The Trouble With Goodbye
Sarra Cannon
Genre: NA Contemporary
Publication date: May 21st 2013
One night can change everything…
Two years ago, Leigh Anne Davis shocked everyone in tiny Fairhope, Georgia when she broke up with her wealthy boyfriend to attend an Ivy League university a thousand miles away. At school, she finds a happiness and independence she’s never known.
Until one terrifying night takes it all away from her.
With no place else to go, Leigh Anne heads home to reclaim her old life. A life she worked so hard to escape. On the outside, she seems like the same girl everyone has always known. But deep inside, she’s hiding a terrible secret.
That’s when she meets Knox Warner, a troubled newcomer to Fairhope. His eyes have the same haunted look she sees every day in the mirror, and when she’s near him, the rest of the world fades away. But being with Knox would mean disappointing everyone all over again. If she wants to save what’s left of her old life, she has no choice but to say goodbye to him forever.
Only, the trouble with goodbye is that sometimes it’s about courage and sometimes it’s about fear. And sometimes you’re too broken to know the difference until it’s too late.
-A copy was provided by Sarra Cannonfor review-
The reason behind the 3 stars for this book is due less to dissatisfaction, than to it not standing above the rest. I enjoyed the story, I liked the characters, and the writing was good, I just didn’t find it differentiated itself from the countless similar stories I’ve read in this genre.
Girl comes back from a terrible college semester, girl meets boy, girl and boy are obviously both broken, boy helps girl find her way out of her dark place. It didn’t take long for me to put this whole story together and figure out what happened to Leigh Anne. I think this is done a little purposefully, though; how we’re made to be aware of what happened before we’re told explicitly. It does help to get us emotionally involved to some extent, making us immediately sympathetic towards our protagonist. Since we know what she’s burdened with, this helps understand her character somewhat as well. Nonetheless, I found myself not especially connecting with her with any sort of emotional depth. Her situation, albeit extremely disheartening, didn’t grasp me like I was hoping. It could be because it’s a story I’ve read numerous times, but it could also be because Leigh Anne failed to let me in. The romance is also an aspect I neither loved nor hated. It wasn’t exactly insta-love, but it did evolve into “I love yous” fairly quickly, not giving me a chance to feel it first.
Even though this plot is one I have read before, it’s the kind of story you can read countless times and, since they all have different circumstances, still gets you enraptured in it. The Trouble With Goodbye was that kind of read for me. I got caught up in it pretty easily. It helped that this one was kept fun and sweet, giving us a reprieve from the darker toned books with equally hard topics. There were some minor things plot wise that annoyed me, however. The one most worthy of note is Leigh Anne’s mother. I could not stand this woman whatsoever. She doesn’t even deserve the title of “mother” with the disgusting way she acts in this story. Caring more about her image than what her daughter went through. Ugh! I know such cold motherly behavior does exist, but I had a hard time believing Leigh Anne’s would be uncaring to such degree – not even coming through at the end at all. One thing it did offer is character growth on Leigh Anne’s part, seeing as she has to unclaw herself from her dependence on her parents.
It seems like I mentioned more negatives than positives in this review, but really I did enjoy the book, I just don’t have any comments in particular about it otherwise. It was a good book, it didn’t blow me away due to 1) the flaws mentioned above and 2) not standing out from others I’ve read with this storyline. With that said, I can see those newer to the genre being easily captivated by this novel.
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| 3 Hot Espressos |
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