Julie Lawson Timmer

There is so much depth to Five Days Left that it is difficult to capture everything vital in a few short paragraphs. Both Scott and Mara are in the process of undergoing a radical change in their lives, and while a terminal illness and the loss of a foster child may not seem like they would have much in common, it is the love and affection they shower on others that makes them more similar than dissimilar. There is also an important side story about nontraditional parenting and some of the show more issues unique to nonbiological parents. It is this connection that truly binds Scott and Mara together, allowing for both stories to be told concurrently while also sharing a fabulous lesson about the need to open hearts and minds to other forms of relationships.

In many ways, Scott’s story is the palate cleanser to Mara’s very painful and highly emotional one. While the novel needs this, because to read about Mara’s struggles nonstop would be a bit too much to bear, it does not mean that Scott’s story is any less important to the message Ms. Lawson Timmer is trying to make. Sometimes, good people are put into horrible situations, and it is how they react to those situations that shows their true mettle. Such is true of Scott when he must let go of his foster son sooner than expected and then receives tragic news that could be the undoing of both his marriage and the hopes and dreams of his young ward as well as that of his protege older brother.

That being said, Mara’s story is the heart and the soul of the novel and the one part of the story that will make readers pause and reflect. Mara’s diagnosis and decline, which readers get to experience firsthand just as Mara does, is every bit as tragic and horrifying as one would imagine. Her decision to save her family from years of caregiving and to save her own dignity is at once understandable, terrifying, gut-wrenching, and controversial. Not every reader will agree with her decision and may well turn the book aside in disgust. However, no matter how strongly one feels about her decision, all readers will read with increasing concern whether she will commence with her plan or falter at the end. There are simply no easy answers to any of her problems; Therein lies the power and the drama of the novel.

Sacrifice and suicide, terminal illnesses and a long-term death sentence, biological versus nonbiological children, anonymous sharing to familial secrecy – Five Days Left covers it all. More importantly, it does not try to leave readers with definitive answers but rather allows readers to form their own opinions – something that must happen given a reader’s unique family history, individual belief systems and core values, and other personal experiences. It leaves room for all opinions while simultaneously reaching out to readers to empathize with Mara and scott before leveling judgement. That is one of the most important lessons of all.

Some novels leave readers sobbing with grief. Others leave readers pensive and full of what-if questions. Five Days Left will leave readers doing both. This should in no way intimidate readers from starting this amazing novel about love, sacrifice, and the differences between selfishness and selflessness. If anything, it is an indication of how profoundly well-written the story is to capture a reader’s heart and mind so thoroughly. In other words, it is a novel that everyone should experience. show less

All of the reviews and even the Goodread's summary described this book as heartbreaking and oh were they right. Both of the character in incredibly difficult situations. The author did an amazing job describing their emotions, making me empathize with them so much I felt like crying most of the day I was reading this book. They may sound like an unpleasant experience, but I loved reading this book. The author dealt with these tough topics with incredible compassion and empathy. She drew me show more into the story and I couldn't put it down until I found out how both stories were resolved. I can tell it was a fantastic and engaging read, because I wrote two notes at the beginning of the book and then couldn't pull myself away from reading to write any more!

I used to avoid books that I thought would make me sad and still avoid some tough topics, but this book and several other books about difficult topics have turned out to be some of my favorites. I can't remember which blogger pointed this out (apologies!) but they said that if people can live through something, we can certainly read about. I think that's a wonderful point. Reading a book like this is an incredible way to begin understanding the challenges some people are facing in their lives today. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it for that reason; I enjoyed it because it was a wonderful, well-written, emotionally moving book. But I would recommend it even more highly for that reason.This review was originally posted on Doing Dewey. show less

Imagine you only have five days left to say goodbye to a loved one. Now imagine two different families in this situation. One family resides in Michigan and includes two foster-parents and a young boy about to be returned to his biological mother after a year. The other family resides in Texas and consists of an adoptive couple, their adopted daughter, and the adoptive mother's adoptive parents. The Texas family is dealing with a progressive and degenerative neurological disorder and the show more mother, although only 42 years of age, is contemplating suicide rather than giving into this horrible disease process. These two scenarios provide the foundation of the story Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer.

