I tried several times to read this and finally stuck to it. The overall feel of this story is gloomy and depressing. The factual information about elephants was interesting, but the story moved slowly. The internal struggles of the main character became monotonous. 3 stars solely on the animal based elements.

When I started this story, I felt drawn in right away, as a mother of a grown daughter, I related to Natalie pain of losing two sons at once, it would kill me to lose my daughter. Then The school shooting where her sons were killed, kind of threw me off- too current event-ish- sorry- just felt cheap. But it wasn't dwelt on, so I returned to the story. Then, after she arrives in Thailand, there's the budding romance.... I didn't want to read a romance novel... But I slogged through that and I am glad I did! I did ended up enjoying the story as it pertained to the animals Natalie helped. And how they, in turn helped her. Not a bad read for summer!

Such a beautiful cover! While I really enjoyed this book, it was hard to read at times. As an animal lover I know there is great suffering out there and so many are abused and treated with anything but kindness. Much has come to light in the past few years about elephants being abused and mistreated for the pleasure of people..for instance the circus, but also like in this book...to allow people to ride on them in tourist locations and so much more. Dawn goes into great detail to allow the reader to become more aware of the abuse of these gentle giants. It is an important book and I highly recommend it.

Natalie is wounded. She has lost her family. Her husband left her and her two sons died tragically in a school shooting. He life is unbearable. She gets an opportunity to go to Thailand to work with wounded elephants and as a vet she is highly qualified. She takes the chance and escapes her sad world to go help others and hopefully get out of her own pain. She meets Sophie and while others want to put Sophie down...Natalie sees how she can help her recover. They form a beautiful bond. But it's not all that simple.

It's a wonderful story and one you need to read for yourself. I experience all of the emotions on this raw journey. I'd be proud to have Natalie as a friend.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a digital copy to read in exchange for a review. Highly recommended!

Thank you for the chance to review this book, however, unfortunately, I was unable to read and review this title before it was archived.

I loved the authors writing style- and story telling! I was on a tight deadline to find a book and knew halfway through that there were not gifts- and had to put it down because it wouldn't be a good fit for our box and had to put it down. I may read it again in the future!

This novel was beautifully written and very emotional! I enjoyed the descriptions of the elephants and the way the people at the sanctuary lived. Natalie lost both of her boys during a school shooting in North Carolina a year ago. She has signed up to volunteer her veterinarian services for a year at The Lotus Animal Sanctuary in Thailand. In her heart, Natalie feels that her boys would be happy that she is helping the animals. She arrives at the sanctuary and is immediately struck by the humid atmosphere. The owner of the sanctuary, Andrew, introduces her to the resident veterinarian, Peter Hatcher, and the other sanctuary workers and volunteers. As Natalie settles in, she marvels at the resident elephants and the dogs that roam around the sanctuary. Natalie finds herself drawn to one elephant in particular, Sophie. Sophie has a leg wound that isn’t healing well and suffers from PTSD from past abuse. Natalie forms a bond with Sophie and attempts to help her heal. This novel explores grief and loss, and the healing after. The relationships among the characters are depicted beautifully, in an honest way. Love, loss, anger, sadness, and family relationships are explored. The descriptions of how the elephants interact and live together are very moving. Throughout the story, there are developments that will leave you breathless. I highly recommend this novel to you!

This book was different from the usual kind of book i read. The summary sounded interesting and i was curious about it.
In some parts it was better than i expected, in others not so much. Still, it was a nice story.

Dr Natalie DeAngelo, a vet, escaped to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand after suffering the horrible loss of both of her sons. and that's where her path crossed with that of a traumatized injured elephant, Sophie. in caring for her and trying to heal her she was finding her own path to be in peace with herself.

It was interesting, and i mostly enjoyed it, but sometimes i felt my attention to the story wane. I can't really explain why but i felt there was much more drama than necessary, for a story about healing that is.
Overall it was a good story.

I had a hard time with this book. I just couldn't read about the hurt/abused elephants. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

This is an amazing story and is certainly one of my all time moving reads that I have no hesitation in highly recommending.

Natalie DeAngelo’s two sons were killed in a tragic school shooting. She’s suffering from PTSD and decides to sell up the now unhappy family home and volunteers to put her skills as a veterinarian to use working in an elephant sanctuary in northern Thailand. She is coping with so much tragedy in her life and hopes the move will help her heal and benefit the elephants, too. However, whilst the charity’s philanthropist, Andrew Graham, really welcomes her, the sanctuary’s vet, Peter Hatcher, is definitely against her from the very start.

