Harvesting the Heart

by Jodi Picoult

Harvesting the Heart Picoult, Jodi

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Chick Lit, Romance, Audiobook, Drama, Adult

469 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Jodi Picoult is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of twenty-eight novels, including Wish You Were Here, Small Great Things, Leaving Time, and My Sister’s Keeper, and, with daughter Samantha van Leer, two young adult novels, Between the Lines and Off the Page. Picoult lives in New Hampshire.

MAD HONEY, her new novel co-authored with Jennifer Finney Boylan, is available in hardcover, ebook, and audio on October 4, 2022.

Website: http://www.jodipicoult.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jodipicoult

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jodipicoult

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book lacked what I like about Jodi Picoult books--twisting plot lines, multiple, relatable characters

I thought the plot was highly predictable. I didn't care for the main character--a young woman whose mother left her at five, had an abortion at 18, had a kid and didn't think she would be a good mother b/c she didn't have one and aborted her first baby.

I didn't relate to the marital problems. I couldn't understand why the two characters ever got married in the first place-they were from very different backgrounds.

I didn't like listening to it, and I think that if I had been actually reading it I would have liked it even less b/c it was so slow.

[Carey Henderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jodi Picoult is one of my favorite authors, so when I found this novel for .75 at a library book sale AND I had never read it, it was all I could do to hold back the squeals & not make a complete fool out of myself. Jodi Picoult writes about hot, current topics in a fictional way (suicide, stem cell research, kidnappings, murders, school shootings etc), topics that are unfortunately all to common. She puts “stories” behind these issues & makes you think about these topics, how would you react if you were the shooters mom, the caretaker of a cloned child, or the sibling of a kidnapped victim. The book jacket for Harvesting the Heart didn’t describe what it was about, but given the author I knew I’d like it. Boy, was I wrong…very, very wrong! In fact, this was up there with one of the WORST books I’ve ever read. If this had been my first Jodi Picoult novel, chances are it would’ve been my last. Fortunately I assumed she must have been having an “off” month when she wrote this because it was TERRIBLE.

I’m going to try to summarize the book very quickly. If there had been a dust jacket I imagine it would’ve went something like this: (at least if I had written it)

Paige O’ Toole-a wannabe artist, dealing with abandonment issues from her mother leaving her at a young age, abandons her father by running away in the middle of the night, then abandons her husband & child several years later, then finds her abandoned mom & abandons her because her mom isn’t sensitive enough to Paige’s whining about how hard she had it, only to return to her husband & child expecting them to be forgiving, supportive, & happy to see her, because she’s a victim of abandonment.

Ummmm…yeah! Don’t think it works like that Paige.

I think this novel was so terrible, to me anyways, because Paige felt like she was entitled to selfishness. That it was her RIGHT to be careless with other people’s feelings because she was hurting. Now I’m not the moral police & I have certainly been careless & selfish with people’s feelings & hearts. But at some point, either through your own conscience or outside factors, you wake up & face what you’ve done. Paige never did that. Throughout the whole novel she felt her actions were justified-she was an abandoned child, she had an abortion, she lost the love of her life, she married a man who was never home, she was a bad mom, her in-laws hated her, she gave up her dreams…BLAH BLAH BLAH. I got so tired of hearing her complain how hard she had it & her continuous whining about being a punching bag for God. The whole, “What have I done to deserve this?” tantrum she threw in the middle of downtown Boston, literally made me toss my book across the room. She just never got it. She never got that regardless of your past, it’s never an excuse for bad behavior in the present. She never figured out why Nicholas was so mad at her for leaving (after all she said she would be back) & then manipulated her way into his workplace & stalked him…it was just weird. Then she preceded to have a nervous breakdown after calling her husband a liar…huh??? Weird!

I felt the most empathy for Paige’s father, who was the only character in the novel that I truly liked. He never stopped loving his wife, he gave up his dreams to raise a daughter that he loved, even when she to, left him. He was the example of what a parent should be. I wish Jodi Picoult would’ve involved his character more in the storyline.

I wouldn’t recommend this novel, but only because I personally didn’t like it. Try any of her other books (my favorite happens to be Plain Truth), but skip this one. Harvesting the Heart isn’t like her other novels, the writing is good, however, it’s just an annoying book. Especially if you get passionate & involved in books, like I do, it’ll make you wanna slap Paige. I did read some reviews about this novel on Goodreads & more people liked it than not. So it’s strictly a matter of taste.

And I happen to have excellent taste!

