We have alternating chapters between Christoper, Hannah, and Piper (Janie's social worker) and they all work beautifully to move the story forward. Hannah is reluctant but nevertheless agrees and from here their lives will never be the same again. After all this may be the blessing they have been waiting for. He ever so casually brings up to Hannah the idea of them taking in Janie. When it comes time for Janie to be released from the hospital and entered into the foster care system Christopher is just beside himself. Christopher, being an orthopedic surgeon, is the one to perform the many surgeries she requires and from here he keeps a close vigil on young Janie. Once thought to be a toddler it turns out after surgery that she is actually 6 years old. Hannah, now 41, has all but given up hope of having children until.Ī young girl is found abandoned and walking alone through a parking lot covered in blood, malnourished, and once examined, is found to have multiple old and new bone fractures, none of which have ever been treated. Christopher Bauer and his wife, Hannah, have been struggling with infertility for years. One word to sufficiently describe this book: DISTURBING!!!ĭr. But as Janie’s behavior threatens to tear Christopher and Hannah apart, the truth behind Janie’s past may be enough to push them all over the edge. Hannah knows that Janie is manipulating Christopher and isolating him from her, despite Hannah’s attempts to bring them all together. Unable to bond with Janie, Hannah is drowning under the pressure, and Christopher refuses to see Janie’s true nature. Janie is fiercely devoted to Christopher, but she acts out in increasingly disturbing ways, directing all her rage at Hannah. But Janie is no ordinary child, and her damaged psyche proves to be more than her new parents were expecting.

When Janie, an abandoned six-year-old, turns up at their hospital, Christopher forms an instant connection with her, and he convinces Hannah they should take her home as their own. Christopher and Hannah are a happily married surgeon and nurse with picture-perfect lives. A page-turning debut of suspense about a young couple desperate to have a child of their own-and the unsettling consequences of getting what they always wanted.

A Washington Post and Amazon Charts bestseller.

The Perfect Child by Lucinda Berry