Night Road Paperback – January 4, 2022

Lexi is a product of the system. It has failed her from birth. She would go into the foster system then her mom would clean up long enough to get her back then repeat. She never wanted to be like her mom. She was finally adopted by her aunt. Although the aunt was poor she loved Lexi. She started her freshman year at a new school. Kids knew she was poor and began picking on her. A boy named Zach stood up for her. He was gorgeous but out of her league. At lunch she went outside to find a quiet place to read when she met Mia. They hit it off immediately. And became best friends. Mia and Zach are twins. Their home is perfect. Jude the twins mom loved Lexi and let her know that Zach was off limits due to a dilemma from the past where girls would say they were Lexi’s friend just to get close to Zach. But junior Lexi and Zach fell for each other. It briefly caused problems for Mia. Eventually the three were inseparable. Senior year comes and so does the parties and drinking. They all started applying to Colleges. Lexi did not have the same opportunities as the twins. Lexi would need to do community college while the twins would go off to college. Zach didn’t want to leave Lexi and fought with his parents. One last party would change all their lives. One life would end and one would go to jail. The system again would fail Lexi. This was such a good book. Heart wrenching with a real life look at rich vs poor.

I normally don’t write reviews but I think I’ll think about this book for a very long time!After reading some of the negative reviews, I was extremely nervous that I was wasting my time. But it was the exact opposite! I will agree, this book was overly descriptive at parts and could have been 50-100 pages less but it still was a beautiful story. Navigating grief is different for everyone, so any review complaining about Jude’s storyline and how she handled her situation poorly is complaining to complain. As a mom of twins, I couldn’t imagine losing one of them, let alone any child. Time moves fast and she healed the way she needed to. I also think the love story was perfect and ended exactly how it needed to be. I don’t need to talk a lot about it, just read this book 😊I would 100% recommend this book and I am so happy I stuck with it!

I'm trying to read all of Kristin Hannah's books after The Nightingale and this is my second read of her books.From the start I knew I'd enjoy this book because of how Jude spoke of her kids and how wonderful and close her two twin children (Zach and Mia) are. Zach, her son, is the handsome and popular boy where as his sister, Mia, is unsure of herself and prefers to be by herself. That is until the new girl, Lexi comes in.Regardless of where Lexi came from Jude and her family welcome her into their family after she and Mia become best friends. Together the three teens go though life beside each other and vow to always be together until one night changes everything.Loss among the family takes a toll and things are not the same between anyone. Everyone's relationship with each other changes and there seems like there's no light at the end of the tunnel until life is brought back into the family. It takes great strength for them to come back to what they were.There was a lot of character growth from each person in this story but I think Jude outshone the rest. She did what most mothers do: She put her child/children before herself.

This is one of those amazing books where you don’t think that you’re going to cry and then you’re like completely sobbing when you read it, but it’s not something that causes pain. Most of it is relief and joy crying with pain, but the author was just absolutely incredible in writing both.

There were times in the beginning when I wondered what the plot was going to be. Then it’s there all of a sudden and you can’t stop reading. I cried, laughed, and cried some more. Young love, devastating loss, and pain beyond imagine. Somehow it all comes together and you are so glad you stopped and read the book.

This book was a great book. Overall the story was really good. And held my interest. I didn’t really figure out all the plot twist ahead of the storyline so that was a plus! My only reason for 4 stars is my dislike for one of the main characters personality. I won’t say more so I don’t spoil it. But it didn’t keep me from reading the book.