You really need to read the moving story of how Natalie strives to help Sophie, an elephant struggling with a serious leg infection, a fear of men and her own version of PTSD after years of abuse. As Peter Hatcher wants to euthanise Sophie and Natalie wants to heal her, the fight is on . . . . You really need to read it yourself as it is a very moving story. The ethos of the person who started the sanctuary is to help hurt humans to help heal hurt elephants and the authors knowledge and love of these magnificent creatures shines through the story. It is emotively written, with pertinent quotes starting each section of the story.  The settings, atmosphere and emotions are brought to vivid life throughout the story. It is a moving story, one that I’m not ashamed to admit brought me to tears more than once, a story of life after loss, grief and, most important of all, healing and love.

I requested and was given a copy of this book via NetGalley and this is my honest opinion after choosing to read it.

Beautiful, beautiful story. Beautiful, and heartbreaking. It has been quite a while since a book made me cry, this book did. Found myself crying over an old crockety elephant named Sophie. This book takes place in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Natalie is a veterinarian of large animals, has mostly worked with horses, but horrific tragedy in her personal life finds her taking advantage of an opportunity that presents itself. Volunteering for a year in this elephant sanctuary. Her as she heals, she also attempts to heal herself. She will meet people that will help in this process and some that will hinder.

The author is an avowed social activist and in this novel she tackles the plight of elephants in the wild and those that are made to work in ways in which they are not equipped, that are harmful and painful to these amazing animals. I loved the story, and I learned so much about these great animals, quite astonishing the intuitiveness they have for humans and each other. She uses a unique literary device by letting us read the thoughts of the elephant Sophie, as she comes to know and love Natalie. We learn of her past, what she went through in the wild and then in captivity. Quite different.

Elephants are now prey, for their ivory, they are captured or killed by many. So horrible, the many ways they are mistreated. The title represents a beautiful yet sad moment in the story. Why can't humans ever leave anything alone? Question of the ages. Books like this help, showing us how very special these animals really are, how unique and valuable. Gorgeous cover as well.

I loved this book. The author lovingly portrays a mother devastated by the loss of her sons and to find her own healing in healing an elephant, also suffering post-traumatic stress. The characters and plot are so well-drawn, that we feel her pain and begin to understand the plight of the elephants.

This book was stunning! It transported me to the elephant sanctuary in Thailand, allowed me to think as an elephant and made me feel so many emotions! Natalie is hurting, reeling from the loss of her two sons in a school shooting and she is angry! Sophie is an angry elephant but she is also hurting, hurting from an infected wound she sustained a while ago, but also possibly suffering from PTSD. Sophie lost her family too. Natalie has to get away from the media who haunt her, constantly wanting interviews. Natalie, who is a veterinarian, volunteers to work for a year at a elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Can Natalie and Sophie help each other to heal? This is a deeply emotional book, beautifully written and I highly recommend it. I have now put every book this author has written on my list to read. She is an amazing writer!

I have never read a book even remotely similar to The Mourning Parade. It tugged on my sensitive heartstrings which to me is always a great sign of a fantastic story. One of the things I really loved about the story were the parts written in the point of view of Sophie the elephant. That sounds contrived, but it added so much to the overall story. The bond between Sophie and Natalie is a true love story, and there are many other sub plots to keep you turning the pages. There was a little bit of a twist at the end that I didn't expect and that is another good sign for me as a reader that I have found something special. The Mourning Parade is the type of book I would recommend to my book club, so I recommend you do the same! This type of book begs to be discussed. If you don't have a book club, start one! Or read it with a friend and discuss!

The Mourning parade Dawn Reno Langley 5*
Think “Out of Africa” and “The Horse Whisperer”with elephants. Natalie, an equine veterinarian, has travelled to Thailand to volunteer with the elephants to escape the trauma that happened a year ago. With no husband and no children the elephants become her soulmates- one in particular. She also finds an old adversary in their midst -one she didn’t even know she had upset. A wonderful tale of finding yourself. Each chapter is prefaced by a philosophical quote. Of dealing with PTSD and loss, of what should have been and new beginnings. If you love animals and dream of visiting their homeland then this book is for you. With wonderful descriptions of the scenery and the animals, this is a book to lose yourself in. I voluntarily chose to read this ARC and all opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased

Natalie DeAngelo is still grieving the loss of her two sons in a school shooting. Even after a year, she still finds herself the focus of far too much attention, and lives with her memories in her despair. Then she hears about a sanctuary for elephants in Thailand, and decides on a change of scenery for a year to help with her healing.

