Kristina Riggle lives and writes in West Michigan. Her debut novel, Real Life & Liars, was praised by Publishers Weekly for its "humorous and humane storytelling" and by Booklist as "a moving and accomplished first novel." The book was a Target "Breakout" pick and a "Great Lakes, Great Reads" selection by the Great Lakes Independent Booksellers Association.

Kristina has published short stories in the Cimarron Review, Literary Mama, Espresso Fiction, and elsewhere. She is also a freelance journalist writing primarily for The Grand Rapids Press, and co-editor for fiction at Literary Mama. Kristina was a full-time newspaper reporter for seven years before turning her attention to creative writing and freelancing. As well as writing, she enjoys reading, yoga, dabbling in (very) amateur musical theatre, and spending lots of time with her husband, two kids and dog.

Real Life & Liars is set in Charlevoix, Michigan, a town close to Kristina's heart as the home of her grandparents where she has visited often over the years. Her second novel, The Life You've Imagined, is set in the fictional town of Haven, Michigan, inspired by Grand Haven and similar small towns along the southern Lake Michigan shore. The Life You've Imagined tells of three friends and a mother connected by a dying family business, learning to cope with life as it is, not as they planned.

Kristina is hard at work on her next novels from Avon/HarperCollins about complex family relationships.

The Life You've Imagined (Paperback)

By Kristina Riggle

$13.99

ISBN-13: 9780061706295
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: William Morrow Paperbacks, 9/2010

Other Editions of this Title

Are you living the life you imagined? Is there anything you’d have done differently if you could? Those are the questions asked in Kristina Riggle’s unforgettable new novel.

In high school, Cami and Anna were as close as they could be...now, years later, both have returned to their hometown to face the people they had once left behind. Anna must confront her mother, still distraught over the abandonment of her husband, and come to terms with choices she had made years before. While Cami returns home to stay with her alcoholic father, she uncovers a secret he sought to keep which could change her life and salvage her future. They reconnect with their classmate, Amy, who can't understand why achieving the thin body and handsome man of her dreams hasn't given her the happily-ever-after she desired. This is a novel that digs deep and touches the heart of the issues so many women face-the quest for perfection, the hope of love, the value of family and importance of always striving for your dream.

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