Goodbye, Good Girl

I absolutely ADORED this book. It had so many unique elements: coming of age mixed with travel mixed with family drama mixed with a thriller. I LOVED Autumn/Kandace's character and identified so much with her myself. Constantly struggling to make things work and letting other people dictate her life, I loved seeing her grow and change as the story went on. I also think April was a great friend for her, who knew a chance encounter at a bus stop could lead to a friendship like that? My only complaint was the Kyle story line, it really seemed kind of pointless after the first few chapters. Overall I really really enjoyed this book and am so glad I had the chance to read it!

Goodbye, Good Girl by Renee Blossom, wow I had good things about this book but it blew my mind. I am glad an author wrote a out this subject, how far would you go for money. How desperate could you become, A small town girl finds her self needing money and decides to dance and strip in a men's club! I won't say more for spolier affects this is a must read in the mind of a young girl and the decisions she makes and why she does! I highly recommend this book!

This book was given to me from netgalley for an honest review and I adored it. It was a great mix of adventure, thrill, and friendship. It was a quick read for me and easy to relate and know the characters.

I was really intrigued by the premise of this novel so when I was selected by the publisher to read it I was excited. I thought that it started off pretty strong. I read the first half quickly. But there are so many characters that don't add to the story whatsoever (all her friends) and the characters that are important seemed underdeveloped to me (Her mom, April, Markus, Kyle).
I will say that the plot is entertaining and I thought that April had some pretty funny one-liners. But all in all, I thought the number of characters was overwhelming at times and that negatively impacted the book.

I found this book to start off rather slowly. However, it does pick up after a handful of chapters if you stick with it.

Good Thursday all , hope your week is going great . Wow this is the last week of August where did the summer go . If you were like me I hope you soaked up the sun and read some really good books . Today we are going to review GOODBYE GOOD GIRL  by Renee Blossom 

                          BOOK BLURB 
    
When eighteen year old Kandace Santellan is ditched in St. Louis by her boyfriend on a cross country trip to reach her estranged father, she finds herself trapped––she can’t go home and she doesn’t have enough money to reach Los Angeles. She then meets April, an ambitious exotic dancer with attitude, who has a one thousand dollar wager––that Kandace can make the money she desperately needs dancing at the gentleman’s club The Palace in just one night. Rumored as an adult playground of fast money and faster pills, it’s a place where fantasy is king and problems are forgotten. Anything can happen.
But can Kandace strip her clothes for money, even if it is her only way to repair her broken family?
Feeling like time is running out, and out of options, she gets curious…thinking that after one wild night dancing, she would be on her way to LA. And her friends and family would never need to know. Could she make it work? Or will the club’s fantasy lifestyle take the good girl from Pittsburgh, and make her into someone she’s never met?
       
                       MY REVIEW 

     When I sat down to read this book I was at a bit of a quandary . Was this a coming of age book a mystery or and adventure read . Meet Kandace a girl who is up against it with mounting medical bills from her moms accident . Younger sisters that she has to take care of . A missing dad that hasn't been home in over two years .  When she has the opportunity to find her dad she takes it . But when she is abandoned by her so called boyfriend she is at her wits end . With a chance meeting with April , she enters a world where money is good and the lifestyle is fast . Will she get to LA will her family find out . 
      The characters in the book are well written but some of the characters came off as being one dimensional . Kandace is the lead character and sometimes you kind of want to slap her and sometimes you want to hug her and tell her that things will be ok . I felt that she was very naïve through out the book . She really didn't have doubts about her new job of dancing and stripping .  April is the friend everyone warns you about . She is there and leading you into some situations that are hysterical but also a little dangerous . She has no filter and will tell you what's what on any occasion . She is such a hoot to read  and you will giggle with some of the things that come out of her mouth . At least I did . 
    This is an intriguing book, you are taking on a journey of self discovery and coming of age . Throw in a little mystery and adventure and you have this book . I kind of felt that the beginning of the book is a bit slow and I wanted the road trip to start sooner . The conversations dragged on and on at the beginning which to me slowed down the build up . When they finally got on the road the book started to pick up steam .  Also I would of liked to see a bit more of the nagging feeling that she shouldn't be stripping instead of jumping right into it and having fun and laughing . Needed to see a bit more nervousness . 
Over all I really did enjoy this book and would recommend it to anyone who wants a good coming of age story mixed with mystery and adventure

This was so good, I have already recommended it to a number of people!

