The Trouble With Goodbye Review

The Trouble With Goodbye by Sarra Cannon

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.

3 out of 5 stars

The Trouble With Goodbye is the first book in the Fairhope series.

I have to admit... I've never been inclined to get into the relatively new New Adult genre. All the book descriptions are more or less the same- the girl with the dark secret and the guy with the darker secret that threatens to destroy their new-found love. It's not a story that I'm particularly interested in. Despite The Trouble With Goodbye have just that description, I decided to give it a shot because I enjoyed Sarra Cannon's Peachville High books.

Leigh Anne comes back to Fairhope, Georgia after two years in Boston- with a terrible secret. While it's not said out loud until more than halfway through the book, it's quite obvious from the beginning. This secret makes it impossible for her to fit back into her old life. She does connect with Knox, who seems to understand the turmoil going on inside her. But her secret comes back to haunt her and, if she admits to her relationship with Knox, his secrets will come out, too.

The Trouble With Goodbye is considered romance. It really seemed to be more about Leigh Anne's self discovery and growth, with her romance with Knox just being a part of it. The reason I say this is because most of her time with him is glossed over. Outside of one date that involves his family being there, too, any time spent with his is really about trusting him enough with her secret. While deciding to be with Knox takes up a large part of the first half, the second half is about her deciding to take her life back from her parents. Through the whole book, the underlying thing is that, even just two years later, she feels like she can't fit into the life that her parents want for her and she thinks she should want for herself.

Maybe because I didn't feel the romance between Leigh Anne and Knox, I didn't really feel Knox at all. Aside from the fact that he had more screen time than the minor characters, I didn't think her had any more personality than they did. His undesirable status among her former group in town was mentioned but never really demonstrated. His secret past, though dramatic, didn't really have any punch or emotion behind it for me.

Leigh Anne, herself, seemed a little more like a real person. I could even understand her and sympathize with her. Unfortunately, I got tired of her thoughts because they never really ventured out of her three main problems- that her parents didn't take her feelings into consideration, that her experience left her broken, and that she wanted to be with Knox anyway.

To me, this book was completely average. I'm not a fan of this particular genre anyway, but I don't think this is the best that it has to offer. For a book that relies heavily on characters rather than plot, I didn't think they were dynamic enough. I didn't dislike the book, but it certainly doesn't make me change my mind about the New Adult genre.