In a Nutshell: A contemporary Christian drama focussed on an extended family whose life turns upside down after a cancer diagnosis. The Christian elements are more progressive than conservative, which is fine by me but might not work for conservative believers. One of the main characters is annoying. Overall, a decent read, but not a memorable one for me.

Story Synopsis:
Kristen is a workaholic oncologist who gives her all to her patients, even if it comes at a cost to her personal life with husband Daniel. But when her elder sister Sherri is diagnosed with stage-IV ovarian cancer, Kristen is ready to put everything on hold to ensure that her sister gets the best chances of recovery. Yet again, Daniel feels ignored.
Sherri is a happy kindergarten teacher who has always lived her life making healthy choices. A divorcee, she loves her kids and grandkids. With the cancer diagnosis, she feels the pressure of having a limited time with her loved ones and the pain of giving up the job that means so much to her.
Post the cancer verdict, Kristen and Sherri are determined to make the best of the time Sherri has left and to prolong her good health as much as they can.
The story comes to us in the first person perspectives of Kristen, Sherri, and Daniel.



Bookish Yays:
😍 It was refreshing to see middle-aged characters in the lead. Kristen is 48 and Sherri is 52. The problems they face are the ones typical of that age, and their behaviour also matches their character age.
😍 Sherri is an amazing character, despite having some personality flaws. (Which go to make her even more real.) I loved how practical she was about the whole cancer thing, fighting against the disease but still trying to be prepared for any eventuality.
😍 The sibling bond between the sisters is amazing. As the title indicates, the story is set over a year, and this year turns out to be an eventful one. All through, the sisters come close to each other and help each other in myriad ways.
😍 I love that Daniel is given his own voice. It would have been so easy to turn this woman-dominated story into a typical tale of siblings bonding after traumatic news. But Daniel’s perspective acts as the voice of balance, and also offers an external view on the happenings that Kristen is blind to.
😍 The medical details seemed very true-to-life and authentic, though only medical professionals might be able to gauge the accuracy of the same.
😍 The initial setup shows Kristen as the sister to envy, with her happy marriage, wealthy husband, big home, and flourishing career. Time shows that material wealth does matter and it is the divorcee and relatively poorer Sherri who lives a more fulfilling life. This was subtly but well done.
😍 The author's note at the end was very touching. She is a grade-IV cancer survivor, and it is her own medical ordeal that inspired her to pen this novel. I love her advice about listening to our body, even if our doctor suggests that nothing is wrong.

Bookish Mixed Bags:
😐 This is a Christian contemporary drama. The pros of the Christian representation are mainly in how Sherri uses her faith to guide her through her health issues, and how Kristen, who isn’t religious, grows in faith. On the other hand, this book has a few elements not common in this genre. There’s infidelity and divorce, both of which aren’t what conservative readers will appreciate. There are also a couple of irreverent references to God.
😐 Kristin and Sherri both have adult children. Sherri’s children are very easy to relate to, as their characters are sketched well. However, Kristin’s children are written in a one-dimensional manner.
😐 Daniel’s character earns a lot of sympathy for the way he is treated by Kristen. He seems to have a lot of patience and his breaking point seemed very realistic. However, the Pilar connection was predictable and irritating.
😐 I enjoyed the medical theme and the comments about the expenses related to health scares, treatments, and clinical trials. I also liked the focus on faith, work-life balance, and family dynamics. But I didn’t enjoy the inclusion of themes that weren’t connected to the core topic. Politics and racial discrimination simply didn’t fit into the storyline, then why wave those flags here? Overload of social commentary is never fun to read.

Bookish Nays:
😒 Kristin’s character was very tough to connect to. I get that she was a busy oncologist, but she was taking her family, especially her husband, for granted. After a point, “I’ll try better” has no merit if the intention isn’t followed by action. The justification that anything is acceptable as long as your goals are noble is silly. Her turnaround in the book is also too abrupt.
😒 The track about Kristin and Sherri’s estranged father suddenly making a reappearance and being accepted after only minimal hesitation feels farfetched.
😒 There’s much stress on how Daniel’s architecture firm develops environmentally friendly structures and how important it is to think in terms of sustainability. And yet the main characters smoke numerous cigarettes, throw away leftover or uneaten food, and leave lights on in houses. You can’t be environmentally conscious only in one avenue and ignore everything else.

🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at nearly 12 hours, is narrated by Jessica Holtan and Jeremy Childs. I did like both their narrations, but didn’t love them. As there are two female characters using the first person, having only one female narrator is a bit confusing, even though she tries a subtle variation in her pitch for each character. She does give a personality to the two sisters with her performance, but she sounds much younger than the age of the characters. In case of the male narrator voicing Daniel, the advantage is that his voice suits Daniel’s age, actually sounding like a man in his late forties or early fifties. However, his speaking style was a bit too lulling for my ears. Also, he doesn’t narrate the female voices in a different tone, so his narration sounds monotonous at times.