As soon as she arrives, Natalie is caught between the animosity of a fellow vet and the rampages of an injured elephant named Sophie. Everyone else sees the elephant as a danger, but Natalie knows she’s just hurt and scared. Natalie puts all her effort into healing Sophie’s body and mind—and hopes that she just might do some healing herself.

The Mourning Parade is a fascinating book focused on enigmatic animals. The setting is rich with detail, and so vivid you can almost smell the steamy climate. The elephants are just as much characters in the novel as Natalie is, and the bond between Natalie and Sophie is incredible. I loved this book. It was emotional, but healing and inspirational, too. Highly recommended!

I am careful in choosing what to read from NetGalley, because I have so little spare time to spend on books I won't care about. Luckily, my instinct was right in all the choices I made so far, and in this one too.
The book was beautiful. I don't know anything about elephants so I cannot vouch for accuracy about caring and saving them, but I assure you you'll be touched by this story about salvation, not only of elephants but of human beings hunted by their own demons, and saved by those animals they are trying to save. Interactions between one scared elephant and one broken human were so endearing I wished to transport myself there right then, to share hugs and emotions with them.
There was nothing melodramatic in the story though. The author wrote the characters exactly the way people are. Their actions occasionally frustrated me, but not necessarily because they were stupid, but because we have to understand not everyone will work to our benefit, not to mention they are not always doing that to spite us. It was interesting to have that in mind while reading. I was rooting for our heroes, but was also aware she wasn't perfect, and that as in every work environment, not everything will work according to her wishes, especially as a newbie as she was.
I liked also how it didn't turn at any moment to a soppy romance novel - people in the book had real relationships with each other, good, bad and awful, but they have never felt forced and contrived. The writer really treated the subject matter with respect and solemnity it deserved. Not saying there wasn't a romance in the story, but it evolved so naturally and properly, that you felt it rather as a part of the healing process, but not the only one that mattered.

I received this ARC from netgalley.com in exchange for a review.

Natalie's two young sons are horrifically killed at their school in a shooting spree. Unable to cope with her loss, she volunteers as a veterinarian on an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. There she meets Sophie, an older elephant that has suffered abuse and has PTSD which makes her act out and go on rampages. In the end, Natalie and Sophie help heal the other.

I liked the descriptions of the land, sanctuary, and weather. The human characters were stilted and flat, the animals have the greater voice including dialog from Sophie.

3☆

An engrossing piece of fiction that is definitely worthy of a book club!

Exotic and heart-breaking
The story focuses on a year vet’s work of rehabilitating Sophie, an aging, broken elephant, in an elephant sanctuary in Thailand. Natalie not only rescues Sophie, their breakthrough is well documented, first on notebooks and spreadsheets (I would have liked to see those!) then in academic papers and National Geographic documentaries. Apparently, the healing process is more important than the context. Natalie’s story started a year before but only by the end of the novel we find out what really happened, the fact that she couldn’t grieve because her tragedy was a scoop and what she said to her close friends in confidence became next day’s headline. But for Sophie’s sake, she agrees to revisit her past, she accepts the fact that the filming crew and the sexy producer knew from the beginning who she was and lets them exploit this angle.
The author exploits to the maximum the local colour, from a few useful phrases, to Thai food, to political unrest. She also toys with the contrast between western and eastern thinking, the contrast between traditionalism and the modernism, the paradoxical way the elephant handlers treat their burden animals, lovingly exhausting them to death.
Through the process of re-education Sophie is almost humanized, in the end sacrificing its own life for the man she hated the most.
The only passages I didn’t read were the ones the author presents Sophie’s perspective I found them speculative, we can’t know what an elephant thinks or if it has flashbacks.
And the thing that I found a little confusing was who the herd leader was: the matriarch or the patriarch?

Wow, I devoured this book. It was a quick read with much depth. I'm an animal lover, and I knew early in the book that Dawn Reno Langley has a heart for animals, too. One of my favorite quotes was from the owner of the sanctuary, and he said he opened it so that hurt humans could help heal hurt animals - and that they always ended up healing each other in the process.

Dawn has an easy-flowing writing style, and who couldn't help but fall in love the characters of Natalie and Sophie (the elephant)?! This was a story of forgiveness and healing, and a reminder that when tragedy strikes, there is still hope and maybe even a rainbow. This was highly recommended by some book friends, and I completely agree with them. Beautiful storytelling!