bermudaonion (Kathy)
Sandy
Beth F
Jennifer
Lisa
Real Life & Liars – Book Review
Real Life & Liars by Kristina Riggle
Mirabelle Zielinski is about to celebrate her thirty-fifth wedding anniversary with her husband Max. Her daughter Katya is planning it of course, Katya is a bit of a type-A personality, wanting everything to be just PERFECT. Not that Katya’s idea of perfect is the same as Mirabelle’s. Katya has a mess in her own life, though, as she’s fairly certain that her husband is cheating with his assistant; whatever’s going on her marriage is clearly not good. Mira’s other children, Ivan and Irina, will be there too. Ivan is alone again, as usual, and Irina’s showing up with a surprised marriage and pregnancy. None of these revelations can top Mira’s, however. Not two weeks before the party she was diagnosed with advanced breast cancer, and she has no intention to let the doctor take her breast, even if it means that she will die.
Can I just tell you how much I enjoyed this book? I was somewhat hesitant at first, thrown off by the imprint under which it was published, since I understood that imprint to be more romance-y. ”Real Life and Liars” is about relationships, but about the relationships within a family. A real, messy family. Although Mira and all three of her children alternate as the focus of chapters, Mira is the real main character, the one without whom none of them would exist, the only one granted the right to tell her story in first person. By page one she had already shocked me a bit, but by page three I already adored her.
I loved seeing how this family came to terms with each other, finally realizing how to support and accept one another. I can’t wait for Kristina Riggle’s next book (and the two after that, since she was just signed for another 2 book deal).
Buy this book from one of my affiliate links:
Powells.
A local independent bookstore via Indiebound.
Amazon.
This review is part of “Debutante Ball Week” on DevourerofBooks. All this week I’m featuring reviews from the 2009 class of The Debutante Ball and spotlighting the 2010 Debs.
Source: Library, but the author sent me a copy to keep after I told her how much I’d loved it. I also bought a copy for my mother.
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Please leave some comment love! 14 comments
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This one sounds like a good one for me — not too much in the traditional romance genre and about “relationships within a family.”
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Those are some damaged people! Which always makes it fun. But I think I would feel so much frustration at someone who wouldn’t try to save her own life…
.-= Sandy´s last blog ..Monday Movie Meme – True Grit =-.
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I love big, messy family stories. I’ll have to look for this one.
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How funny–I remember the shock of page 1, too! And I remember loving how well Kris captured the “messy” (or maybe “clumsy”?) ways modern families behave around one another. We’re a messy species, especially when it comes to people we love.
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devourerofbooks Reply:
November 30th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
I actually read this months ago and saved the review for this week. Talking about it again is making me want to re-read her book.
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I love stories about relationships and this sounds like a good one. I love the cover too!
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I love books about family relationships and I hadn’t heard about this one!
.-= Amused´s last blog ..Funny Lady =-.
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I really enjoyed this book (I’m working my way through the 09 Deb books and I saw Real Life & Liars at Target, so that’s the one I picked first). The characters are terrific, and as Katie says, we’re a messy species – but Kristina’s characters are lovably and sometimes laughably so. I zipped through this book pretty quickly, but it lingered in my mind.
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I loved this one as well – I already can’t wait for Kristina’s next book.
.-= S. Krishna´s last blog ..Dial H For Hitchcock – Susan Kandel =-.
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devourerofbooks Reply:
December 2nd, 2009 at 4:54 pm
I know, I’m so excited to know that there are three more coming!
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I love the cover of this one. It’s called to me several times in the store. Looks like I should listen.
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I came to this review through your 2009 recap post. I got a copy of this book for Christmas from my best friend. As it turns out, Kristina Riggle is one of Trista’s friends from high school, so I get an autographed copy. Whoo Hoo! Can’t wait to read it now. I had no idea she was a Deb – so maybe I have enough to join your challenge. I must ponder that.
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