All in all, this novel definitely has some strong pros. But Kristen’s character and some of the themes made it tough for me to enjoy it more than I did.
A decent one-time read, recommended to women’s fiction readers. Will definitely work better if you read it with your heart than with your head. If you are picking this up for its Christian elements, better if you are a liberal or progressive Christian.

3.5 stars, rounding down because I didn’t enjoy the narration that much.

My thanks to HarperCollins Christian Publishing and NetGalley for the ALC of “The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the audiobook.

EXCERPT: My sister, Sherri. when was the last time I'd talked to her? She texted me on New Year's Day from her son Cody's house in Fayetteville, where she was spending the holidays. We used to talk more, but time seemed to get away from us - or me. I glanced at my smartwatch. Ten thirty. She should be sitting crisscross on the rug in her kindergarten classroom in Kerrville, reading The Little Blue Truck to her students. Or trotting in a single-file line to recess. Her life a a teacher had always struck me as idyllic. Not fair, I knew, but so hopeful and full of tomorrows. She gave her students the key that opened the door to a lifelong love of reading. What a gift.

Know yr busy but need to talk. When u can

Tonight? She went to bed so early, and I worked. I stabbed a response with my rapid-fire index finger.

Will try to call you on lunch break. are u on cafeteria duty today?

Not at school. in car. Doctor's office parking lot.

The hair on my arms prickled. A cold breeze wafted over me that had nothing to do with the overactive AC. My older sister had always been the picture of health. She loved Zumba, Billy Blanks Tae Bo, and spin classes. Her weight was perfect for fifty-two, likely so were her cholesterol and blood pressure. Last year she finished fourth in the San Antonio Rock'n'Roll Marathon's female fifty to fifty-five age division.

Why? whats up? are u sick?

Suddenly lightheaded, I waited, staring at the little twitching bubbles that meant she was typing a response.

not sick. have cancer.

ABOUT 'THE YEAR OF GOODBYES AND HELLOS': Two sisters work to heal lingering childhood wounds and seek a new balance in work, family, marriage, and love when one receives a diagnosis that sets the clock ticking. Determined to save Sherri’s life, Kristen drops everything to guide her sister on the harrowing cancer treatment journey. When she’s unable to balance the strain of caring for her patients, being a wife and mother, and her frantic efforts to save her sister, Kristen’s carefully balanced life crumbles, starting with her marriage. Desperate to regain her footing, she vows to rebuild her broken relationships . . . as soon she’s sure Sherri will beat the odds stacked against her. Unlike her sister, Sherri Reynolds has worked to cultivate balance in her life. Her children, her job as a teacher, and her strong faith keep her grounded—until her diagnosis sends her spiraling into the scary world of what-ifs and unknown outcomes. Sherri faces the agonizing realization that family history may be about to repeat itself. With the clock ticking, she’s determined to use whatever time she has left to heal old wounds and restore relationships. Together, the sisters are forced to reexamine their priorities, address the still tender wounds of their childhood, and delve more deeply to discover what it means to live each day to its fullest.

MY THOUGHTS: Firstly, I would like to thank author Kelly Irvin for writing this book. It cannot have been an easy task as she has written it since being diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer, the seven years since her diagnosis being her 'research' period. She says in her acknowledgements that every appointment, every blood draw, every scan, every surgery and every healthcare provider she came in contact with served as fodder for the big and small details needed to accurately and authentically write Kristen's and Sherri's stories. And it shows. Kelly Irvin is obviously a very strong person, and I would like to thank her for sharing her story with us through this novel.

Secondly this is a book that every woman (and man) needs to read. We need to be more aware. We need to learn to listen to our bodies. We need to be our own health advocates and not bow down to our doctors whom we presume to know more than we do. They do know more than we do, generally. They just don't know our bodies like we do.

I was blessed to receive both a digital and an audio version of this novel and made great use of both formats. It is an emotional read, and definitely not an easy one. We are all touched by cancer in one form or another and, like with Kristen and Sherri, everything else going on in our lives doesn't stop because of it. Some relationships fracture, some are mended. Some people adjust their lives to encompass what is most important to them, some don't. Some people die, some don't.

I loved that we see the full story from both the perspective of the patient (Sherri) and the Oncologist (Kristen). This is an emotionally complex story involving not only the relationship between the two sisters, but a historical marriage breakdown on Sherri's part, a widening rift in the marriage of Daniel and Kristen, infidelity, Sherri and Kristen's estranged father coming back into their lives, the difficulties in achieving a work/life balance as a health professional, and the birth of a new generation into the family.

The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos is an important book. The characters are realistic and relatable, the story both devastating and hopeful.

