The Whole Golden World
Pages: 448
Publication Date: November 5, 2013
Morgan Monetti is a seventeen-year-old high school senior on the verge of womanhood. She is a mixed bag of emotions, as are many seventeen year old girls. She gets frustrated at the extra responsibilities her parents give her with her little brothers, but she likes being called mature for the way she helps. She dreads the thought of going to her calculus class because her ex-boyfriend is in the same class, yet she loves the hot teacher, Mr. Hill. It starts when Mr.Hill took away her phone for texting in class. She goes back after school to pick it up and there is an undeniable spark between them. It continues with a few meaningful conversations and goes to the next level when he sneaks into her practice room when she is supposed to be practicing her cello solo. Their affair continues for many months and comes to a screeching halt when a police officer discovers them in his car during a make-out session. What happens to Morgan when their affair is made public? Will she survive the ridicule being hurled her way at school and on the internet? Will Mr. Hill's marriage survive the revelation and does he want it to? And then there is the whole legal aspect of their affair, what will happen when the court gets involved?
The Whole Golden World is a riveting look at a topic that is becoming all too common in the headlines these days. Here is Morgan, a child determined to be treated like an adult, but finds herself drowning when adult situations invade her life. She tries so hard to be mature and appear mature, but when things get tough all she wants to do is curl into a ball and ignore the whole world. The dynamics between Morgan and her mother often reminded me of my relationship with my own mother when I was seventeen. That age where Mom wants to keep you a kid, but daughter wants to be treated like a grown-up. It is a tough place to be for both women. Then there is Rain, Mr. Hill's wife. This poor woman is battling infertility, which is pretty devastating in it's own right and then there is the accusations against her husband. At first her loyalty was admirable, but then even I wanted to shake her and say "wake up, woman!" From the perspective of all the main characters, the end of the book was very satisfying for me to read. It wasn't an easy conclusion, but it was satisfying.
Bottom line, if you are looking for an engrossing read to distract you from the leftover pie, you must rush to your favorite bookseller and get
The Whole Golden World. You will find yourself swept up into the drama surrounding Morgan Monetti and forget all about the leftovers!
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