A review by smitch29
The Best Goodbye by Abbi Glines
3.0
3.4
Overall, the story hit most of the author's typical points. It was a quick, easy romantic read. She made it entertaining and fairly realistic. My main issue was that everything being dealt with in the story was actually fairly heavy stuff, and there was just so much room for the plot to dig in deeper. This was both a good and a bad thing for me. Sometimes it's nice to mix things up (and this was a bit different for Abbi Glines), but then it also felt like something was missing, since the story just skimmed over most of the bigger issues and made their resolutions unrealistically simple.
For a quick recap, our two lovebirds each had two names for the present and the past versions of themselves. River "Captain" Kipling and Rose "Addy" (I don't remember her last name) knew each other from their childhood where they lived in the same household. Addy moved in while she was still a preteen or early in her teens, and met River. However, their mom was really abusive, in the face of an absent father figure. It threw Addy and River together, and they ended up falling in love. However, that abusive mother ends up really being their downfall as she drives Addy out of town, and makes it out that she killed Addy. River gets her arrested and then he is basically leaving on the streets. He gets taken under the wing of some crime lord, and changes his name to Captain, and becomes a hitman. He maintains a moral compass by only killing people that have really hurt others (especially children), and he verifies each and every person's guilt. His first time out of the crime world, he getsg a job putting a restaurant together in Rosemary Beach, where his sister, Blair, lives. That is where Addy catches up with him, after searching for him all those years. She's colored her hair, changed her name, and added glasses to disguise herself and to figure out what kind of guy River is these days. When she left she was pregnant and she's trying to protect their kid, even if she's protecting her from River himself.
When she first meets River as "Captain", he's really abrasive and doesn't seem like the boy she once knew or the father figure she is hoping for their child. It takes a month or so for her to warm to the idea of telling him the truth. Since he thought the love of his life died when he was a teenager, he's been struggling with demons as an adult. The two of them have a lot of issues to overcome and a lot of feelings to deal with, all while looking out for the good of their child. It doesn't help, either, when Captain's past comes calling.
Like I said, this book delves into some heavy stuff. And yet it wasn't a long book at all. The ending came across as a very "happy for now" finale, since there were so many deeps issues that weren't fully resolved, since resolving them takes time, and not a lot of time passed in this book.
I did still like the characters. If any, Addy, was the most annoying with some wishy-washy moments that were really immature for a single-mother. Otherwise, I liked her and River's interactions. The author showed a lot of scenes from their childhood, and I thought the first few were great, as they were catching me up on what happened to the point that Addy left and River thought she had died. Then the flashbacks kept being shown in an effort to illuminate how they fell in love. I hated those and ended up skimming most of them. They weren't necessary and took away from the present narrative. I think those flashbacks tried too hard to be the foundation for the entire love story, and I don't think that is realistic or right. The past connection they had is great, but after around a decade, they are going be almost entirely different people and thus, will need a new foundation to build upon, using the past as inspiration, not the basis.
Not my favorite in this series, but I'll still continue on and see what will come for Major (who works for the same crime boss that Captain did) and Nan.
Overall, the story hit most of the author's typical points. It was a quick, easy romantic read. She made it entertaining and fairly realistic. My main issue was that everything being dealt with in the story was actually fairly heavy stuff, and there was just so much room for the plot to dig in deeper. This was both a good and a bad thing for me. Sometimes it's nice to mix things up (and this was a bit different for Abbi Glines), but then it also felt like something was missing, since the story just skimmed over most of the bigger issues and made their resolutions unrealistically simple.
For a quick recap, our two lovebirds each had two names for the present and the past versions of themselves. River "Captain" Kipling and Rose "Addy" (I don't remember her last name) knew each other from their childhood where they lived in the same household. Addy moved in while she was still a preteen or early in her teens, and met River. However, their mom was really abusive, in the face of an absent father figure. It threw Addy and River together, and they ended up falling in love. However, that abusive mother ends up really being their downfall as she drives Addy out of town, and makes it out that she killed Addy. River gets her arrested and then he is basically leaving on the streets. He gets taken under the wing of some crime lord, and changes his name to Captain, and becomes a hitman. He maintains a moral compass by only killing people that have really hurt others (especially children), and he verifies each and every person's guilt. His first time out of the crime world, he getsg a job putting a restaurant together in Rosemary Beach, where his sister, Blair, lives. That is where Addy catches up with him, after searching for him all those years. She's colored her hair, changed her name, and added glasses to disguise herself and to figure out what kind of guy River is these days. When she left she was pregnant and she's trying to protect their kid, even if she's protecting her from River himself.
When she first meets River as "Captain", he's really abrasive and doesn't seem like the boy she once knew or the father figure she is hoping for their child. It takes a month or so for her to warm to the idea of telling him the truth. Since he thought the love of his life died when he was a teenager, he's been struggling with demons as an adult. The two of them have a lot of issues to overcome and a lot of feelings to deal with, all while looking out for the good of their child. It doesn't help, either, when Captain's past comes calling.
Like I said, this book delves into some heavy stuff. And yet it wasn't a long book at all. The ending came across as a very "happy for now" finale, since there were so many deeps issues that weren't fully resolved, since resolving them takes time, and not a lot of time passed in this book.
I did still like the characters. If any, Addy, was the most annoying with some wishy-washy moments that were really immature for a single-mother. Otherwise, I liked her and River's interactions. The author showed a lot of scenes from their childhood, and I thought the first few were great, as they were catching me up on what happened to the point that Addy left and River thought she had died. Then the flashbacks kept being shown in an effort to illuminate how they fell in love. I hated those and ended up skimming most of them. They weren't necessary and took away from the present narrative. I think those flashbacks tried too hard to be the foundation for the entire love story, and I don't think that is realistic or right. The past connection they had is great, but after around a decade, they are going be almost entirely different people and thus, will need a new foundation to build upon, using the past as inspiration, not the basis.
Not my favorite in this series, but I'll still continue on and see what will come for Major (who works for the same crime boss that Captain did) and Nan.