A NIGHT OWL REVIEWS BOOK REVIEW | Reviewed by: Amy
Every once in a while – a great while, usually – a book will come along that makes you think back to the days when you first found your girlfriends. In the beginning, each of you has a dream. Some want marriage and children; some want to ace college and become a complete and utter success in the corporate world; while others just want to survive. This novel is all about women like that, and teaches the lesson that the lives we dream of in our youth never seem to come out the way we expected them to.
Anna Geneva is a young woman who is an attorney in Chicago. She was a straight ‘A’ student, worked her behind off in school, and has billed so many hours that she’s just a foot away from making partner. When a colleague passes away, Anna’s boss decides to make her take bereavement leave until she can get her head back on straight. She takes this time off and heads home – to a small, out of the way town called Haven – to catch up with her mother.
Mom is Maeve. Maeve has run the local convenience store for many, many years. Her husband left her and her daughter, Anna, a while ago, and Maeve has been working her behind off ever since to make a good life for herself. The one thing she can’t seem to let go of however, is her missing husband, Robert. In fact, she’s kept her wedding ring and has been receiving letters from him asking for forgiveness and a “second chance.”
Cami Drayton is a woman with issues. Her boyfriend has thrown her to the curb and she has a gambling problem. With nowhere to go, she heads back to her hometown of Haven. The horrific part of this homecoming is her father – a drunken bum who still wants to scream, shout, and hit his now adult child. Cami is strong, though, and full of sarcasm. She knows that her father doesn’t have the power anymore to take her down, and she’s about to find out a secret he’s been hiding all these years that could make it easy for Cami to destroy him.
Last, but not least, Haven is the home to Amy Rickart. Amy is that girl in school who was absolutely obese and everyone teased her unmercifully all the days of her life. The only people who were ever nice to her were Cami and Anna. Years later the overweight girl is gone; Amy has worked her behind off – literally – to become the thin, size six beautiful women she has become. She’s also ready to walk down the aisle with the man of her dreams; a man who wouldn’t have even looked at her when she was overweight. So why does doubt keep raging inside her soul? And why is her fiancée suddenly demolishing the local convenience store that’s the only means of support for Maeve?
Every chapter – every one of these character’s lives – is an absolute joy to read. The novel is at once heartwarming, heartbreaking, funny, and meaningful. Having to grow up and realize that the life we imagined at thirteen years old is not the life we end up with, and to have an author who knows how to explain why our new life may be even better if we would just accept the things that we can’t change, was reading time well spent. This tale teaches the reader wonderful life lessons; it also makes us think back to the dreams we once had, and the friends we left behind.
Until Next Time,
Amy
Sep 02, 2010 | 9780061706295
5 - Rare Top Pick | 4.5 - Top Pick | 4 - I Liked It | 3.5 - Enjoyable | 3 - OK | 2.5 - It just didn't click
Book Blurb for The Life You've Imagined
Is the life you're living all you imagined?
Have you ever asked yourself, "What if??" Here, four women face the decisions of their lifetimes in this stirring and unforgettable novel of love, loss, friendship, and family.
Anna Geneva, a Chicago attorney coping with the death of a cherished friend, returns to her "speck on the map" hometown of Haven to finally come to terms with her mother, the man she left behind, and the road she did not take.
Cami Drayton, Anna's dearest friend from high school, is coming home too, forced by circumstance to move in with her alcoholic father . . . and to confront a dark family secret.
Maeve, Anna's mother, never left Haven, firmly rooted there by her sadness over her abandonment by the husband she desperately loved and the hope that someday he will return to her.
And Amy Rickart—thin, beautiful, and striving for perfection—faces a future with the perfect man . . . but is haunted by the memory of what she used to be.
Kristina Riggle's The Life You've Imagined takes a provocative look at the choices we make—and the courage we must have to change.
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