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A review by hikio123
The Goodbye Kids by Debbie Iancu-Haddad
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I received the ARC version of the book during a giveaway.
Fun read, the story was intriguing, and knowing what's going on for most of it added to it instead of making it predictable. While the romance is cute, I found it hard to care or relate to Jordan due to his mission. I felt for Hayley a lot more. I can't wrap my head around why she would even still feel anything but hatred towards him once she knows the truth.
I did skim over the kissing scenes, there's something really weird to me about reading two teenagers making out when I'm almost twice their age. At the very least it was very minimal, so didn't really impact the story that much.
It was a lot more romance than anything else. While it was easy to read because the writing is for younger audiences, I feel like I couldn't get into it as much because it was basically a romance with some bomber plot in the background that came into head only in the last four chapters. As an adult, romance between teens and normal every day life is not something I'm really into.
Also, I have to say that despite the summary saying Hayley is plus size, it is barely noticable in the plot. It's brought up to put herself down or in comments such as 'how can he love me when I look like this'. It's kinda dissapointing.
Dawn is there at the start, dissappears most of the book, then comes back at the end to get the climax started. It was disappointed. No characters really exist outside the two main ones, which could really use being more fleshed out and more than just he's a suicide bomber that fells bad about it and a loney girl that was pushed aside for some reason.
Fun read, the story was intriguing, and knowing what's going on for most of it added to it instead of making it predictable. While the romance is cute, I found it hard to care or relate to Jordan due to his mission. I felt for Hayley a lot more. I can't wrap my head around why she would even still feel anything but hatred towards him once she knows the truth.
I did skim over the kissing scenes, there's something really weird to me about reading two teenagers making out when I'm almost twice their age. At the very least it was very minimal, so didn't really impact the story that much.
It was a lot more romance than anything else. While it was easy to read because the writing is for younger audiences, I feel like I couldn't get into it as much because it was basically a romance with some bomber plot in the background that came into head only in the last four chapters. As an adult, romance between teens and normal every day life is not something I'm really into.
Also, I have to say that despite the summary saying Hayley is plus size, it is barely noticable in the plot. It's brought up to put herself down or in comments such as 'how can he love me when I look like this'. It's kinda dissapointing.
Dawn is there at the start, dissappears most of the book, then comes back at the end to get the climax started. It was disappointed. No characters really exist outside the two main ones, which could really use being more fleshed out and more than just he's a suicide bomber that fells bad about it and a loney girl that was pushed aside for some reason.