A huge thank you to the author and publisher for providing an e-ARC via Netgalley.

Journalist Jo Sharpe is heading back home to Arthurville after receiving a job offer to run the local newspaper. When she was younger, her mother left with Jo's little sister Amy. Jo has never heard from her since. Back in her hometown, Jo tries to find out what happend to them. Arthurville is a small Australian town suffering from heat waves and a population loss. I liked how the landscape was described and how the climate was woven into the story.
I really liked how the relationship between Jo and her father and how they dealt with grief was explored.
The mystery part, however, becomes quite predictible at some point, and I only warmed up to some side characters at the end of the book.
The cover is beautiful and what initially drew me to this book.

I really enjoyed this book about a long missing mother and baby daughter. The finding out along the way both past and present was great. A great thriller. Thanks

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 This is a great Australian domestic mystery/thriller set in a country town not dissimilar to the NSW town of Wellington (author’s note) but it could be a small town anywhere. It is a well written story focusing on journalist Jo Sharpe and her return to the town after some years away working in Sydney. Jo is given a job on the local paper the Arthurville Chronicle which brings her back into the lives of the local residents. ‘A Little Bird’ was a regular gossip column written in the paper By a previous journalist. It provides us with not only the title of the book but with clues to the towns long held secrets which I thought was an especially clever plot point. The author is particularly good at giving us a clear picture of the landscape and the town setting. She has also managed to give her characters depth and personality so the reader feels they almost know this town and Can identify with the people in it. James uses lots of Australian colloquialisms such as ‘your shitting me’, ‘looney bin’ ‘old bat’ and ‘getting quietly blotto.’ This use of language helps the reader to feel even closer to the characters. I loved how this book evolved from a seemingly regular father daughter relationship story to a serious mystery thriller. It is told in two time frames slowly giving us the real story of Jo’s mother’s disappearance. This was my first Wendy James novel and I will definitely be reading her other books. Fabulous cover by the way!! Thankyou to Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read this ARC. Publication 30th Nov 2021

I enjoyed this book. It brought back lots of memories of living in Australia and visits during subsequent years. The pace was good, the characters felt realistic. I enjoyed the depiction of a small town and its community. However, the mystery thriller element was pretty lacklustre; I felt it was all completely obvious. There was no single surprise, even at the last chapter when I think we were supposed to gasp and say “Oh!”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an ARC.

This book begins slowly and seems like a story of a father and daughter trying to get to know each other after years of not getting along. As it progresses the book picks up and the story quickly becomes a mystery. I really enjoyed how the book went from past to present, with each chapter giving us more insight into Miranda. I really enjoyed the main character as she was realistic and likeable. I liked the ending but was a bit disappointed until the last page!

It was nice to read a book that was set in Australia, although in the beginning I thought it was in the US until the characters used a few words that enlightened me. The author created good characters and they each served the purpose of building the story. It wasn’t a creepy or suspenseful mystery which is different than most mysteries but it also makes it readable to a wider age group and it wasn’t graphic.

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

The book starts off slow and then picks up pace around the halfway mark. Whilst there is a mystery, the reader can see how this going to end. Interesting premise, and very emotive.

Well that got me. BRILLIANT story line. Nice concept. One I'd read again and again!!! Loved it! An author I'd happily follow. Excellent stuff!

“No matter where I looked, I found nothing but circuitous byways leading to dead ends.

But hope doesn’t rely on possibilities or probabilities or proof - all it needs is a ready heart, an open mind.”

In Wendy James’ new novel, A Little Bird, Jo Sharpe has reluctantly returned to her home town of Arthurville to take up a job on the local paper after a messy break-up and many years away. She hasn’t spoken to her only close family member, her father Mick, for 2 years, and from her teenage years wanted nothing more than to escape the suffocating small-town atmosphere of Arthurville.

But something is drawing Jo back, and as the book progresses we learn about the disappearance of her mother and baby sister when Jo was just 8 years old. Where and why did she go? And why did she leave Jo behind? As Jo re-acquaints herself with the town, she begins to enjoy it more than she thought - reconnecting with old friends, and being part of a community, albeit one that has changed a lot, and mainly for the worse, over the years she’s been away. But the mystery of her mother is always just beneath the surface, and when Jo uncovers some old gossip columns from the newspaper’s records, she is set on a path back to the past and the truth of what really happened to her family.

