Willow's a happy 5 year old girl with an older sister she looks up to, a loving mom and dad, a head for trivia and useless knowledge, and over 65 broken bones since she was born. She came into the world with four healing fractures, and entering the world added 7 fresh breaks. Willow was diagnosed in utero at 27 weeks, with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. Whether she was Type II, which would mean virtually no chance at survival upon birth, or Type III, which would afford her a life, albeit no guarantees of a long life, was unknown. After a traumatic incident for all in the family at Disney World, Sean decides to see a lawyer and begin litigation against Disney World for the way they were treated. He's told they have no case there, however a wrongful birth suit is something they could very possibly triumphantly pursue.
To do this, Charlotte will need to get on the stand, suing her obstetrician/best friend, and say that it was not diagnosed early enough to have the option of termination.

Wow, the thing about Jodi Picoult is she never disappoints in her skill as a storyteller. She very clearly devotes so much time and energy to the research of the tale, and weaving the novel together. While I found this a fascinating story, I wasn't able to get into this one as easily and deeply as I generally do with her tales. There was just SO much going on in Handle With Care. In the end, all the loose ends pulled together, but there was just a lot of emotion to take into account in this one. Charlotte's attorney, Marin is a woman searching for her birth mother and has a hard time not letting her personal hurt at being given up seep into her judgment of Charlotte saying that abortion should have been brought up as an option. Sean's devout Catholic stance on abortion, and his love for his daughter is pulling their marriage apart because he can't reconcile what Charlotte is saying with how they feel, and what Willow will hear. That doesn't even bring into account older sister Amelia, whose story is wrought with frailty, anger, and sadness also.

While I can't say this was my favorite of hers, it was definitely not a disappointment. I honestly don't think Ms. Picoult can write a book that won't captivate many readers.
Thanks to Atria for the review copy!