[Review] It Started with Goodbye - Christina June

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. If Tatum is reading his emails right, her virtual Prince Charming is funny, smart, and talented—and he seems to think the same about her. Too bad he’s spending his summer across the ocean in Ireland…not that Tatum would be allowed to go on a date anyway.

But over the course of the summer, Tatum will learn that sometimes going after what you want means breaking all the rules. And 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. (Pub Date: May 09, 2017)


Review based on an ARC provided by Netgalley. I want to also thank the publisher for giving me this opportunity.

I need to start this stating I really liked this story overall. I consider it a 3.5.

Tatum has suffered a hard blow, thanks to her friend's bad choices, she now has to do community service, she's grounded with her stepmother checking the odometer on her car, and said friend isn't speaking to her anymore. It's in the middle of this that she finds hope for a new start—her own design company. But she needs to hide this if she doesn't want helicopter stepmother to block her way again.

This is also one more story of romance arising from an exchange of anonymous exchange of messages, this year it seems to be all I'm reading.

The book is a quick, enjoyable read. But the happenings were unnerving. Tatum is like your classic romantic heroine, who keeps receiving unfair treatment as if it were the right thing. Despite my Master's degree in Criminal Law, I still don't understand why she had to pay with community service. Really, what the hell? And her stepmother was so out of the line, that was borderline-criminal. And for some reason, the morale in the story was that she was right in her own way? That Tatum is the responsible? Blame the victim, and soon parents will be throwing their naughty children out windows. Oh, wait.

With all that said, I think the book is excellent for a group discussion. I'm not a parent, so maybe that's why I think the conclusion was all wrong, I'd love to learn how actual parents would feel. Especially since Tatum had her flaws, and her stepmother wasn't entirely out of line either. The plot is very interesting to reflect over.

There is also romance and this part is cute. Unfortunately, it wasn't the focus. The two basically talk only through e-mails and they are not that many because Tatum has just too much else going on. And as I'm on the topic, the author was successful in balancing each topic in Tatum's nightmare. I got a feel from each of the side characters and all of the issues seemed solved by the end with no rush.It really seemed impossible to me in the beginning as I saw the problems escalate.

As I said in the opening of the review, I liked the book a lot. To a point I even liked the flaws because it made me reflect for myself, instead of trusting the author to tell me what was right. Because there is some generational conflict I'm sure not only teenagers but also parents may enjoy reading it. This is the kind of YA that easily crosses target audience.

Rating: 3 out of 5.