Having recently read and enjoyed The Dry, by Jane Harper, I was keen to read another novel set in a rural Australian community, and I found A Little Bird to be a real page-turner. The narrative moves between Jo’s perspective in the present day, to her mother Merry in the years before she disappeared, and I found this very effective - the reader is gradually given more information about Merry’s life just as Jo is piecing together the story herself. I obviously won’t give away the ending here, but suffice to say it didn’t disappoint me! A Little Bird is out in the UK in November 21, and I would highly recommend it to thriller fans, and fans of books with a strong, almost claustrophobic, sense of community.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and of course the author for providing an advanced ebook copy!

I wanted to like this but I feel like I was not the target audience for this. I finished it, but I found the characters to be unrelatable and overall just not something I would otherwise pick up. There is an audience out there for a story like this, but it was not for me.

Thank you Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the eARC.
This is a great book, I couldn't put it down and the ending was stunner. I loved it!
Journalist Jo Sharpe has come home to Arthurhill to start a new job at the local paper. Her romantic relationship is over and she's left the city for her drought stricken hometown, staying at her childhood home with her estranged father. Twenty-five years ago her mother left, taking Jo's eight-month old sister, Amy, with her. Her father became a terse, bitter alcoholic and mending fences is proving difficult, but Jo wants to find out what happened to her mother and sister. She uses her journalistic skills to examine the facts and the results are heartbreaking and shocking.
I really liked Jo and admired her immensely and even liked her father... I understood his feelings completely.
This read is totally absorbing, hard to put down and immensely atmospheric; the intense heat and humidity as well as the town's community are vividly portrayed. A must-read that I highly recommend.

Strong and relatable characters and a compelling storyline made this book ideal for a weekend read. It's taken 25 years for Jo to come to terms with her mother and her little sister's disappearance. As a journalist, Jo returns to her hometown to work for the local newspaper, and to get some closure on the disappearances. But are things really as they seem? A mysterious clue from the past has revived interest in the incident.
The setting of the novel is the rugged terrain of Australia. The story will keep you guessing right till the end.

Wow, what a thrilling, moving and gripping novel. About secrets, lies and betrayals and how sometimes moving back to a place you thought you wouldn’t return can give you the answers and the love you desperately seek. The characters are all vivid and real and just sizzle with all the tensions of a small town that’s seen better days. I loved this special novel. Will definitely check out more of this author’s work.

A Little Bird by Wendy James, published by Lake Union Publishing, is a stunning story. The full length, stand-lone is a romance with thriller elements, a beautiful second chance story full of twists and unexpected turns that had me in suspense fresh from the start till the last page.
Jo is a woman in her thirties who's back in her small home town. A lot has changed and a lot is still the same.
The storyline is set in Australia, the characters are great and the plottwists had me guessing till the last page. A great read, 4,75 stars.

Returning home to dry and dusty Arthurville, journalist Jo Sharpe is reacquainted with the head of the local newspaper, her gruff and grumpy father. While Jo enjoys seeing her old friends, she can’t help thinking about her mother and little sister, who disappeared when Jo was a child. Now that she’s back in town, she intends to use the investigative techniques she’s learned as a reporter to try to find out what happened to her family. But Arthurville is a small town and folks in placers like that don’t like their dirty laundry aired out for all to see. Just how far are they willing to go to make sure this secret never sees the light of day?

Thank you NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Author for this brilliant advanced ebook copy!

A Little Bird by Wendy James was just the book I needed to get me out of my reading slump!
As soon as I started reading, the writing drew me in. She is a master at letting the writing speak for itself.

The characters-- Jo was on a mission and will stop at nothing to find the truth! She is a true bad@$$!

The story-- Was engaging! I in no way wanted to stop reading! That makes a book a five star to me!

Fresh out of a bad relationship a journalist Jo finds herself back home in her old, drought-out town in Arthurville.
She has a straining relationship with her angry father, and has found a new job at the local community newspaper. She is experiences some grief that has sparked some questions about the disappearance of her mother and little sister. She has to find the answers she desperately needs..
As she digs for those answers and investigates on her own she soon sees that someone close to home doesn't want her poking around for any answers from n the past. And they will do anything to keep that little bird from telling the truth!

My Feelings--
I loved this fast paced read. It was so interesting. I wanted it to keep going.
Riveting.... And for me a true page-turner.

So thank you for giving me the chance to read & review this outstanding advance ebook copy!
It was amazing!


.