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Where The Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen Review

Hi ForeverBookers, Happy Easter!!! 

I've just finished Where The Sweet Bird Sings by Ella Joy Olsen. This was an okay book. I didn't hate it but I didn't love it. In this contemporary, we follow Emma, in first person narrative as she tries to unlock her families' past secrets and find out about who she is. 

Where The Sweet Bird Sings releases on 29th August 2017. 

Spoilers below...

Emma has just lost her grandfather. While at his funeral, she recounts loosing her son, Joey to a disease, when he was only a baby. She wants to find out where this disease started in her family and if it's her fault that he died, as she wants to try again for another healthy baby with her husband. What's to say they're second child wouldn't be affected the same way as Joey was? Emma and her husband need to work out the risk factor. Emma's brother and his wife also want to try for a baby. However, if he has the same DNA as Emma, will his child be affected too? Both he and Emma take a DNA test. It gets surprising results...Emma takes a long time to find the answers surrounding her family but do they help her in finding peace or do they just open up more questions surrounding her true DNA? You'll have to read to find out... 

While I enjoyed a few aspects of Where The Sweet Bird Sings, most of it was a bit of a slog to read. The plot was very basic with no real surprises. I was honestly quite bored while reading, which isn't good. When I thought there was going to be a twist at one point, I was let down. I honestly skipped chunks of the text to make it go faster in places. 

What did I like about Where The Sweet Bird Sings?
I liked our protagonist, Emma and how she had the guts to never give up on her search for answers. 
I liked how this was a first person story. It made me feel closer to the story. 

What didn't I like about Where The Sweet Bird Sings? 
I didn't like the writing and how it seemed like it took forever to get through. 
I didn't like how the plot was just solely based on looking for answers in the past. In a murder/mystery I'd expect that, but in a contemporary there should be more elements, I think. 
I didn't like how the title didn't give any meaning to the plot. I thought Where The Sweet Bird Sings would have had a more romantic feel to it. But it didn't. It certainly didn't allude to the historical or the genetical turn that the story took.
The cover has no meaning to the story either. 


The reasons above are why I'm giving Where The Sweet Bird Sings 2.5 Stars. It wasn't terrible but it wasn't great either... 

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