*ARC* It Started With Goodbye - Review

It Started With Goodbye

By: Christina June 

Published: May 9, 2017 by Blink

272 pages

Source: ebook, Netgalley ARC from publisher 

(Goodreads / Amazon)

Summary:

Sixteen-year-old Tatum Elsea is bracing for the worst summer of her life. After being falsely accused of a crime, she’s stuck under stepmother-imposed house arrest and her BFF’s gone ghost. Tatum fills her newfound free time with community service by day and working at her covert graphic design business at night (which includes trading emails with a cute cello-playing client). When Tatum discovers she’s not the only one in the house keeping secrets, she finds she has the chance to make amends with her family and friends. Equipped with a new perspective, and assisted by her feisty step-abuela-slash-fairy-godmother, Tatum is ready to start fresh and maybe even get her happy ending along the way.

A modern play on the Cinderella story arc, Christina June’s IT STARTED WITH GOODBYE shows us that sometimes going after what you want means breaking the rules.

MY REVIEW:
My top two favorite Disney movies/stories are Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. So yeah, I'm a sucker for any book that has these themes. It always sucks me in. I'm also a cover snob....but this cover didn't really intrigue me all that much.

I'm not so sure I would have described this as a "modern play on Cinderella". There are some similarities....a step mother that our MC, 16 year old Tatum, isn't close to. A grandmother (step) that happens to be extra kind towards Tatum and is made mention that she is "like a fairy godmother" and a stepsister that she isn't close to. But that's about where the similarities end. Dad goes away for the summer with his job and the mean stepmother is in charge of Tatum. Being about as grounded as you can get, she is only allowed to babysit and do her community service hours. She has started a graphic design business at the insistence of a friend, but she keeps this hidden from her stepmother. During one of her step-sister's ballet events at her prestigous private school, she uses the opportunity to leave business cards to try to get more clients. While there she meets a very charming, handsome guy, but never gets his name. In the course of time she starts getting emails from interested students from the school that she advertised her services at, and among them is a cello player whose emails to her verge on the flirtatious side.

I found the first 25% of the book to be rather slow. It really didn't get me interested until about 40% in. The reason is that I most definitely want a love story with my books. It felt like an introduction to a male prospect took longer than it should have in the beginning of the story...and that was an assumption that the first male introduced to our main character would be "the male". But I pushed on to see what more the story would bring. Even at 85% there is still no real romantic storyline. What does develop into one happens within the last 10% of the book.

Due to the amount of time Tatum is emailing, she spends a lenghty portion of brain power contemplating how to sign her emails, which valediction is best. This got annoying to me because it was mentioned EVERY time she sent an email.

The story has a theme more on the lines of what miscommunication and misunderstanding can bring about in relationships. I would recommend this book for middle school and high school age readers. The content and language are both very minor in nature.

Favorite Quotes:
"It's always better to do difficult tasks with friends."

"Do not underestimate the power fear has over our choices."

Yours in music and marshmallows, Seamus.

Language Rating: 1 (light)
Mature Content Rating: 1 (light)
Final Rating: 3 stars