Book Review- Handle With Care

I just finished reading Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult.

From the inside cover:

Things break all the time.Day breaks, waves break, voices break. Promises break. Hearts break.

Every expectant parent will tell you that they don't want a perfect baby, just a healthy one. Charlotte and Sean O'Keefe would have asked for a healthy baby, too, if they'd been given the choice. Instead, their lives are made up of sleepless nights, mounting bills, the pitying stares of "luckier" parents, and maybe worst of all, the what-ifs. What if their child had been born healthy? But it's all worth it because Willow is, well, funny as it seems, perfect. She's smart as a whip, on her way to being as pretty as her mother, kind, brave, and for a five-year-old an unexpectedly deep source of wisdom. Willow is Willow, in sickness and in health.

Everything changes, though, after a series of events forces Charlotte and her husband to confront the most serious what-ifs of all. What if Charlotte should have known earlier of Willow's illness? What if things could have been different? What if their beloved Willow had never been born? To do Willow justice, Charlotte must ask herself these questions and one more. What constitutes a valuable life?

Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, Handle with Care brings us into the heart of a family bound by an incredible burden, a desperate will to keep their ties from breaking, and, ultimately, a powerful capacity for love. Written with the grace and wisdom she's become famous for, this novel by beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult offers us an unforgettable story about the fragility of life and the lengths we will go to protect it.

I love reading books by Jodi Picoult. No matter what the topic the book is about, she makes you FEEL! Her books often have a sadnness tinged to it. But there is also a theme of hope. This story was no different. I read this book in only a couple of hours. It was riveting! It was a story of love--between parents, between best friends, and the love for a child. Once again, Ms. Picoult bring up topics that are very hot in society and make you wonder which side you would be on if you were in the main characters shoes. I love that each of the main characters have a voice in the story--that each chapter is told from one of the characters (And done in different fonts, which helps!)

The only reason I didn't give this a rating of 5 was that I felt that it too closely resembled another one of her stories, My Sister's Keeper. In fact, I predicted the ending early on. But that doesn't stop me from devouring the book. I can't wait until the next one by Jodi Picoult comes out!

I gave this book a rating of 4/5.