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Generally speaking, I love the author. While it was decent, this book didn't live up to my high expectations of her. The entire novel was centered around only 2 characters. I'm a huge fan of character development, but it seemed like she was trying to convince herself as well as the reader of the character's motivations by repetition.

Spoiler alert - Basically it boils down to rich boy meets eccentric girl with a past. Boy unknowingly trys to change the very things he fell in love with. Girl becomes trapped and overwhelmed with the direction of her life and her responsibilities as a new mother. Girl flees the scene in search of her long lost mother. Girl realizes that she really had what she wanted all along. Boy is stubborn and doesn't want to take girl back. A life event brings boy and girl back together. The ending is vague as to whether they have decided to make their reunion permanent.

[Britta · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He wandered off, leaving me wondering why white people named girl babies things like Hope and Faith and Patience - names they could never live up to - and black mothers called their daughters Mercy, Deliverance, Salvation - crosses they'd always have to bear."

"That someone like [him] could want me was still overwhelming. He held me the way a child holds a snowflake, lightly, as if he knew in the back of his mind I might disappear in the blink of an eye. He wore his self-assurance like a soft overcoat. I wa snot just in love with him; I worshipped him. I had never met anyone like him, and, amazed that it was ME he had chosen, I made up my mind: I would be whatever he wanted; I would follow him to the ends of the earth."

"Thinking that in my house - OUR house - furniture would be soft, with curved edges, colored bright to remind you you were alive, and everything, EVERYTHING, would be replaceable."

"Suddenly I realize that this is what I've been waiting for - a man who depends entirely on me... I dreamed for years of a man who couldn't live without me, a man who pictured my face when he closed his eyes, who loved me when I was a mess in the morning and when dinner was late and even when I overloaded the washing machine and burned out the motor. [My son] stares up at me as if I can do no wrong. I have always wanted someone who treats me the way he does; I just didn't know that I'd have to give birth to him."

"It's not about possession and limits. It is about giving everything until there's nothing left to give, and then searching until you find a little bit more.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Truthfully, this book was good enough for four stars, but I hated the entitled and egotistical character of the husband so much that I can’t get over it. I guess the fact that he elicits this kind of reaction from me is evidence of what a great writer Jodi Picoult really is.

Also, I really, really, really did not like the protagonist’s parents. But I totally loved her in-laws! So yeah, the book actually deserves four stars, but let’s say the writer did too good a job. The husband really needs to grow up if he’s got any chance of being a good father.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

In typical Picoult style here’s another controversial topic, this book explores motherhood and absence.

Another book that when I started, was difficult to put down.

[Suzzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

First and foremost, I am not a mother and I believe being a parent is probably one of the most difficult but rewarding roles in life. That being said it just has never been for me. This is a story that demonstrates how difficult the role can be to some parents not just mothers, whereas it comes naturally to others. I did not warm up to Paige in this book and honestly I found Nicholas a bit more sympathetic but not by too much. I believe both main characters had aspects that readers will find selfish and frustratingly stubborn. It just leaves the readers unable to be sympathetic to them.

However, this is a good read. It is not an easy read where you are going to feel a minimum of emotions (but then again if you are looking for an easy semi-emotional read, you are probably not picking up a Jodi Picoult book). Instead you will get grasped into the story and feel an irritation with the main characters.

[Regina Gifford · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was really bad. It had the feel of one of those insipid made-for-tv movies.

I’ve read several of Picoult’s other novels. They often have some kind of topical theme. Not exactly the most thought provoking works, they usually present the theme in a somewhat entertaining fashion. This novel (with its theme of ambiguous motherhood) was a complete disappointment.

Perhaps the worst aspect is character development (or lack thereof). The young mother is not sympathetic. She’s self destructive, over indulgent and just not believable. Her mother (the original self-destructee) is even worse. The reconciliation between mother and daughter was sentimental and contrived. The young, uneducated wife stalking the Harvard educated physician through a hospital was just plain weird.

Ambiguous motherhood and the theme of abandonment can be a worthwhile subject if handled correctly (check out Anne Tyler’s ‘Ladder of Years’ which is outstanding, for example). But this book doesn’t even come close. I would not recommend it.

[Debbie Lancaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I longed to be a mother. I wanted children, lots of them. I have four of the most beautiful people you could ever meet. Motherhood is hard! Taking care of a newborn is difficult. There were times I wished the children would just go away but I never thought of leaving. Some people never have children because they can't find it in their hearts to share and give of themselves. Some walk away from their children. Some women abort. We form opinions and judge. Are they selfish? A bad person? A bad mother? A book is a story of events unfolding allowing the reader to form her opinion. I can't imagine a guy reading this book. It's a chick book. The movie "The Good Mother" made me feel the same way this book did. I don't agree with what the characters did but that wasn't why I read it. I just wanted a story about people and their life experiences.

