The Kindness of Strangers

(amazon review) A young widow raising two boys, Sarah Laden is struggling to keep her family together. But when a shocking revelation rips apart the family of her closest friend, Sarah finds herself welcoming yet another troubled young boy into her already tumultuous life. Jordan, a quiet, reclusive elementary school classmate of Sarah's son Danny, has survived a terrible ordeal. By agreeing to become Jordan's foster mother, Sarah will be forced to question the things she has long believed. And as the delicate threads that bind their family begin to unravel, all the Ladens will have to face difficult truths about themselves and one another—and discover the power of love necessary to forgive and to heal.

I don't know if I would have wanted to know the subject matter before I started this - it's about pedophiles and sex abuse - but only because then I probably would have avoided this book like the plague. It was an intense book with lots of uncomfortable scenes but it was the characters that made me enjoy this book. It's weird to say I enjoyed it because it really was disturbing but the characters stuck with me and I'd think about them at odd times. Well written for such disturbing material. The web of characters was well thought out as wel hil. Q