Thirteen year old Anniston Harlan and her family live on and operate a pecan orchard in Bay Spring, Alabama. A well -known and longtime family of the area, they are looked up to by the other residents. Anni lives in town with her mother Oralee and father Rey. On the orchard grounds live her grandmother Princella and grandfather Vaughn. Her aunt Comfort lives in a small house not far from the main house and has just announced her engagement to her boyfriend, Solly, at the thanksgiving dinner, enraging her brother Cole.

Anni's uncle Cole has always caused dissension within the family and has always been favored and protected by her grandmother. Princella was pregnant with Cole and deserted by his father while in college. Vaughn, always taken with Princella, stepped in and raised Cole as his own. Comfort arrives bloody and hysterical at Anni's house with Cole close on her heels. A fight ensues, with the brothers shooting each other dead. This begins the isolation of her aunt and the secrets that have been covered for generations, secrets involving incest and its unbearable pain. Meeting Jed Manon, a foster kid, is the beginning of Anni's healing as he reveals his abuse with the foster family, which shows her that she isn't alone. When Jed is feared dead and the truth about her grandmother's history is known, Anni is faced again with her need to search for that "normal" family she desires.

HOW SWEET THE SOUND is a heart-rending tale of a young girl striving for understanding of her very dysfunctional family. While trying to deal with the death of her father and a new young love, Anni's family history comes back to haunt her. Faith in God, hope, and the will to move on are lessons this young girl must learn. This is such a sweet, nostalgic story of the south with many twists and turns throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed HOW SWEET THE SOUND and couldn't put it down until I had turned the very last page. I have never read any works by Amy K Sorrells, but can't express enough the depth in which she writes.

Book Summary

A Southern Novel of Second Chances

From a distance, the Harlans appear to be the perfect Southern family. Wealth and local fame mask the drama and dysfunction swirling through their family line. But as the summer heats up, a flood tide of long hidden secrets surface.

Devastation from a rape followed by the murder of two family members brings three generations of the Harlans together on their pecan plantation in Bay Spring, Alabama. Chief among them is Anniston, who by the time she turned thirteen thought she’d seen it all. But as her heart awakens to the possibility of love, she begins to deal with her loneliness and grief.

This tender coming-of-age tale, inspired by the story of Tamar in 2 Samuel 13, shows how true healing and hope comes only from God. Though our earthly family can wound and disappoint, our heavenly Father brings freedom to those long held captive through His mercy and grace.