Chosen [Hardcover]

I should be the perfect reader for this book. I've been up and down the infertility and adoption roller coasters. I spent five years of my life trying to "have our baby, cross the finish line, and be out of this psychotic parallel universe," as one of the main characters puts it.

And yet as much as I should have identified with the characters in "Chosen", after about the first third of the book, I began to actively dislike all of them except the adoption caseworker. The reader is allowed limited access to the thoughts of most of the main characters...birth parents, adoptive parents, etc. and through this, learns a bit too much. Either the author was a bit unsure of who her characters were or these people as a group are really off balance. The men, especially, go between being sensitive and emotional to violent and incredibly crude. (I am not easily shocked but there were several passages when the reader is in a male point of view that turned my stomach.) I don't think, given the genre, that this is what the author was trying for so I am surprised that those weren't edited out.

Again, I've been where these people are. I know the emotional roller coaster that hope, grief, joy and despair can create. I know how soul crushing the process can be. And yet I found myself nearing the end of the book hoping that none of them would end up as parents. A new father, whose life is unlike anything he expected, true, thinking, "Right now the baby feels like a money-gobbling parasite...Of course he knows it won't always be like this, that Wyeth will start to give back in some way, be more than a drain on their energy and finances." At another point, two of the main male characters imagine killing the women in their lives in horrific ways.

Another thing I couldn't figure out was why, after a baby goes missing, the reader doesn't get anything from the mother's point of view. She is shuffled to the sidelines and the reader is forced to guess as her feelings and emotions after losing the baby she's tried so long to have. The one person closest to the situation and the reader is cut off from her.

I've looked over this review a few times, unsure if it was one I should post. But this subject of wanting a child, trying desperately to have a child and the fragile feelings one has while on any side of the adoption triangle is close to my heart. I think the author had good intentions when writing "Chosen" - I think her goal was to show that no one involved in the process is all good or all bad - completely unselfish or totally greedy. I just feel like this was an opportunity missed.

Chosen: A Novel by Chandra Hoffman is a brilliant treatment of deeply moving subject matter ~ child adoption. Chandra has used her own life experiences as a relief worker in a Romanian orphanage and as a manager of a private, domestic adoption agency in the US as background in this absorbing, true-to-life fiction.

With a style which is straight-forward and direct, Chandra provides action with the grip and pace of a thriller. The atmosphere is rich and palpable, the characterizations strong and believable. Her cleverly designed third person narrative gives voice to every side of child adoption, with dialogue which is authentic and believable. I was enthusiastically engaged from the foreboding first chapter, aptly titled "Red Flag," until the novel's exciting and surprising denouement. The ending was completely satisfying for me.

The thrust of the plot is driven by the social and emotional complexities of child adoption. Chandra expertly takes the reader through the agony and bliss, the stress and the exhilaration of the many aspects of adoption. Her story line covers those circumstances which lead one to the adoption agency, say one woman's unwanted pregnancy and an other's infertility. She also delves into pregnancy, child birth, even postpartum depression. She takes us below the surface and deep into the raw emotional world of both birth mothers and fathers as well as adoptive mothers and fathers. Every consideration is examined tenderly and with great sensitivity. She even takes us beyond the parameters of the adoption agency to the "reality" of serious responsibility which accompanies the fulfilment of one's dream for a child or a family, or the consequences of giving up a child for adoption. The ups and downs, the dreamy highs and the dark lows of the adoption process are all treated honestly and practically. I am sure many readers will feel the novel's unmistakable relevance.

It is in the realm of "reality" where Chandra crafts her taut and tense plot, a plot deeply wrought with conflict and drama, desperation and crime. The story becomes at once moving and horrifying. I was riveted until the plot's final denouement which I thought was brilliant and not at all what I was expecting. As for the story's surprising conclusion, I have a feeling that this sort of crime, with the particular resolution that the author so adeptly employed, could actually occur in real life, even perhaps more often than one might imagine. I felt no disbelief whatsoever with the novel's ending but rather more of a sense of non-fiction, that is to say that the ending is plausible and could easily play out in our current society.

Chosen: A Novel is a superb fiction which shows true novelistic craftsmanship. I applaud Chandra Hoffman for her wonderful contribution to the emotionally charged world of adoption and also her bold treatment of the crimes of kidnapping and extortion. I enthusiastically give my highest recommendation!

Chloe Pinter has what she would consider the "best" job and at times, the "worst" job. She is the director of Portland's Chosen Child domestic adoption program and she is the case worker that helps families find just the perfect child for them to adopt, fitting birth mothers and adoptive parents together. In a sense, she helps build families for parents who can't have children through conventional methods. The downside of this, is that often times, birth mothers wait until the last minute to decide that they want to keep their baby, leaving the adoptive parents with nothing but heart break and the time spent waiting once more to find a birth mother to have a child.

In Chosen by Chandra Hoffman, Chloe is working with three very different sets of parents. One couple who have been childhood sweethearts since college despite twelve miscarriages and a dozen fertility problems are now finally expecting their own baby, praying that this one will carry to term. Another set of parents, are wealthy and can afford the expense that the adoption process carries with it, yet despite their ages, they are finally hoping that they can find a birth mother who will be willing to offer them a child. The final couple are the birth mother and her boyfriend who are having difficulty coming to an agreement over what they want to do. The boyfriend wants to make as much money as possible on the baby and the mother is considering keeping the child.

This is a very compelling look into the different sides of the adoption process from the case worker, to the birth mother to the adoptive parents. Each with a different set of motives, the reader is drawn into each couple's unique set of circumstances and is torn with their emotions over how difficult the entire adoption process can be.

I received this book compliments of TLC Book Tours for my honest review and really enjoyed this one. Like I stated before, for those who have never realized all the work that goes into a successful adoption, this gives you a fictional account of the ins and outs of the process through three different families. I rate this one a 4.5 out of 5 stars and it does contain some sexual content and profanity as a caution to some readers.