Mara Nichols is a young, urban professional residing in Texas. She's at the peak of her career as an attorney. Her husband, Tom, is a physician with a thriving practice. Tom and Mara have been together for more than twenty years. They adopted their daughter, Lakshmi, as an infant from India and are now the proud parents of a kindergartner. Regrettably their lives were given a major twist when Mara was diagnosed with Huntington's Disease or HD four years ago. Since that initial diagnosis, Mara has suffered from a host of HD symptoms, including short term memory loss, balance and gait issues, bladder control, mood swings, and more. She has been forced to take early retirement from her beloved career as an attorney and partner in a law firm, can no longer drive due to motor control issues, and is scared beyond belief that she is unwittingly forcing her family to suffer along with her as HD destroys who she is as a person. Mara's one saving grace is her online link to a forum for adoptive, foster, and step parents. It is in this forum that she can voice her parenting issues without question or judgment. It is here that she finds friendship with MotorCity, also known as Scott Coffman.

Scott Coffman is an English teacher at an inner city Detroit middle school. Scott also coaches basketball at his school and considers himself fortunate to have met some outstanding talent, including Brayden Jackson, his foster-son's older brother. He and his wife have been trying to get pregnant for years through IVF. Now that their lives are focused on a slightly hyperactive, mild behaviorally challenged seven-year-old boy, there's less stress about getting pregnant so of course they actually get pregnant with their last round of IVF. Scott's wife isn't exactly eager for their year of fostering to be over, but she is eager to have some time alone with her husband before their biological child is born. Scott is torn between wanting what is best for his son Curtis (when did he stop thinking of him as a foster child but as his child) and wanting to keep him to ensure he has everything a child deserves: a clean home, three meals a day, clean clothes, and involved parents.

I've got to admit that I put off reading Five Days Left simply because I thought the story was going to be depressing and morbid. It isn't. Don't get me wrong, it is sad. I don't think you can read about someone with a degenerative life-threatening disease and a child being raised in filth without basic amenities like running water by a drug-addicted mother without it being sad. But Ms. Timmer has also provided glimpses of hope amidst the sadness. Mara's story is sad and heart-wrenching, but the love her family and friends have for her and one another is uplifting. It was incredibly disturbing to read about Mara's decline due to HD (there's one incident in the grocery store and another in the elementary school that had me taking a break just to dry my eyes). I was just as torn as Scott when Curtis's biological mother decides to take him back days before he was scheduled to leave the Coffmans. What made it worse was he wasn't even given the opportunity to say goodbye.

Five Days Left is told in alternating voices of Mara and Scott. Although the action takes place over the course of five days, there's a lot jammed into those days. Yes, you'll probably need to have a box of tissues handy when you read this story, but sadness isn't the only thing you'll remember about this story. Five Days Left focuses on love and the families we make as a result of that love. Some of those families are built with blood ties, and others are built through adoption, fostering, step-parenting, and friendship. I found Five Days Left to be a remarkable story with realistic characters and scenarios. Five Days Left is simply an amazing story and I know this review probably doesn't do it justice, so if you're going to take anything away from my thoughts take this . . . you should definitely read Five Days Left. show less

I received this book for free from First to Reaad, in exchange for an honest review.

I'm still recovering from this wonderful book, which is a tear jerker. It would be a great book club discussion book, to talk about the choices people make and ethical decisions they choose.

