Grace Mattioli is an American author of The Greco Family Trilogy: Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees, Discovery of an Eagle, and The Bird That Sang in Color. While her books address serious topics such as addiction, grief, and death, they are written with warmth, humor, emotional insight, and a strong sense of hope.
Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees, the first novel in The Greco Family Trilogy, follows 23-year-old Silvia Greco as she attempts to bring healing and unity to her deeply conflicted family. The second novel, Discovery of an Eagle, focuses on Silvia’s older brother, Cosmo Greco, whose confrontation with the fragility of life becomes a turning point that allows him to live more fully and intentionally. The Bird That Sang in Color, a prequel to the first two books, centers on Greco family matriarch Donna Greco and her journey toward living authentically, guided by the quiet, unspoken wisdom of her brother, Vincent.
If you enjoy Matt Haig’s The Midnight Library, Karen Joy Fowler’s We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, and Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels, you’ll love these books.
Grace is currently writing a memoir, A Dragonfly Mosaic: My Journey from Fear to Love. The memoir explores her lived experience of complex trauma, profound grief, addiction, and suicidal ideation, as well as her long-term healing journey. Through personal storytelling, the book traces her movement from fear and emotional avoidance toward learning to sit with pain, relate to it differently, and integrate it with compassion and self-love—ultimately moving toward wholeness and emotional resilience.
Grace has been a librarian for nearly twenty-five years. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband and her cats.
Guest Blog Posts
CPTSD Foundation Website, 2026
Previous Interviews
The Reading and Writing Podcast, 2021
Nessie’s Place Book Reviews, 2021
Author Expert Wire Podcast, 2020
Read, Write, Repeat Podcast, 2019
Fiction Books Biz Book Reviews, 2014
Jersey Girl Book Reviews, 2012
Be sure to check out Grace’s Amazon page and her Goodreads page, where you’ll find hundreds of reviews on her family trilogy books. On Grace’s blog , there are three series related to the trilogy books. In one, Grace shares delicious Italian food recipes from her debut, Olive Branches Don’t Grow on Trees. There is a series on the many places visited in her road trip novel, Discovery of an Eagle. Her latest blog series features the art work that inspired her novel, The Bird that Sang in Color.