[Anita Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sweet Jesus, this was the worst Picoult book I've ever read. Boring plot full of holes I could drive a truck through, and self-absorbed, completely unlikable characters, with the exception of Paige's father, who deserved better than the hand he was dealt. Hell, he deserved better than being in this book. I'm as big a Picoult fan as anyone, but I was sorely disappointed in this one. Looks like the library is getting an extra donation this weekend. Hopefully the next person likes it better than I did, but if not, don't shoot the messenger.

[Marieanne Fabiano]

This book was most definitely not awesome! I disliked each of the characters, who each had no redeeming qualities and yet, I could not put it down. It's one of those books that you hate reading, but that you must see through to the end. In short, this is a story about a woman (Paige) who was abandoned by her mother at the age of 5. When Paige turns 18, she has an abortion and runs away from home. Her new home becomes Boston and in just a few short days of living there, Paige meets Nicholas, an up and coming cardiothorasic surgeon. The two fall in love and marry, against Nicholas's parents wishes. Years later, Paige becomes pregnant and when her baby turns three months old, she runs away, again! This time, in search of her mother. The story goes on, Paige finds her mother, lives with her for several months and then decides she ought to go back to her life in Boston. The ending is very ambiguous and we are left to never know if Paige and Nicholas reconcile or not. I HATE endings like that and I HATE women like Paige, who are never really happy in their lives. A terrible book!

[Karah Spahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

As much as I like jodi Picoult books, this definitely wasn't one of my favorites. It probably was my least favorite of all of her books. I did love her descriptions of people, places, and events but some of it was way overdone. She seemed to ramble on and on about previous events in the characters' lives or some odd description of a place they once visited or experienced.

The story is about a young woman who runs away from her home in Chicago and finds herself in Cambridge. She waits tables and meets an older medical resident whom she marries shortly after. Her mother left her when she was four and so much of the book keeps coming back to this fact. The main character, Paige, is annoyingly hung up on this (I guess I might be too but come on, this is fiction!) and eventually leaves her infant son and husband to find her mother. She stays away for a couple months and then is baffled when her husband doesn't welcome her back with open arms. Her husband is an arrogant, uppity, surgical doctor that she continually tries to impress.

Much of the book is filled with Paige's annoying stories of growing up without a mother or Nicholas' (her husband) stories of his privileged life. After Paige returns, Nicholas thinks of divorcing her and is set upon that path when their son becomes ill. Just when the reader is thinking the two of them might reconcile their differences and work on their marriage, the book ends. I like the open-ended ending but just wish that it would've been resolved a bit more (and a few hundred pages earlier!)

If you want to read a Picoult book, I'd stick to her more recent books. They're worth it!

[Kelsey Hagenah · Rating 1 out of 5]

no.

[Petra X · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hadn't wanted to read another Jodi Picoult. After starting on the high note of My Sister's Keeper and working my way through a totally formulaic series always with a twist at the end, I didn't hold out much hope for this book but it was the only one I had for a long night in a hotel in a foreign land.

It was quite different in that it was distinctly overwritten, and in parts quite beautifully-written too. Usually I think of Picoult as a storyteller whose characters are somewhat sketchy ciphers that appear with different accoutrements in book after book, but the two main characters in this book were completely individual, perhaps especially the woman. Unfortunately nearly five hundred pages of two characters, one a bolter, the daughter of a bolter and one trying not very hard to escape his patrician family, gets boring without a good story.

The ending was pleasingly predictable instead of some manufactured codswallop like the ending of My Sister's Keeper and the rest, and I would have given it 3.5 stars if I could.