This book had me from the opening sentence, which I can't quote here since I read an advanced uncorrected proof (in which I found no typos or editing mistakes and wouldn't change a word, by the way). It is about Mara, a show more high-powered attorney, a wife and adoptive mother of Lakshmi from India (and Mara is herself adopted from India), who is diagnosed with a disease called Huntington's, which I never heard of before. It's a horrible, fatal disease. She's 4 years into it and her symptoms are worsening and she decides to commit suicide with pills, vodka and carbon monoxide poisoning on her birthday, 5 days from now, in order to spare her family. She is part of an online group, but she does not tell them about her disease or her decision. One of the members of the group is Scott, a teacher, who is expecting a baby girl with his wife, after several in-vitro attempts. They have been fostering an 8 year old boy for a year and a week, while his mother is in jail. He is the younger half-brother of one of Scott's former athletes, a basketball star he has mentored into college and who is an NBA hopeful. Their mother is getting out of jail in 5 days and wants her young son back. Scott is devastated, even though he expected this, and has planned five days of wonderful experiences with the boy. The book alternates with both main characters, Mara and Scott, and each of the 5 days in countdown.

Mara is determined to end her life in her way and in her time, and has a detailed list of everything she has to accomplish before she goes, including saying goodbye to people (without them guessing it's for good), to writing letters to her husband and daughter, to getting her two best friends to be there for her daughter whenever she needs a female to talk to, to making doctor appointments to her daughter for the next 18 months, to making lists for her husband of certain things. But then she rethinks her decision, wondering if staying around to the end, even when she ends up in a wheelchair, unable to do anything for herself or speak or recognize anyone, is better for her family than not being around at all, so she can listen to her daughter and let her husband care for her as he wants to do. She keeps waffling back and forth, and not until the end do we find out what she decides to do.

As for Scott, the boy's mother decides she doesn't want Scott to keep her son for the last 5 days, and wants him back immediately. Scott and his wife do not even get to say goodbye, as the boy is picked up from school that day. Then the boy's mother overdoses a day or two after getting him back, and dies, and his brother decides to drop out of college, give up his NBA dream, and raise his brother. All Scott can do is support the decision. His wife only agreed to keep the boy for the year as she does not want to adopt any child and only wants her own children and wants her life back for the last 3 months before her baby is born, as the boy is quite a handful. But then the brother has second thoughts about whether it's actually in his little brother's best interest if he were to raise him, rather than put him in foster care, where he can have two experienced parents to care for him. Again, it's not until the end of the book that we find out the outcome.

I found the book to be extremely well-written, and I predict that once word gets out about it, it will become a best seller. If The Fault in the Stars can be a big best seller, so can this book! I lost it when Mara goes to Laks' school to be a library monitor and falls down, causing the kids make fun of her and call her a drunk. Her daughter is mortified and just wants her mother to go home and never go outside again. And when Mara and her mother go through all of Mara's photo albums of her life, I lose it again. Mara has resisted all of her famiy's help and her disease causes her personality to change and she becomes mean about it. It isn't until an understanding taxi driver who starts taking her on her errands befriends her after she totals her car and can't drive anymore, that she starts to realize how quickly she is deteriorating and how much others truly want to help her. It's a beautiful story, very heart-wrenching and real. At times I did not like Mara because of her behavior and how she rationalized certain things in her mind, like how her husband would be better off without her and wouldn't want to take care of her when she got worse, and how her daughter would hate visiting her in a nursing home, and when she thought Lakshmi wouldn't miss her so much as she wasn't her real mother anyway and would easily bond with a new mother, when Mara's husband remarried, when I did not think she should project HER feelings on her family. And I did not always like Scott's wife as she selfishly only wanted her "own" biological family. I liked Tom, Mara's wonderful doctor husband, and her wonderful parents. And I liked Mara's friends, especially her secretary and best friend in the law firm of which she was a partner, who was extraordinary in how she helped "cover" Mara's deficiencies as her disease worsened. Everyone should be so lucky!

In a word, this is one of the best books I've read this year and I highly recommend it!! I wonder if the wonderful author will write a sequel? show less