Night Road by Kristin Hannah

For a mother, life comes down to a series of choices.
To hold on…
To let go..
To forget…
To forgive…
Which road will you take?

For eighteen years, Jude Farraday has put her children’s needs above her own, and it shows—her twins, Mia and Zach—are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill moves into their small, close knit community, no one is more welcoming than Jude. Lexi, a former foster child with a dark past, quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable.

Jude does everything to keep her kids safe and on track for college. It has always been easy-- until senior year of high school. Suddenly she is at a loss. Nothing feels safe anymore; every time her kids leave the house, she worries about them.

On a hot summer’s night her worst fears come true. One decision will change the course of their lives. In the blink of an eye, the Farraday family will be torn apart and Lexi will lose everything. In the years that follow, each must face the consequences of that single night and find a way to forget…or the courage to forgive.
 

Night Road is vivid, emotionally complex novel that raises profound questions about motherhood, identity, love, and forgiveness. It is a luminous, heartbreaking novel that captures both the exquisite pain of loss and the stunning power of hope. This is Kristin Hannah at her very best, telling an unforgettable story about the longing for family, the resilience of the human heart, and the courage it takes to forgive the people we love. ~~synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts on Night Road ~~ 

OMG - this is one amazing book! I loved it but I don't think I have cried so hard over a book in such a long time. This story is so emotional and heartbreaking but I could not stop reading it. Kristin Hannah writes so well that I was truly in the story and bonded with this family as if they were my own and felt the emotions that they were feeling.

Jude, the mother of teenage twins, Mia and Zach is so entrenched in her children's lives that when the unthinkable happens, she cannot forgive or forget and everything and everyone in her life falls away. Can she ever get past it and have a life again? The emotions that everyone feels and goes through are just gut-wrenching but the sobering thought I kept having was that this kind of things 'could' happen to anyone, at anytime ~ it is not just a 'story'. 

This book is one that I would have read straight through in one sitting, if I could've. (Darn, I should have just called in sick ~ hehe) I had a hard time putting it down but I also did not want it to end. 

My book group won copies of Night Road from the ReadingGroupGuides.com Registered Book Group Contest (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!) and we read the book in February. I am extremely slow at getting our thoughts posted about this book but that does not take away from the fact that all 8 of us LOVED the book and we had such a great discussion about it. This book does make a great book club book because there are characters that you can just love and other characters that you just want to throttle. And there are so many topics and situations that pertain to teenagers now that we really got into some great discussions. 

And here is my last testimonial about how everyone felt about this book. Some times when we have multiple copies of the same book, we donate them to our local public library so they can create a book club bag for their patrons to check out. Not one person in my book group was willing to part with their copy of Night Road ~ we all still have it on our personal bookshelves. And I am thinking it's about time to read it again. This would be a great summer read to lose myself in again!

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