[Kyra · Rating 1 out of 5]

So once in a blue moon, I read a Jodi Picoult opus. Because it's there. Because I am feeling brain dead. Whatever. And usually they are cliched but OKAY. Jodi can string her sentences together, and she writes about moms and kids and relationships and stuff we can all relate to, especially when we are feeling slightly brain dead. So I need to announce that I am seriously disappointed ...nay, DISGUSTED with the sloppy research in Jodi's 1995 Harvesting the Heart, the love story of a poor girl from Chicago whose father is a crackpot Irish inventor and whose mother abandoned the family when the daughter was 5 years old. There is Catholicism (sloppily researched cliche Catholicism), an abortion (!) (deeply regretted), and a rich handsome cardio-thoracic surgeon from Boston. I could just just take all this. BUT there is also an uber expensive open hunter named Donegal who colics at one point while runaway mom cuddles next to him as the horse thrashes in agony, and, subsequently, found-again mom allows her beginning rider daughter to gallop priceless Donegal through a grassy meadow full of gopher holes and unmown thigh-high grass - nope, sorry, this will NOT work for me. It will not work for anyone who has ever been around real horses, even on a rank beginner level. I seriously think Jodi wrote this book just to see if anyone was paying attention. From Irish dad's totally ludicrous inventions to the under-researched near death intussusception near the book's finale, this book is filled with gaping holes. Shame, Jodi, shame.

[Judy · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you are a fan of Jodi Picoult, do not read this book. Put. This. Book. Down. And. Back. Away. It's terrible. Or if not actually terrible, it certainly doesn't do justice to the other books she has written, which deal with complex and current subjects like organ transplants or transsexuality. It was copywritten in 1993, so it must be one of her earliest books, before she had figured out how to write a good book.

Is it about abandonment? Art? Horses? Open heart surgery? Who knows? This book wanders on and on for over 400 pages, and when I was (thankfully) done, I couldn't tell you what it was about, other than a selfish young woman and her caricature of a heart surgeon husband and their improbable courtship and marriage. The symbolism is so heavy-handed that I actually groaned more than once reading it, and all of the characters (with the possible exception of Our Heroine's father) are one-dimensional and shallow.

This is one I'll be glad to put in my Little Free Library, though there's a part of me that thinks I should throw it away so it doesn't ruin Jodi Picoult for some unsuspecting reader who is a newcomer to her work.

[Sara · Rating 1 out of 5]

Jodi Picoults worst. The characters were so dull and predictable--the pretentious, unemotional and rich doctor, the confused, artsy, vulnerable little girl...all her characters in her other novels are so unique..strong..someone you don't see every day and you want to meet. I've seen and read about the characters she wrote about this time. They lacked imagination. In addition, the plot was predictable. I pushed through the whole book expecting the crazy plot twists she is so famous for. Nothing. It went as expected. I also missed her usual story of a legal battle or some debilitating disease. She is so good at researching these things but this book could have easily been written with little research.
*spoiler alert*** the fight at the end with Nicholas seemed to drag on for pages and pages..completely unnecessary and her strange break down at the end was just weird. And how did she not remember any of that night? Okay I get it she was having an anxiety attack...but you simply don't forget what you did the next 5 hours after that.

Don't read. Go after any of her other novels because those are still amazing.

[Georgette · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK, I didn't totally hate this Jodi Picoult. I didn't, however, understand how she lost the plot so efficiently in the last quarter of the book.
Nicholas and Paige have a contented marriage- until Paige finds out she's pregnant. She's filled with mixed emotions, feeling a need to flee, or miscarry the child. She ties this in with the fact that her mother abandoned her and her father when she was 18. This also ties back into an abortion Paige had when with her first ex. The conflicting feelings and repressed emotions build until Paige begins to distance herself from Nicholas, their unborn child, and their marriage. Paige soon gives birth to a healthy baby boy- Max- and her feelings explode into uncertainty, shame at her feelings about her abortion(which no one knows about beside her and her ex, the father), and her mother's abandonment. Paige suddenly begins to realize- when Nicholas, her husband, the cardiac care head, spends more and more time away while she struggles with the first "trappings" of new motherhood. They do address post-partum depression somewhat in this book, but it's glossed over with the mother abandonment issues, which seems to take precedence throughout the book. Paige tries to tell Nicholas, and reach out to get help, but he's obsessed with his career and doesn't think it's something that will continue onward(syndrome of many new fathers who don't realize the depth of their wives' postpartum woes)and it will just "go away". Finally, after three months, Paige finally snaps and tells Nicholas she's going away. She embarks upon a search for her mother- hiring a private detective and finding her living on a horse farm in the South. Paige spends several months with her mother, getting to know her, and finally confronting her about her betrayal. Upon doing this, Paige suddenly realizes how much she misses her son and her marriage. She heads home to an irate Nicholas, who threatens to not only take Max away, but to file for divorce. Paige doesn't go down without swinging. Nicholas' parents, who had shunned Paige from the time her and Nicholas got engaged and all through the marriage, have mellowed in their maturity and being new grandparents, take her in and attempt to help her. Basically, cut to the chase- after all of the soul searching, Max has a brush with death, and Nicholas and Paige reconnect- but only on a physical and psuedo-understanding level. The book ends with no apparent resolution to their marriage, to her mom's role in her life, to anything. You find out what happens to their child, there's an awkward conversation, and that's it. Very open-ended. That part of the book really sucked, no kidding. You give such a shit about these characters and their family unit, and then poof! Gone. Disappointing end.

