Review – Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel

This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.

When I read One Day by David Nicholls I fell in love. I cared so much about the characters that I wanted to know them in real life, they made me angry when they didn’t do what I wanted and their story had me completely enchanted. Goodbye For Now is my new One Day. Imagine if someone died but it wasn’t the end. That there was some way that you could see them again, speak to them again, tell them about your day and they would respond in exactly the way you remember. When Sam Elling creates a computer programme that allows his girlfriend Meredith to do just this with her deceased grandmother, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Then tragedy strikes and Sam and Meredith have to find out whether goodbye really is forever or whether it’s just goodbye for now. This book is beautiful. Fact. Sam and Meredith’s relationship has all the comfortable companionship and love that I imagine every relationship should have; they laugh together, share together. Laurie Frankel has written these characters with such flair – their love is obvious without being over-egged.  They were a joy to read. The character of Dash made me laugh out loud and the other secondary characters of the book were all well written and likeable, with their own individual personality traits and stories. The premise of the novel is fantastic, fresh and original. It deals with serious issues such as death, grief and love, and weaves them together beautifully to create a story that never falters, never focuses too much on death or whether it’s right or wrong to keep someone “alive” but is simply a pleasure to read. I don’t want to talk too much about how the story progresses because it will give too much away but the development of Sam and Meredith’s story is brilliant. Goodbye For Now would be an excellent book club read – there’s plenty to discuss and enjoy. What I loved most about it was how full of possibility and hope the story was. If you are a fan of One Day you will adore this book. MORE ABOUT GOODBYE FOR NOW