Book Spotlight: The Goodbye Year by Kaira Rouda

Title:The Goodbye Year

Author:Kaira Rouda

Published:May 2016, Sparkpress

Format:Paperback, 312 pages

Melanie, a perfectionist
mom who views the approaching end of parenting as a type of death, can t
believe she has only one more year to live vicariously through her
slacker senior son, Dane. Gorgeous mom Sarah has just begun to realize
that her only daughter, Ashley, has been serving as a stand-in for her
traveling husband, and the thought of her daughter leaving for college
is cracking the carefully cultivated facade of her life. Will and his
wife are fine as long as he follows the instructions on the family
calendar and is sure to keep secret his whole other life with Lauren,
the woman he turns to for fun (and who also happens to have a daughter
in the senior class). 

Told from the points of view of both the
parents and the kids, The Goodbye Year explores high school peer
pressure, what it s like for young people to face the unknown of life
after high school, and how a transition that should be the beginning of a
couple s second act together empty nesting is often actually the end.

What readers are saying…

“The Goodbye Year is an often hilarious, sometimes heartbreaking,
always engaging look at the last year before high school seniors leave
their families for good. I devoured it!” –Meg Mitchell Moore, author of The Admissions, So Far Away, and The Arrivals

“The family dramas and dynamics are things that we can all relate to…” –Redbook magazine, “20 Best Books to Read Come Spring”

“Kaira Rouda channels Peyton Place meets The Real Housewives of Orange County with her newest book, The Goodbye Year.” –Working Mother magazine

“Kaira
Rouda provides a delicious glimpse into an affluent, dysfunctional
community that feels so real it borders on voyeurism. Light-hearted and
ultimately optimistic, The Goodbye Year also tackles weighty
issues, including infidelity, homosexuality, and alcoholism, creating a
compelling and highly entertaining novel. If you’re a fan of reality
television, you’ll love The Goodbye Year.” –Lori Nelson Spielman, author of The Life List

“Who knew that Peyton Place is in Orange County? Kaira Rouda proves that money can’t buy you love in The Goodbye Year.” –Leslie Lehr, screenwriter, novel consultant, and award-winning author of 66 Laps, Wife Goes On, and What a Mother Knows

“The Goodbye Year is a perfect blend of Desperate Housewives and Beverly Hills 90210. If you enjoy a fast-paced story with twists that will both surprise and delight you―this is the one!” –Kellie Coates Gilbert, author of the Texas Gold novels

“Kaira
Rouda’s latest romp through the world of the Orange County elite
follows five seemingly perfect families through their children’s senior
year―a pressure-cooker of college applications, drugs, infidelities, and
keeping up appearances. Will anyone survive? Funny, insightful and
sometimes downright shocking, The Goodbye Year is ultimately an uplifting tale examining the fears and challenges that come with letting go.” –Colleen Oakley, author of Before I Go

“Five
families, seven kids, and one small town seething with gossip and
intrigue. With skill, sensitivity and grace, Kaira Rouda charts the
lives and loves of her mismatched characters, laying bare their deepest
secrets―the ones they pray will never be revealed. Yet truth has a way
of coming out, and when it does, the consequences are shattering in ways
none of them could have ever expected.” –Yona Zeldis McDonough, author of The House on Primrose Pond

“The Goodbye Year
is a book about the profound transition that takes place in families as
children prepare to graduate from high school and begin independent
lives. Told from varying perspectives ―husbands, wives, sons, and
daughters―The Goodbye Year offers a fascinating glimpse behind
the façade of perfection in small, well-heeled community where image is
everything. As college acceptances roll in, or don’t, and marriages
evolve, or don’t, parents and children alike struggle to write a future
for themselves that may not be the one they planned. A compassionate,
wise, and suspenseful tale about the end of one life stage and the
beginning of another.” –Kate Hilton, international best-selling author of The Hole in the Middle

“In The Goodbye Year,
Kaira Rouda takes us behind the gates of the Orange County elite as
they attempt to navigate their children’s senior year and
fast-approaching empty nest. Trust is broken, secrets are revealed. It’s
delicious fun! The Goodbye Year will have you wishing you never had to say farewell.” –Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke, authors of The Status of All Things

 

The Goodbye Year  by Kaira Rouda is one of  BookSparks “It’s Raining Books” reading selection picks.

Follow the #itsrainingbooks hashtag on twitter to read reviews on this book as well as reviews on the other 4 books!