The Goodbye Year
A Novel
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3.8 • 21 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
As featured in: Working Mother * Woman's Day * Redbook * Chico's * Sunset magazine * Coastal Living * SheKnows * Woman's World * Yahoo! Beauty * Fox 28 * The Berry
Melanie, a perfectionist mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can’t believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her traveling husband, and the thought of her daughter leaving for college is cracking the carefully cultivated façade of her life. Will and his wife are fine—as long as he follows the instructions on the family calendar and is sure to keep secret his whole other life with Lauren, the woman he turns to for fun (and who also happens to have a daughter in the senior class).
Told from the points of view of both the parents and the kids, The Goodbye Year explores high school peer pressure, what it’s like for young people to face the unknown of life after high school, and how a transition that should be the beginning of a couple’s second act together—empty nesting—might possibly be the end.
Customer Reviews
Overall good book
Overall I thought this was a good book. I found some things that I identified with in a couple of the characters like Melanie who was, pretty much, having a nervous breakdown. Her "empty nest syndrome" was taking control of her life and she was having a hard time dealing with it. She loves her husband and her kids but things just started to get out of hand. I can see where many moms and even dads would go through that.
I liked Sarah and her daughter Ashley as well as Melanie and Keith and their so Dane but that was it. The others, to me, were too wack-a-do! But, it takes all kinds, right? There are some of those in every community. And these wack-a-do's were written very well and I could picture them and what they were doing.
There are quite a few characters in this novel but it is fairly easy to keep up with them. Anytime there is a change to a particular person's story there is a caption to let you know so it is easy to follow along. There were only a couple times I got lost in the story and had to double check which person I was reading about.
Some parts I could see coming but there were a couple twists that I didn't expect. If you're looking for a weekend or vacation read, The Goodbye Year by Kaira Rouda is a great one to check out!
I received this book to review through Beck Valley Books Book Tours, all the opinions above are 100% my own.
Perfect Book for Mothers of Teens
I have long been a fan of Kaira Rouda's books. The Goodbye Year is her best yet. I read it in less than 24 hours. It is set in suburbia and chronicles a senior year in high school from both the student and the parents' perspectives. The characters are so well drawn that they come to life in this book.
This is a book about relationships- between parent and child, between spouses, between friends. Each relationship is so well written that you "feel" all of the emotions.
This book will appeal to all mothers facing empty-nest syndrome and to all suburban dwellers in type A school districts (which is most everyone).
Kaira Rouda has written a powerhouse of a novel.
I received an advance copy of this book for an honest review. I honestly loved it