The Things We Didn't Say

May 30, 2011
Riggle's third novel (after The Life You've Imagined) explores love, devotion, and alcoholism in the modern dysfunctional family. Twenty-six-year-old Edna Leigh Casey loves her 36-year-old fiancé Michael Turner and his three children, yet has decided to leave him. Not only is helping raise two teenagers and a young girl difficult, hiding her past addiction to alcohol weighs too heavily. But when Michael's son, Dylan, goes missing, Edna stays on, and must deal with Michael's alcoholic ex and her difficult daughter Angel, both of whom are intent on exposing Edna's past. Michael is also in the midst of a bitter custody battle, may lose his job, and can't hack the high expectations of his successful father. Edna feels like a too-young outsider and is highly ambivalent about revealing her flaws to Michael and his family. Though Riggle's use of multiple perspectives is less than inspired, she creates an involving portrayal of the obstacles confronting today's families.

May 1, 2011

Edna Leigh Casey lives with her fiance, Michael, and his three children in Grand Rapids, MI. A computer programmer, Casey is 26 years old, and today she is running away from home. But her plans change when she gets the call that Michael's 14-year-old son, Dylan, hasn't shown up at school. Then Michael's volatile ex-wife, Mallory, brings her drama to the vigil. Sixteen-year-old Angel read Casey's diary and intimates that Casey's hidden past is fodder for public consumption. Now, Casey is skirting the edges of what had been her reality: the man and the family that would make her whole. But Michael is vague about setting a wedding date and anxious over his job as a reporter at a dying local newspaper. A family can be like tempered glass: a slight tap in the wrong place and it shatters into a million pieces. VERDICT Riggle (Real Life &Liars; The Life You've Imagined) paints with exquisite care a not-so-pretty picture of modern life, when running away can seem like the only option if it promises just a little bit of freedom. Bring tissues. [Reading group guide.]--Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2011
Casey isn't sure her relationship with her fianc', Michael, a single dad, can survive his teenage daughter's animosity; the specter of Michael's disturbed ex-wife, Mallory; or the threat of her own secret alcoholic past being revealed. On the day Casey decides to leave him, though, his 14-year-old son, Dylan, goes missing. Casey, Michael, and Mallory are thrown together during tense days of searching for the boy, and each is pushed to the point of breaking. Riggle, author of The Life You've Imagined (2010), ambitiously tells the story through the viewpoints of the three adults and the three children, and she mostly succeeds in capturing each narrator's distinct tone. The historic home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where most of the book is set, takes on the presence of another character, while the constrained time period adds to the intimate feel of this absorbing novel about a blended family.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)