Night Road by Kristin Hannah

Synopsis:

This is a fiction book about Jude Farraday, a wife and mother who is very attached and devoted to her twins, Mia and Zach. Zach is more popular and outgoing, and Mia is more reserved and overshadowed by her brother. Lexi Baill is a former foster child who bonds with the whole Farraday family and becomes friends with Mia and dates Zach.

When they are seniors in high school, one night, after attending a party and getting drunk, Lexi drives the three of them home in Zach’s car, and they have an accident in which Zach has chemical burns and broken ribs, and Mia is in surgery for severe internal injuries. Mia’s injuries are too severe, and she is declared brain dead. Zach tells his mother that Lexi was the one driving, and that she was intoxicated.

After the accident, Jude battles with her anger and grief. Lexi contacts an attorney who advises her to plead not guilty due to her age and the possibility of her going to prison, however Lexi ends up pleading guilty and is sentenced to sixty-five months in prison. In prison, Lexi finds out that she is pregnant with Zach’s child, and after giving birth to his daughter, Grace, she gives him full custody of her.

After getting out of prison, Zach is in his first year of medical school, and Grace is in kindergarten. Lexi meets Grace, and files a petition for joint custody of her, and Jude allows Lexi to have supervised visitation of Grace. Eventually, Jude forgives Lexi for her role in the accident, and has closure and peace about Mia, and Zach and Lexi get back together and raise Grace together as a family.

Review:

I enjoyed this book and found it to be very thought provoking and touching.

“It’s impossible to love your children too much.”

“A girl without a mother was a prisoner of a different kind.”

“I read somewhere that grief can be like breaking a bone, you have to set it right or it can ache forever.”

“Maybe time didn’t heal wounds exactly, but it gave you a new kind of armor, or a new perspective. A way to remember with a smile, instead of a sob.”

“People think love is an act of faith. Sometimes its an act of will.”