Blog Tour: ARC Review + Giveaway: The Trouble with Goodbye by Sarra Cannon

Click banner for the tour schedule.

Title: The Trouble with Goodbye
Author: Sarra Cannon
Format acquired: eBook (ePub)
Publisher: Dead River Books
Published on: May 21st 2013
Source: Received for blog tour (Thanks, AToMR Book Blog Tours and Sarra!)
Buy the book: Amazon / Barnes and Noble

When Leigh Anne Davis landed a prestigious scholarship to an Ivy League school, she went against her parents' wishes and said goodbye to tiny Fairhope, Georgia and the wealthy boyfriend everyone expected her to marry. Now, two years later, she's back with her tail between her legs.

And a secret she wants to bury inside forever.

That's when Lucas Young enters her life. Everyone expects Leigh Anne to pick up right where she left off, but Lucas is different. Sure, he's been in some trouble in the past and seen his share of hard times, but he's the one person she can really be herself around.

The trouble is, being with Lucas would mean disappointing her family all over again. Will Leigh Anne give in to everyone's expectations? Or will she finally find the courage to follow her heart?

(Image and summary provided by AToMR Book Blog Tours.)

Review:

This was a difficult book for me, not necessarily because of the topic its plot was based on but mostly due to the emotions that surrounded the whole book. I felt that I was walking through a fog of emotions that completely overwhelmed me. Let's get this straight, this was in no way a happy book. In the moments that Leigh Anne did find happiness, it was still hard for me to really grasp that particular feeling because she was just so... angry. Well, she was more than just angry, she was also confused and a bunch of other really intense emotions.

Abuse, in books, is usually a hit or miss for me ( either physical/psychological/sexual.) There are times when it's very authentic and you can actually feel the pain of the character it happened to or it just falls flat and doesn't really create a connection between the reader and the victim or should I say, survivor. The Trouble with Goodbye falls in the middle of the two categories. (Note: it's really obvious from the start that Leigh Anne's "brokenness" came from abuse.) One of the reasons that her "abuse" didn't really reach out to me was because Leigh Anne was generally a selfish character. All she did was pretty much drown herself in her sorrows and sought no one's support. I understand that her parents were complete a-holes but that doesn't mean her friends would immediately abandon her if she told them about her attack. She was intent on shutting everyone out and then getting mopey about it when it was her choice from the very beginning. Also, I really disliked the way Sarra Cannon portrayed people in general in her book. She made it seem like just because you're going against a famous person that people would immediately attack you and call you a coward. I'm pretty sure society is considerate enough to know and understand as to why a person would/would not keep something like that a secret. I dunno, those were the things that really frustrated me about this book. But let's move on the a few good points about it...

I think that Knox's situation was definitely more believable than Leigh Anne's (and I know that I sound like an inconsiderate jerk saying that, but it's true.) It's your typical case of domestic abuse, except more extreme. I can't really go into it too much because I'll be spoiling a lot but trust me, you'll sympathize with Knox.

Leigh Anne and Knox's relationship was okay with me. It's probably one of the reasons why I gave it an "okay" rating. I was glad that it wasn't too much of an insta-love and more of a subtle yet obviously there kind of attraction, so they get the Louisse stamp of approval in that department. I understand why it took Leigh Anne falling in love to start opening up because there are also times when you feel like everyone you've known and depended on your whole life have betrayed you and you need a stranger to depend/lean on. It did take them quite some time to really open up to each other and to really show their trust, which was good. I really enjoyed the last part of the book because that was really a testament of how deep their love for each other ran.

I'm going to be very forward and say that I sincerely dislike Leigh Anne's parents. Both of them. Let's go with the dad first, he obviously loves his daughter but he's just too much of a pansy to try and do anything to protect her. I expected him to do something significant in this book but he was hardly even present in it. Dude, where the hell have you been throughout the whole story? Like, seriously. And Leigh Anne's mom? Don't even get me started. Biggest bitch ever. She never thinks about anyone but her reputation. I've never wanted to kill off a character more than her mom. *eye twitch* I just... I pity anyone who would be unlucky enough to have parents like them.

I was really conflicted as to what rating I was going to give this book. I hate giving low ratings and when I do, it's because I really just didn't connect with it. But it's also the thought of the author while writing this book, she was obviously trying to convey a message to her readers. No matter how much we wish to distance ourselves from others, people will always find a way to get involved in our problems and in the end, we realize that we didn't really even need to be alone in the first place. The first step to recovery? Opening up. I'll leave you all to be the judged of this book once you read it yourselves because as we all know, books are very subjective.

Rating:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

About the author:

Sarra Cannon grew up in a small town in Georgia where she learned that being popular always comes at a price. She is the author of the young adult paranormal Peachville High Demons series, which she first began self-publishing in October of 2010. Since the series began, Sarra has sold over 120,000 copies and recently signed a contract with Sea Lion Books to create a graphic novel adaptation of Beautiful Demons, the first book in the series.

Sarra lives in North Carolina with her amazing husband, her new baby boy, and her teeny tiny Pomeranian, Snickerdoodle.

You can find her here:

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads / Pinterest