Thank you so much to Revolve via netgalley for sending me an ARC copy of Goodbye, good girl by Renee Blossom. Goodbye good girl will be released on October 3, 2017

Kandace is just trying to get to California to see her dad and get away from her mom, a cross country drive with her boyfriend what could go wrong. Now i dont know about you but i cant handle being trapped in a car for more then five hours without almosting killing someone so this trip was doomed from the start.

Once her boyfriend and her get into a fight and Kandace is left on the side of the road, cold and alone... but not for long.

Kandace meets a girl named April and she takes Kandace under her wing and brings her into her world of exotic dancing. Its fast money for Kandace if she wants to make it to California.

I dont know if a story about becoming a stripper was supposed to be funny but i was laughing maybe im just weird or maybe its a weird topic to read about.

The beginning was very slow, mainly dialogue back and forth which was overkill. I wanted details and descriptive writing about what was happening not lame conversations. I wanted the road trip to start and the adventure to begin. It took a while. But once it picked up it really picked up, and got really good. While working at the strip club kandace was very much fine with stripping right away, like yeah im fine with walking around naked, my boyfriend didnt just leave me whatever lets screw some guys. I didnt find how Kandace reacted to the whole situation believable.

It was interesting and i liked it but i also dont really know what to think about it, because i have never read a book like it and it was refreshing to see things in a new light!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in advance and review it.

Kandace is an 18 year old girl living with her two sisters, Amelia and Coral, and her mother. However she feels like the only adult in her house, her dad lives in another state and sends them money, but there is not enough money for them to pay the bills and get food.

The story is about Kandace trying to find her father, along the way she meets someone who tells her a way to make money so that she can go on her journey to find her father. Goodbye, Good Girl is shows us how a teenager can be drawn into a fast lifestyle for easy money was on point.

Kandace is naïve. Even by the end of the book, her actions and assumptions don't show much evidence of a maturing young woman.

The writing style was not my cup of tea, there were a lot of things I'd change, but it's a light read, and it's and entertaining read.

This was a book that tells of a young woman that finds herself in a bad situation, and in order to find her way out takes a bet and becomes a exotic dancer overnight. It was for one night but what Kandace experienced that night made her realize that she might not want to stop. She took the dare for a way home but along the way she learned the truth of who she really is, she learned that she could be herself. Learning the truth might finally set Kandace free.
Thank you NetGalley and Renee Blossom for allowing me to read and give an honest review of this book.

I really wanted to like this. So many teenagers and children have absent parents. So when a young woman sets off on a quest to rescue her father from perceived life-threatening danger, it's an incredibly promising story.

Kandace sets off after an event one afternoon when her mother, Ginger, was taken to the ER for an opiate overdose and a strange, well-armed man had entered the family home looking for her father. Kandace thinks her father is a chef who travels the world, cooking for important people. She can't reach her father - he won't answer the phone or text her back. After a visit with her mother, who explains there's an address for him in her bedroom, Kandace decides it's her responsibility to find him in California and save his life.

When she arrives in St Louis with her boyfriend, he chickens out and goes home because his mom is telling him that's what he has to do. Kandace isn't going home. She's got too much at risk. So she takes off, leaving everything in his car.

She meets April at a bus stop and April recruits her to try exotic dancing - just for one night - to make enough money to get to LA.

As happens too often to young people, Kandace gets addicted to the attention and the highs, even the highs caused by ecstasy. She truly is her mother's daughter, huh?

