As the story unraveled, I needed to know how everything would end.

"All We Ever Wanted" is told in the point of view of three extremely sympathetic characters: Nina, Tom, and Lyla. Nina's son, Finch does something terrible to Tom's daughter, Lyla. As Finch is faced with possible consequences for his actions, we follow Nina's heartbreak when she realizes her husband, her son, and her life may not be what she expected. We live Tom's anger and impotence as a single dad trying to protect his daughter. And we feel for Lyla, who is trying to grow up and fit in a world very different from her own. I took me a while to get through the first half of the book because I really felt for the characters and needed to take breaks from them. I flew through the second half of the book because, as the story unraveled, I needed to know how everything would end. And that end was in parts satisfying, in parts infuriating, much like real life.