Just Destiny by Theresa Rizzo

What would you do if your whole world fell apart?

Jenny Harrison made some poor choices in the past, but marrying Gabe was the best thing she’d ever done. They had the perfect marriage, until a tragic accident leaves Gabe brain dead and her world in ruins.

Devastated by grief, she decides to preserve the best of their love by conceiving his child, but Gabe’s family is adamantly opposed, even willing to chance exposing long-held family secrets to stop her. Caught in a web of twisted motives and contentious legal issues, Jenny turns to best friend and attorney, Steve Grant. Steve wants to help Jenny, but he has reservations and secrets of his own.
When something so private and simple turns public and complicated, will Jenny relent? What is Steve willing to sacrifice to help Jenny?

When Jenny finds out she's pregnant, she plans a weekend getaway to tell her husband.  When things don't go as well as she'd hoped, Jenny will have to fight everyone she knows for the chance to have the baby she so desperately wants.  

It sounds so trivial when I put the entire book into those two small sentences.  There's so much more here, but I don't want to give away too much information.  Trivial, it is definitely not.  This is one of the greatest books I've read on love and loss and survival.  It's an amazing character study.

Each character is having to deal with their own problems.  All of them are connected, and so they're having to see each other's issues as well.  You can empathize with each and feel the longing and the heartache each of them suffers.  Don't get me wrong, there are happiness and joy as well, but the gut-wrenching emotion you feel while reading this book is absolutely phenomenal.

I don't even know which category to put this in.  It's drama and romance and thrilling all at the same time.  I suppose I would put it in the 'what if' category.  What if, something so horrendous you could breathe happened?  What if, everyone around you seemed to turn on you immediately after that moment?  What if, the law wasn't even on your side, though you knew you'd done nothing wrong?  What if, everything you've ever believed turned out to be false?  What if? 

Sadly, I'm sure there are others in the world that have gone down Jenny's path, though hopefully not to the extent that she did.  She's a strong, surviving character that will enthrall you.  Her vision of the world, even in her most glum moments, will remind you to have hope and to never despair.  Fight for what you believe in, whether there's anyone else on your side or not.

All of the other characters are equally rounded.  Each has something specific to teach the reader, but not in a 'teacherly' fashion.  They learn life lessons in the hard way and allow us to be a part of that.  

The most fun part of the book for me involved a specific character.  She just reminded me so much of my favorite Grey's Anatomy character that while I was reading, I was able to visualize her in those scenes and hear the words coming out of her mouth...even see each facial expression.  I'm sure she wasn't written that way on purpose, but it was really neat to me to be able to connect with a character on that level.  She wasn't even really a main character, but every time she popped into the scene I couldn't help but cheer.

 

 

*I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.  Shawn