Bird in Hand Book

Alison attends a party one evening and on her way home, her car collides with another and a little boy is killed. While she deals with the guilt and her own trauma, Alison expects to be able to turn to her best friend and her husband for help. But her relationship with her best friend has been estranged for months, and when she leans on her husband, she begins to see cracks in the relationship that she did not see before. As the months go on, Alison begins to question everything she once knew and doubts begin to rise to the surface.
"Bird in Hand" by Christina Baker Kline (author of "Orphan Train") tells quite the gripping tale with this story of love, deception and family. Alison, her husband Charlie, her best friend Claire, and Claire's husband Ben all become wrapped up in a web of deceit and betrayal that come to a head after the accident that changes Alison's life.
Charlie and Claire are despicable characters. Horrible people that are completely untrustworthy, I spent the whole novel hoping they would be hit by a bus. Kline intends to make them look human and flawed, and I did get that as well, but my personal feelings for the two kept overpowering any semblance of humanity Kline was trying to portray in these two deplorable human beings. I was hopeful something horrendous would happen to the two of them at the end of the book but of course- it never does, does it?
The writing in this novel is obviously spot-on (to dredge up such feelings in a reader), and the story is developed very well. "Bird in Hand" is an honest, human story, one that is very relatable and emotionally charged. Although the ending did not go quite the way I planned (see above…there was no bus accident) it was satisfying and conclusive, bringing comfort to readers who were rooting for Ben and Alison throughout the novel.
Although very different from "Orphan Train", this novel is still something worth exploring, a family-drama-fiction novel that will definitely generate emotions and bring to life the idea that one small flutter of a butterfly's wings, can bring a tsunami to the surface.