultimately an incomplete feeling (emotionally) for me, at the end.

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 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 NetGalley for a copy of this book to read and review.

I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. Emma's experiences mirror a lot I have gone through and I can empathize with her journey. This is written by someone who has been exposed to these kinds of events as they so similar to mine. The truth in Emma's feels and actions drew me in.

Not only was the personal events that were going on in Emma's life similar to mine, I love reading journeys to the past - I love researching where we came from and found that part very fascinating and I was putting pieces of the puzzle together in my mind as I went along with her research.

I couldn't put this one down and I now want to read Ivy's story. I was disappointed when we didn't have time to hear it in the book but super excited to realize Ms Olsen's first book will satisfy my curiousity.

This was a wonderful story and I recommend it those who enjoy reading about the emotional journey of a woman who is a wife, mother, daughter and trying to find herself.

Where the Sweet Bird Sings takes us on a heartfelt journey with Emma, as she deals with grief, a shattered marriage, and long-hidden family secrets; she must find a way to reconcile her past before she can see her way clear to the present and the future. Still grieving the devastating loss of her son, Emma's grandpa Joe's funeral becomes a catalyst for Emma to find out who she is, what she wants. While sorting through items at her grandfather's house, Emma is shocked and perplexed to discover that her past, her family, her ancestors, were not who she always believed them to be. This book is so beautifully and delicately written, stirring my emotions as I turned each page. There were times that my heart was in my throat as Emma navigates her way forward, with twists and turns along the way as she makes her choices, some of them regretful. This passage from the book is so eloquent, so profound; "Because here’s the thing: There are many things that connect one person to another. It could be shared history. Or biology. It could be blood. Or it could be love."
This book is a companion to Ella Olsen's first book, Root Petal Thorn...although not a sequel, it adds wonderful layers and a richness to characters who live in both books.
Many thanks to the author for providing me a copy of this book.

This book touched my heart. It is impossible to understand the feelings of anyone who has lost a child..

Emma and Noah carry a gene that means they have a one in four chance of having a child with the same genetic disease their son Joey had.
Emma finds it difficult to move forward after the death of her son and her grief is crippling. She finds comfort in looking back at her family history and the secrets that unfold.

Noah wants to try for another child but Emma is unsure. Will this drive them apart? This novel explores how different people deal in different ways with grief. Noah prefers to move on but Emma finds herself in limbo! Grief is a complex subject and this novel explored it in a sensitive and thought provoking manner!!

Emma is reeling from the death of her son a year earlier and the death of her beloved grandfather at the beginning of this story.

Grieving a child would obviously devastate anyone, but it’s worse for Emma because she and her husband carry a gene that means they’d have a one in four chance of having another child with the same mind-and-body crippling disease Joey had. To move forward, Emma looks back, trying to figure out her family’s history.
As she does so, she unravels numerous family secrets in her efforts to figure out who she is today.
In her search, the questions remain: Should she let her husband go so he can be with a woman who can assure him biological children? Can she forgive him? Herself? Her own flawed biological relatives?

This is a beautifully told story of loss and digging deep within to find a way forward.

Thanks to NetGalley for an opportunity to review an advance copy of this book.

Emma & Noah are trying to deal with the loss of their son from a genetic disease a year ago. At the same time Emma has just buried her beloved grandfather. Her life is in such limbo and her husband is wanting to try to move on. They love each other but he wants to try to have more children and take a chance all will be ok. Emma can't think past where she is now. In helping her mother clean out her grandfather's house and looking at his obit she realizes he had secrets that she never knew. She starts to look at his past and goes to the SLC LDS Family History Center to see what she can learn. Noah has an accident and is in a medical coma for a couple of days. When he starts to get well he tells Emma they have to move on from their limbo or separate. What do you think happens? Great book and interesting things she learns about herself and her history.

Pub. Date: August 29, 2017
Publisher: Kensington Books

Why do I always fall into the same trap? This is a novel about a young married couple who live in Salt Lake City (the location alone should be a spoiler) who lose a child who inherits a rare genetic disease through his parents. The parents did not know that they were carriers. So my maternal instincts seem to go through my fingers and before I know it, I click “yes” agreeing to read and review. Well, there are many heartbreaking stories of child loss out there, and in fairness, this one had its moments. I think the author’s problem was trying to combine past and present mysteries into the plot. Yet, reflecting, I probably would have been okay with that. I guess my problem was that I felt that the writing was preaching forgiveness to the point of nausea. But, that is me, and I bet I have blog buddies that I admire who will eat this one up.