⭐⭐⭐⭐.5

#TheYearofGoodbyesandHellos #NetGalley

I: @kelly_irvin

X: @Kelly_S_Irvin

THE AUTHOR: Kelly Irvin worked in public relations for the San Antonio Parks and Recreation Department for 22 years before retiring earlier this year. Kelly has been married to photographer Tim Irvin for twenty-eight years. They have two children, four grandchildren and two ornery cats. In her spare time, she likes to write short stories, read books by her favorite authors, and looks forward to visits with her grandchildren.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Harper Collins Christian Publishing, and Thomas Nelson Fiction via NetGalley for providing both a digital and an audio ARC of The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos by Kelly Irvin for review. The audiobook is superbly narrated by Jessica Holten and Jeremy Childs. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

Thank you Thomas Nelson publishing for the audiobook ARC! All thoughts are my own.

This is the story of two sisters working to find a balance in their crazy lives. Kirstin and Sherri lost their mom to cancer so when Sherri gets an unexpected diagnosis. Kirstin goes into fully supportive sister mode. It helps she also is a practicing cancer doctor. Kirstin can't help but want to fix it however at what cost to get marriage.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. I thought the narrators did a great job portraying the characters. I thought this story was so honest. I thought it talked about important topics that are not always discussed. Marriage struggles especially and how to overcome them.

Content: death, cancer, marriage problems, cheating

Read if you like reading about:
Marriages
Growing
Main Characters facing adversity
Cancer stories

I enjoy reading well researched books. I was so disappointed by the medical inaccuracies in the first chapter that I was unable to complete the book. I recommend to the author and publisher to consult with a medical doctor prior to publishing a medical themed book.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Harper Collins Christian and Thomas Nelson for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this wonderful book by Kelly Irvin and perfectly narrated by Jessica Holtan and Jeremy Childs - 5 stars!

Sisters Kristen and Sherri processed their childhood trauma differently. Their mom passed away and their dad left. Kristen became an oncologist and was all focused on her career, to the detriment of her husband and daughters. Sherri led a much more balanced life until her diagnosis of ovarian cancer threw her world off orbit. Kristen swooped in to manage and control every aspect of Sherri's care, moving her into the home she shares with her husband, Daniel. While Sherri is doing her best to mend relationships and live her remaining days with grace and happiness, Kristen's focus on her work implodes her marriage and family.

While this is certainly a serious subject, this book was just so wonderful that I couldn't put it down. I started reading it but quickly switched to the audio so that I could listen more. You can't help but feel for the sisters, and while Daniel could have been a bit more understanding, he was certainly at his wit's end as well. It's not a depressing story; it's instead filled with hope and faith bringing light into such darkness. The author's note with her own cancer experience makes it all more real.

I’m not sure how this book landed on my TBR but I’m so glad it did. Two sisters - one is a workaholic oncologist and the other is recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. The book perfectly illustrates the peace that comes with living a balanced life and the upset that occurs to the relationships that are supposed to matter most when your priorities are misaligned.

This book is categorized as Christian Fiction however you do not need to be a Christian to enjoy the story. I personally appreciated the references to the power of prayer and questions of faith.

This was a great book. What drew me to it is that my sister had been diagnosed with cancer three times and I’m a nurse, whereas one of the narrators was a doctor. There were so many parallels in this story to mine, and so many differences as well. It’s interesting to get different perspectives on how people feel about getting cancer or their loved ones getting cancer, and when is it ok to be selfish while going through it. What irked me about the story is that the husband, Daniel, could only think about how his wife had no time for him while his wife’s sister was going through this horrible cancer diagnosis and treatment and she was an oncologist also dedicating her time to try and save other’s lives. He knew what she was when they married, why is it all suddenly not enough? How is that fair to her to now want to demand her time? That part drove me nuts. And Daniel went on dates with another woman and she’s the bad wife??? What is wrong with men? Why is that ok? It usually takes me a while to get through an audio book because I often forget about them, but this one was so riveting that I couldn’t wait to have an opportunity to throw my earbuds in and listen to it. I finished it quickly because it was so good! Best audiobook I’ve read in a long time.

What an exceptionally beautiful book. I cried. I laughed. I reminisced. 🩵 My heart bled and healed and bled again.

I didn’t realize before picking this up that the diagnosis would be ovarian cancer, and Sherri battling through stage 4 cancer with the help of her sister, Kristen.
An amazing story of family, love, careers, and healing.

In 2012 I lost my best friend to ovarian cancer. Her name was Sherry. So much of the book resonated with me.

Kelly, thank you for this beautiful story, and for sharing your own journey with the readers.

