Book Review: The Whole Golden World by Kristina Riggle

The Whole Golden World
Author: Kristina Riggle
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: November 5th 2013
Review Source: William Morrow Paperbacks

“Love, loyalty and the murky nature of the truth, are at the fracturing heart of this astonishing novel about culpability, desire, and the ways we choose to see our world. Just breathtakingly good.”— Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is This Tomorrow

Seventeen-year-old Morgan Monetti shocks her parents and her community with one simple act: She chooses to stand by the man everyone else believes has exploited her—popular high school teacher TJ Hill. Quietly walking across a crowded courtroom to sit behind TJ, and not beside her parents, she announces herself as the adult she believes herself to be.

But her mother, Dinah, wants justice. Dinah is a fighter, and she believes with all her heart and soul that TJ is a man who took advantage of her daughter. He is a criminal who should be brought to justice, no matter what the cost to his family.

Rain, TJ's wife, is shocked that her handsome, loving, respected husband has been accused of a terrible crime. But has her desperation to start a family closed her eyes to the fault lines in her marriage? And can she face the painful truths about herself and her husband?

I am not sure how to describe this book. I found myself annoyed for the most part, not because of the story but because of one of the characters – God, he’s such a jerk! This is not an easy book to read. This is a very hard topic but overall the story was very intriguing.

The story is about how two family lives shattered when a high school student and her math teacher begins a forbidden relationship. The book begins when these families are in trial. The teacher has step out of boundary and is not man enough to pay the consequences. He is such a jerk. He makes himself look like the victim through the book. He doesn’t deserve his wife, whom she adores. She protects him blindly, until finally she overcomes the truth.

The book contains three narrators – the student: Morgan, the mother: Dinah and the teacher’s wife: Rain. I like how the book shifted from one to another allowing us to see the big picture. All of these women were fascinating to read about. Morgan, although naïve, I liked how she matured throughout the story. Even though Dinah was not the perfect parent, I liked how she stepped in when her daughter needed her. For the most part of the book, I felt pity of Rain. I hated how her husband manipulated her but what irritated me the most is that she felt like she deserved how he treated her. I felt proud of her when she finally realized that the only victim of the relationship was not her husband, like he wanted her to believe, but it was her.

This is a great book to read, I read this book on a mini vacation. Allowing myself time to put it down through stops. If you like angst and enjoy reading twisted stories, then this is the story for you. Just be aware, this is not an ordinary book.