Stomp on my heart, why don't you.

Welp. I don't know that I was destroyed, as Brandi promised, but this was definitely an emotional read. One I had trouble putting down.
I've alway had a thing for sadness. A martyr complex, if you will. I enjoy wallowing. Give me sad songs, sad movies, sad books, and sad stories. I like them all. There's something in sadness that makes me feel alive.
So, now you know. That's my secret. That's the secret that my close friends laugh at me about. I'm secretly sappy under all of this armor. Why yes, I do like the movie The Notebook. Thank you for asking.
There was plenty of sadness to go around in Night Road. This was not a perfect story by far, but it was exactly what I needed to clean my reading palette. I'm realizing now that I need to read more Chick Lit. I like the sappiness, the family values, the drama, the emotional torture, and the light romance. I feel like I'm a lot less critical when I'm emotionally engaged and I could not help but be emotionally engaged in this long, winding story.
I felt an emotional connection to all the characters – even the ones I didn't like. Except for maybe one. =D I felt like I was part of their life and not just reading about their life. This story spanned years and even though some of it was predictable, a lot of it wasn't. There were some twists that I didn't see coming and they hit me on a very deep, emotional level. I cared about each of the characters in different ways. And boy, were there some memorable characters in this book.
I waffled between four and five stars. I know that, technically, this isn't a five star read. I also know that I could barely put it down and that I truly gave a shit. In the end, I know that it could have been better and I wasn't 100% satisfied with the ending. But lowering the rating to a four doesn't mean that I didn't love this book, because I did. I enjoyed the story and I love the characters and I don't care that some of the resolutions were slightly unbelievable. I was able to put all of that aside because all of my emotions were completely engaged from beginning to end. It just worked for me. And now I'm going to look up some other Kristin Hannah books and see if she can manage to tear my heart out.
A martyr can only hope.