Book Review: Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult

http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Goodreads Synopsis: One miscarriage too many spelled the end of Max and Zoe Baxter's marriage. Though the former couple went quite separate ways, their fates remained entangled: After veering into alcoholism, Max is saved in multiple senses by his fundamentalist conversion; Zoe, for her part, finds healing relief in music therapy and the friendship, then romantic love with Vanessa, her counselor. After Zoe and Vanessa, now married, decide to have a baby, they realize that they must join battle with Max, who objects on both religious and financial grounds.

466 pages
3.73 average rating on Goodreads
Published: 2011
Genre: Adult Fiction, Drama, Romance, Controversial

My Review:

When I picked up this book I expected an in-depth, multi-viewpoint account of some controversial issue, with quick-witted characters and raw emotions. Jodi Picoult did NOT disappoint.

Max and Zoe Baxter have been married for nine years, and have dug themselves into quite a hole of debt and despair with infertility treatments - the result of which has been two miscarriages and a stillborn. When Zoe says she wants to try again, Max decides he's had enough, and they divorce. Max moves in with his straight-arrow brother and his wife, and finds his way out of the bottle and into the arms of Jesus. Zoe finds her way into the arms of Vanessa, a counsellor at the school where Zoe sometimes works as a music therapist. Though Max and Zoe have gone very separate ways, they must deal with each other once more, in court, to determine what will happen to their remaining embryos, waiting in a freezer at the in-vitro clinic.

I really enjoyed the beginning of this book, which talked in-depth about Zoe and Max's fertility treatments. I hope to one day become a fertility doctor, so I like reading anything involving that branch of medicine.

As usual with Picoult's books, I fell in love with the characters immediately, especially Zoe. You can feel how deeply she wants a baby, and become so connected with her that you feel each injection, each miscarriage, each implantation, along with her. From page one, I was rooting for her to get what she wanted. Vanessa seems to be a super open-minded individual, and she seemed willing to do anything to make Zoe happy. Although Max was a slimeball at times, I generally liked his character as well and kept hoping for things to work out for him.

Is it just me or do all of the books by this author end up with someone in a courtroom? This doesn't actually bother me, but Angela, Zoe's lawyer in this novel, and her attempts at hilarity grew old fast in my opinion, and she got on my nerves quite a bit.

This book's plot is pretty fast-paced; there's always some new issue arising, and thus the plot was never boring. I was really pleased with the ending, although it was a bit abrupt and I wouldn't have minded it being extended, or even a sequel book. I'd like to know what happens to Max's brother, Reid, and if later on in life all of the characters are happy with the decisions they've made.

Overall I give this book 4/5 stars. I really enjoyed it and it will probably be put on my "for keeps" shelf, but I would've liked a longer ending.

If anyone else has read this I would love to know what you thought of it!

May TBR

Good morning everyone!

Today I'm showing you the books I intend to read in the month of May. I'm setting my goal at three books this month. I'd love for it to be more than that but with the school schedule I have coming up I don't see it being possible. I cannot wait for school to be over (57 more days, but hey, who's counting) so that I can have more time to devote to reading. 

So, with that being said, here are the books I plan to read this month! 

1. Pregnant Pause by Han Nolan

This book is one I've had for a while, but have never gotten around to reading. I haven't heard much about it, but I believe the general premise is that a teenage girl from a religious family gets pregnant, and has to decide what to do with the baby, and her life. This somehow leads to her working at a camp for overweight kids until there's a tragedy of sorts? I look forward to reading this book because I don't know much about it and therefore have no idea what to expect. 

2. The Choice by Nicholas Sparks

This is another book I've had sitting on my shelf forever and never picked up to read. Although I am well versed in most Nicolas Sparks books, I have no idea what this one is about, and so this will be another blind read for me this month. According to Goodreads, the book is about a bachelor named Travis who quite enjoys his lifestyle and sees no need for a woman to "cramp his lifestyle" until his new redheaded, not-single neighbour moves in. Travis decides he has to have her, and so ensues the typical guy-pursues-already-taken-girl-and-drama-unfolds plot. I mostly look forward to reading this because of the way Nicholas Sparks writes, and how he makes you fall in love with the words even moreso than the characters saying them. 

3. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

I believe I may be the last person on the earth to have never read any Lord of the Rings books or seen any of the movies or be able to tell you the general plot without doing either of the aforementioned things. That, my friends, is going to change this month! 

I bought this book in the fall of 2013 with intentions to read it as a novel study for my English class, but I ended up reading another book for that purpose, so I figure I will read this now. I am told that this book is not exactly a part of The Lord of the Rings series, but more of an accompanying novel, but please correct me if this is not the case. I'm not even going to look this up on Goodreads, because I think it's super fun that I'm going into such a popular book without a clue of what happens in it. 

I'm sure I'll be watching the movie immediately after finishing the book, if only to affirmate that the book is always better, but I will likely post a comparison/review post of both the book and the film.

Although I may not have much time for reading this month, I'm glad I've picked three very different books, none of which I know what about, so that the reading I do fit in should be pretty interesting. 

What are you guys reading this month? Let me know below or tweet me @_withsugarontop ! 

Thank you for reading, and have a wonderful day!