"After Zoe Baxter loses her baby, the only way she can find of coping is to try again. But her husband Max disagrees - more than that, he wants a divorce. When they separate, there is no mention of the unborn children they created together, still waiting at the clinic.

The Zoe falls in love again, out of the blue, and finds herself with an unexpected second chance to have a family.

But Max has found a new life too - one with no place in it for people like Zoe. And he will stand up in court to say that her new choice of partner makes her an unfit mother."

Acquired via PaperBackSwap. (Unabridged on 14 CDs; read by Therese Plummer, Brian Hutchison, Michele O. Medlin, & Mia Barron)

Max and Zoe Baxter, married nine years, have struggled to have a baby. After suffering several miscarriages and a stillbirth after several rounds of IVF, Max has finally had enough and seeks a divorce. Zoe is devastated. Max moves in with his brother, and Zoe eventually becomes close to her friend Vanessa. What wasn't discussed in the divorce settlement was what would happen to the three remaining frozen embryos that Max and Zoe left at the fertility clinic. Who do they belong to? And who should control what happens to them when both Zoe and Max decide they want them?

I keep thinking Jodi Picoult will one day run out of controversial topics to write about, but so far that hasn't happened. This was another good example of presenting both sides of the story, and illustrating that not everything is black and white. You've got homosexuality, the Evangelical church, divorce rights, frozen embryos, some teenage depression, and what it means to be a good parent. And of course a courtroom drama to help decide who's right and who's wrong, when of course it's never that easy. I enjoyed this, with the exception of a couple things. While I realize Evangelicals and a fair amount of other Christians do come across the way they are portrayed in this book, I think Picoult lends a bad name to Christianity in general. Not all Christians are like that, and I think it's important to remember that. Secondly, I read the audiobook, which has some songs interspersed between chapters, with lyrics written by Jodi Picoult and the songs composed and performed by a friend of hers. These were meant to add to the story (esp. in light of the character of Zoe being a music therapist), but I found them distracting and not particularly enjoyable. The lyrics were okay I guess, but the music and voice were not so appealing to me. I think I could've done without them altogether.

Going into an audio bookbox....

This book came back to me in the recent round of HI77’s Audio Bookbox. Thank you for playing!

Included in Audio Bookbox #4. Enjoy!