[Deimante · Rating 5 out of 5]

Labai idomi ir jaudinamti istorija. Meile, seima, motinyste, medicina... Viskas man buvo idomu. Labai patiko 💗💗💗💗💗

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvesting the Heart – Jodi Picoult

I do quite enjoy Jodi Picoult's books but have started to find them a bit formulaic. this one is a bit different. I thought when I read this that it must be a newer book but it is apparently one of her older works. I have to say I prefer this to others she wrote later then.

She still takes a controversial subject and this time it is post natal depression/ struggling with motherhood. This is combined with attitudes of those who have been brought up to think they are superior and how they behave in a marriage.

I did like the characters in that at times I could cheerfully have slapped them whereas at others I felt sympathetic so in that way they were quite real.

I found it really hard to believe that a mother could walk out on her family and nEVER contact them again and yet profess to love them. I just didn't get that. Why not talk about feelings and not just disappear?

I liked Nicholas's parents - they seemed normal in comparison to Paige's parents. Her mother I just didn't get while her father I felt was far too laid back for his own good.

Paige was the daughter of an Irish immigrant father who was a not very good inventor and a mother who ran off when she was five and they never knew why. This haunts Paige throughout her life.

She leaves Chicago and her father when she is about eighteen after having an abortion because she feels her father would be ashamed and the relationship with her boyfriend would be strained .She travels to Boston where she gets a job in a cafe. She starts to draw the customers and begins to have a bit of a cukt following for her work.

She meets Nicholas as a customer in the cafe. He is a trainee doctor from a very privileged back ground and eventually marry. When their son is born Paige really struggles and has little support from Nicholas and things take a huge turn for the worst and the family undergoes a big upheaval.

I won't say any more as it would spoil the story but it was quite a surprise the way thins went from there.

Nicholas was cool and calm and quite self centred and determined and at times not very likeable. He was a brilliant heart surgeon, hence the title but the title has a double meaning re Paige's heart too.

Paige was quite a sympathetic character , she was no push over, she had a great talent for drawing and had survived a lot of emotional trauma in her life. She seemed to be able to forgive very easily as many people had let her down in different ways and yet she never resented this. She was angry with her mother and that dominated her actions and emotions.

The chapters alternate between Paige's and Nicholas' points of view with Paige's chapters written in the first person. I found it a bit annoying that Paige's were in the first person and Nicholas' in the third person . I wish she had stuck to one or the other. I did like the two different perspectives though.

I think the part that really came home to me was the struggle Paige had when the baby is first born. She became a walking feeding machine and lost sight of who she was completely. This is a very hard tie for any new mother and especially hard if you have no support and a difficult baby too. I think many of us would be able to relate to how Paige felt.

I found it interesting that Nicholas, despite being a doctor totally misses the signs of illness in two family members while Paige was far more perceptive about how other's were feeling despite no medical training. There is obviously a difference between surgical ability and emotional support and empathy.


All in all I liked the story and found it much less like her other books in that it didn't follow the same formula and the central topic or subject of the story was much less easy to pin point.

This has restored my interest in Picoult's books and I will be interested to see what she writes next.

I would say that this is one of her better books and if, like me you found her stuff was getting a bit predictable then give this a try as it is a good story with characters you can believe are real people.

[Laura McWilliams · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, before starting the book, I noticed it was on a list of books not to read while pregnant and thought, interesting fact. I started reading the book and a few weeks later found out I was pregnant (surprise!). At one point, the book hit a bit too close to home which made me crabby and my husband banned me from continuing. Thankfully, I didn't share the main character's past, just caught myself sympathizing with the fear of being a new mother. After about a month off, I picked it up again. Halfway through the book, I was able to separate book from life (not always easy!) and was able to enjoy it more.

I love Picoult books, and recently decided to start from the beginning. The threads of her later writing style are clearly starting to be established with this book, but it is also a nice change from the pattern she gets into later on with a heavy focus on the courtroom. I found the story-line to be deep and thought provoking while still carrying the easy-to-read plot line.

