Sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go…

Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer

About this book: (from the publisher) Mara Nichols is a successful lawyer, devoted wife, and adoptive mother who has received a life-shattering diagnosis. Scott Coffman, a middle school teacher, has been fostering an eight-year-old boy while the boy’s mother serves a jail sentence. Scott and Mara both have five days left until they must say good-bye to the ones they love the most.

About the author: (from her website) Julie Lawson Timmer grew up in Stratford, Ontario. She now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband Dan, their four teenage children and two badly-behaved labs. She is a lawyer by day, a writer, mom/stepmom, fledgling CrossFitter and dreadful cook by night. Five Days Left is her first novel.

Genre: Fiction/Contemporary/Women’s Fiction

Judging this cover: If we’re referring to the cover on the left (the edition I have), my reaction is meh–my only lukewarm reaction to anything attached to this book. To me, this bland cover doesn’t begin to do it justice. I’m not sure what the curled ribbon is supposed to symbolize, and it does nothing to convey the breathtaking power of this story. 

On the other hand, the cover on the right, from the UK edition, does a much better job at personifying this intensely personal story, while also hinting at its urgency. Don’t care for its tagline quite as much as the US version, though.

If this book were a movie, I would rate it: R. Reluctantly. There’s no overt sex, but it must be rated R because there’s language–oh my, in one particular scene, yes, language–but it’s so deeply human, so right for the moment. Profane, yes. Obscene? No. I didn’t think so, anyway.

Reminds me of… Jodi Picoult, Liane Moriarty

You’ll want to buy this book if …you love superbly written, deeply authentic, no-holds-barred women’s fiction.

Why did I read this book? For Amy Einhorn Books for review

Would I read another by this author? YES. She’d better be well on her way to delivering novel #2.

Why this story matters: Because it explores with painful, unapologetic, wrenching honesty what it means to love selflessly. Even if we don’t agree with its conclusions.

My take: Usually, the easiest books to review are the ones I love. Those I race through, whose characters haunt me, and whose plots keep me guessing.

Usually.

Five Days Left did all of that and more, but I’m finding it almost impossible to review because it’s so hard to discuss without giving away the ending. Or wandering into related territories like how faith in God gives life its purpose, and why ethics and morality matter.

Once you read this book, you’ll be tempted to digress too.

So what can I say? That this is the kind of book that’ll grab you by the gut, squeezing harder at every page, not letting go until it’s done.

And not even then. I have thought about this book every day since I read the last page, wishing desperately that there was more to the story. Relishing the transformation of some characters. Hating the decisions of others.

[Tweet “Book clubs? Want a book guaranteed to spark lively discussion? This one’s it.”]

This kind of novel awes me. For its originality. Its flawless execution. I mean, even the tagline: Sometimes loving someone means holding on, and sometimes it means letting go…. Only after you’ve finished the book do you see how truly poignant that is.

All that said, this is not a book for everyone. It’s a hard story, not a happy one. It deals with tough, life-and-death, right-and-wrong, eternally significant questions. It makes you examine your own soul. To ask yourself, What would I do?

Exactly my kind of book.

Thanks to Amy Einhorn Books for providing me a free copy to review. All opinions are mine.

After words: Yay for Amy Einhorn Books. So far they’re batting a thousand with me. I’ve not read one of theirs yet that hasn’t kept me completely enthralled. Amy Einhorn is an outside-the-box kind of publisher that seems willing to take risks…which, for my money, are well worth the gamble. Take a look at some of what they’ve done, here. Have you read any from their backlist? Which would you recommend?