Thank you to NetGalley and Thomas Nelson and Zondervan Audio for this early audiobook in return for my honest opinion.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Pub date: 5 Dec 2023

The Year of Goodbyes and Hellos written by Kelly Irvin delves into the emotional complexities of two sisters navigating the challenges of ovarian cancer. As a cancer survivor herself, this author brings an authentic and deeply personal perspective to this tender story. The narrative skillfully weaves through the highs and lows of the older sister’s cancer journey, offering a heartfelt exploration of family, faith, and the profound impact of a life-altering diagnosis.

The characters, particularly sisters Sherrie (older sister) and Kristen (younger sister), are portrayed with depth and realism, drawing readers into their world of grief, love, and resilience. Irvin skillfully intertwines multiple themes, including marriage, career dynamics, and the delicate balance between life's priorities. The emotional depth is a testament to Irvin's ability to convey the profound impact of cancer on individuals and their relationships.

The overall narrative remains a powerful exploration of life, loss, forgiveness, steadfastness, and the strength found in family bonds. I longed for a more profound exploration of the Christian faith within this narrative; had it been present, it would have undoubtedly secured a five-star rating from me.

The audiobook version of this novel captivated me, particularly due to the compelling voices and, in particular, the exceptional portrayal of the male main character. His performance was nothing short of amazing, adding a layer of depth, authenticity, and emotions to the story that enhanced my overall listening experience.

I received a copy of the audiobook via HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Thomas Nelson Fiction, and NetGalley. I am not required to write a positive review no paid to do so. This is my honest and unbiased review. My thoughts and opinions expressed in this book/audiobook review are my own ensuring transparency and reliability.

What an emotional story of love and loss and restoration! My heart ached for Daniel who struggled to ask his wife for the way he longed to be loved and taken care of. I understood Kristen’s need for wanting to take her job seriously because of the loss she and her sister experienced but she was losing her marriage right before her eyes. I love and respect her love and passion for what she did and her loved ones but we can be so distracted fighting for certain things that we don’t prioritize those right in front of us. Very well written!

😭😭😭😭 This book broke my heart!!! It was insanely beautiful. I'm a better person to have read it.

Many thanks to Net Galley and HarperCollins Christian Publishing for an audio copy in exchange for an honest review.

Audiobook review : At first I did not really enjoy the audiobook as the female narration was plain and devoid of emotions, but later it got better. First hour or so I even wondered if I mistakenly picked up a non fiction book. As it got better, I found myself more engaged in the book.

This is a story of two sisters, Kristen a dedicated and motivated oncologist who wants to save as many patients as she can and her sister Sherry who is diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

This is a beautiful story of their bond, a life with hope, love, betrayal and ultimately family dynamics. It is personal for Kristen as their mother died of breast cancer when she was just 14 and Sherry has always taken care of her. I had to grab on tissues a lot many times and had to stop because book was making me overwhelmed. If you like some tear jerkers, this book is definitely for you.

Daniel - Kristen's husband and Sherry's ex husband - Chance both are my favorite characters from the whole book. They are actually too good to be true. But I like when women write these kind of men even though they do not exist in reality.

What makes The year of goodbyes and hellos special is it is also a part of author's journey. Kelly Irvin herself suffers from stage 4 ovarian cancer and physical disability. A loss is sometimes so difficult to deal with and yet people find courage to carry on which I really find admirable.

Thank you Netgalley and Harper Collins Christian publishing for the ARC in exchange of an honest review.

Kristen is a driven oncologist, determined to save as many patients as she can from the disease that killed her mom. When her older sister calls with news of a stage 4 ovarian cancer diagnosis, Kristen immediately focuses on Sherri’s battle. As the ripple effects of the diagnosis spread, they challenge Kristen’s already-stressed relationship with her husband and daughters, while Sherri, her children and her ex- have to come to terms with what this could mean.

If anyone has struggled with work-life balance, has been a caregiver, or known someone with cancer, they will relate to this story. Despite dealing with heavy topics like why some people are healed and others not, this is balanced by family bonds, love and hope. No character is without flaws, but Sherri’s faith keeps her going. Multiple points of view and flashes back in time show the impact of family history as well as the current situation on the family and friends. Dual narrators support this, although at times I struggled to identify which character was speaking during the male perspective. This was my first novel by Kelly Irvin but it won’t be my last. Recommended.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review audiobook copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

An absolutely heartbreaking story of grief, faith, family, and hope. This is easily one of the books that will stick with me most this year.

Premise - a workaholic oncologist learns of her sister’s ovarian cancer diagnosis as her marriage falls apart.

All I can say is you HAVE to read this. The message about ovarian cancer screening is important, the characters are SO real, and the story is moving without ever veering into trauma porn or melodrama. It’s a deeply sad story and yet it leaves the reader with a sense of hope and an appreciation of life and love. Bravo.

Readers who enjoyed ‘When Breath Becomes Air’ should check this out.

Thanks, NetGalley and Thomas Nelson, for the gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review.