Unlike many of Picoult's later books, I did not have any character I truly did not like. That was a nice change of pace. Sure, I disagreed with their thinking sometimes, but if I didn't, what would be the point of reading the book.

One note: I will say that starting this book, I knew it was one of her first books. I have also read two of her other books that were pre-law-focused novels/"hot topic" centered. I knew going into it that this would probably be more story-like and less dramatic plot-twists. I probably gave it more slack than some of the others to leave reviews because of that.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. I would probably give it closer to 3.5 stars, but am feeling generous today.

[Mafi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Temos apenas dois pontos de vista, que é algo que não é muito comum na autora. Paige, já está na fase adulta mas ainda sofre com o abandono da mãe enquanto era uma criança. Aos dezoito, ela própria deixa o pai e aventura-se sozinha na vida de adulta. Contudo os seus planos mudam quando conhece Nicholas, um estudante muito promissor de medicina. Os dois casam-se muito precocemente e com uma gravidez inesperada, Paige encontra-se mais perdida que nunca, sentindo-se uma inútil com o seu pequeno Max, embora aos olhos de todos ela é uma boa mãe. Mas as dúvidas sobre o porquê de ter sido abandonada pela mãe atormentam-na e acaba por repetir a mesma façanha: deixa Max aos cuidados de Nicholas e parte em busca de um paradeiro da mãe.

A sinopse ao inicio pareceu-me bem interessante, porque conhecendo já o estilo da autora, já esperava muito drama e tribunais e questões morais sobre o certo e o errado. Na verdade não temos muito disso aqui, ou melhor temos alguns indícios mas a autora nunca acaba por explorar a fundo algumas questões.

(...)


Está claro aqui que Jodi Picoult ainda não tinha a mestria que agora tem mas também não é um livro assim tão mau. Lê-se bem mas já tendo lido muitos livros melhores da autora, este soube a pouco. Curiosamente embora já tenha sido publicado em 1993, nunca chegou a sair cá em Portugal.

Opinião completa: https://algodaodoceparaocerebro.blogs...

[K's Corner · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first non-five-star JP book. Started out great, then dragged on and on and didn't come back to life for me until the last two chapters.

The story is about a young girl, Paige who at a young age decides to leave home without a word to anyone and starts to drive east. She meets someone, falls in love, gets married and has a baby. Then the struggles--she struggles with her marriage, motherhood and pretty much life in general. She is haunted by her past and the secrets she has left behind. Her own mother had left her and disappeared when she was very young. Now Paige finds herself in a similar predicament and decides to leave her baby, husband and everything behind again. To find herself, find her mother and her own place in life.

3.5 stars.

[Pratibha Suku · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like this Author. I am one of those who must have read majority of her works. And so I can safely say this is not what we love Jodi Picoult for.

This is one of her books which I feel goes in diameterically opposite direction than what it was meant to be. More of a love story than about motherhood.

This being her early works proves only that she is a good storyteller. If you have read some of her recent work like Small Great Things you can easily find how much our author has evolved over time.

Won't recommand it if this is your initial Jodi Picoult reading.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Jodi picoult but this was hard to get through...I thought characters seemed endearing at first but eventually I stopped liking them altogether and didn't care what happened to them...was really hard to get through the last 1/3 but I had already invested the time so I had to finish based on principle

[ChapterOne · Rating 5 out of 5]

For me, taking a break from reading is a happy place on its own. You know you’ll come back to it. You know you’ll love it just as much. You know you will love it always. There will be books until the end of time. It’s not the kind of happiness that makes you bounce with joy – it’s more of a quiet truth that makes you smile.

[Darlene Quinn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although the protagonist, Paige, lacked a certain degree of believably, Picoult kept me turning pages. She has an incredible ability to tap into our human emotions.

Liked it even better the second time around'

[BookishStitcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book when my son was small (so almost a decade ago). I remember being the same age as the main character, who was early 20's. I could relate a lot to her having trouble being pretty young and trying to figure out the whole motherhood thing.

[Sabrina Bain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the book hated the ending. So abrupt.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're familiar with Jodi Picoult's work, you'll know that it usually follows the format of a unique court case with family drama and a moral dilemma. This was Jodi's second novel, so it probably before she found her niche. This book is about Nicholas and Paige, a couple who married very young and are a bit of a train wreck. Paige has a past she doesn't want to talk about with Nicholas and finds herself trapped when they have their first child Max. Abandoned at a young age by her mother, Paige wonders whether or not she's cut out to be a mother. Honestly, both characters are pretty intolerable. They act like children and both are at fault in their marriage. Communication is key!