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| (Thank you to the publisher and TLC Book Tours for providing me with a copy of this book!) |
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?
Told from the perspectives of these three remarkable women, The Whole Golden World navigates the precarious territory between childhood and adulthood, raising questions about love and manipulation, marriage and motherhood, consent and responsibility. It’s a novel both shocking and unforgettable in its power.
my thoughts:
A student-teacher affair is not exactly new, but its wrong and reading all about it is mesmerizing. In The Whole Golden World, we become privy to everyone's thoughts and emotions regarding Morgan and TJ's relationship. She's only seventeen for cripes sake! So, of course, everyone has something to say. There is Morgan's mom, Dinah, who is so hurt that her daughter chooses to show support for the man who obviously took advantage of her. She can't believe that her daughter would willingly have a relationship with a married man - it just can't be true! Rain is TJ's wife and she is torn between her feelings of love for her husband and her feelings of betrayal. What happened to the man she married? And, then there is Morgan, the young lady who was feeling so lost and confused about her future. She found a friend in TJ and eventually she found more.
The Whole Golden World is an anxiety inducing read - I was biting my nails the whole way through! Its just that the more you learn about Morgan and TJ's affair, the angrier you get - you can't help but think, "she's just a kid!". As the story begins to unfold and more and more facts are revealed, you begin to see just how frayed and cracked each relationship was from the beginning. Its heart-breaking and disheartening. I found myself easily caught up in all of the drama and emotions.
I would most definitely recommend Kristina Riggle's engaging and emotional book, The Whole Golden World to fans of fiction and women's fiction. You will not be disappointed!
Here's the link to the schedule of the TLC Book Tour for: The Whole Golden World
2 comments:
I do think this is one I'm going to want to pick up - but I'll be darn glad my kids are all grownups now, I think!
Thanks for being a part of the tour.
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