Anna Geneva, the high-powered attorney on the verge of a
partnership, thought she'd be happy with the success she's
gained but never thought she'd be enjoying it alone.
Cami Drayon, daughter of the town auto repairman— and town
drunk— thought she'd be tutoring children somewhere,
anywhere but where her father lives.
Maeve Geneva, Anna's mother and proprietor of the Nee Nance
store, thought she'd be living her dream romance with her
dream man— until he walked out on her and Anna.
Amy Rickart thought her happiness lay in being thin and
beautiful— after years of being overweight— and preparing to
marry the perfect man.
They thought wrong.
Kristina Riggle writes a thought-provoking tale that
illuminates how childhood dreams and young adult desires,
some twenty years later, can easily turn out to be other
than imagined. She also explores what it takes, in terms of
self-acceptance, courage, and determination, to reach beyond
the life one is living to live the life one wants.
Initially, I was drawn to Maeve's story, a woman whose soul
mate abandoned her but has now reappeared. I love romance,
so naturally I wondered whether they would finally find
their happy ending. But, as the novel continued to unfold,
it was difficult not to also be drawn to Anna, Maeve's
daughter, who comes across initially as uptight and
unapproachable, but reveals herself in the end to have the
biggest heart. Even as these woman scrap and struggle to
paint a new paradigm for happiness in their lives, they each
make mistakes; mistakes that not everyone will understand
nor be willing to forgive. Their mistakes, however, make
them that much more human, that much more like the rest of
us who at one time or another question the lives we find
ourselves living.
The characters of Amy, and especially Cami, serve their
purpose, but this is definitely Anna and Maeve's story. It
is a story about mothers and daughters,
about how they don't always condone or support each other's
choices, often because they lack understanding and maybe
empathy for the other's dreams, and more importantly, their
fears. I was as much interested in a happy ending for Maeve
and Anna's relationship as I was for their relationships
with the men in their lives. Not all of the women
experience classic happy endings, but they get the endings
they truly want and deserve.
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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