Here's where things get weird. Okay, extra weird. The club in St Louis is like a magical fantasy version of the most dreamy strip club to work at. <i>Maybe</i> clubs like this exist somewhere. Maybe. Probably not. And if they did, they wouldn't take a new dancer on the same day they met her. But most clubs don't have magical church women that come with food, gift baskets, and sage advice. They don't have a beauty, hair, makeup, whatever area. And they definitely don't have wardrobe. They have a dressing room. With stations that girls stakeout at the beginning of their shifts. They put their belongings, unsecured usually (though there's usually always someone around to keep everyone honest), by these stations. They bring their own clothes, do their own makeup and hair, and take care of their own personal grooming on their off time. I know, I've worked in one such club. And once you've seen one, they're pretty much all the same - give or take a few details here and there.

Blossom takes this opportunity to try her hand at writing light erotica and it sometimes feels forced.

Kandace (aka Autumn) travels from St Louis to Las Vegas to LA, dancing with April the whole way. They became very close friends very quickly and it might be my general outlook on life, but I was waiting for a big betrayal that never happened.

When Kandace and April arrive in LA and locate Kandace's father, it turns out that he was never in danger. The heavily-armed man who entered her home is someone he knows and is not a threat. Her father is some clandestine operative that cooks sometimes to gain access to events for his work. And by now, this part of the story feels irrelevant.

The entire way, Kandace is incredibly, unbelievably naïve. Even by the end of the book, her actions and assumptions don't show much evidence of a maturing young woman. She seems to take time to think through her future, but she's made her decisions long before she admits to them.

I admit it, I was hoping for some awesome story of a young lady saving her father showing ultimate girl power and bringing the family back together again. That was mostly crushed because Kandace was too impulsive. For someone taking on such an important journey, she really didn't waste time thinking or planning. And to me, that's a shame. But the other part that drove me insane? Her father's reaction to the fact that Kandace is now stripping for money. He can't allow her the space she needs to be herself, to figure herself out, or to make mistakes. He can't respect her as a human being. He infantilizes her. It's horrible misogyny and he angered me to no end.

The redeeming thing about the book? So many stories try to tie things up into tidy little bows and make sure that people are happy. That's not this book. If anything, there's a much bigger wedge between Kandace and her father. She's uncomfortable in her hometown. And she's moving to a city half a continent away, abandoning her mother and sisters who depend on her (truly her father's daughter, also), to live with a girl she's known for all of a week. That's not a happy ending. Not a tragic ending, either. But it's how things happen in real life. If there's one thing the author got right, it's the ending. It's how things get messy and mistakes get made and sometimes we can't take them back. And that's a valuable thing to learn. I admire authors who can take their story to that place without polishing it up all nice and shiny. Thanks for letting us see that our lives aren't the only crazy lives out there.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Revolve Publishing for the ARC.

This is a story of a young woman, Kandace (K) taking on household responsibilities, due to an absent father & addicted mother. She feels that she urgently needs to find her father, who may or may not be across the US. K basically begs her boyfriend to join/bring her & he does so out of guilt. He ends up leaving her stranded and broke before they get very far. So, K becomes an instant "Star" stripper to make money to fund the rest of her trip.
I had a really hard time getting into this book, & I honestly couldn't connect with the main character (Kandace/Autumn) or the story-line. In my opinion, everything about this story was unrealistic. And Kandace is very immature & selfish in her thoughts & actions.
Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

I received an ARC from NetGalley to read and review. The below is my honest, unbiased opinion. Thank you, Renee Blossom, the publisher, and NetGalley, for allowing me to review.

GOODBYE, GOOD GIRL is a coming-of-age story about Kandace Santellan, 18. At the beginning, Kandace is cast as the adult of the family: her father is away working, her mother is a drug user, and she has two sisters who rely on her. When she decides she can no longer handle her life, she decides to leave Pennsylvania for California, where her father is said to be working. On the way there, she's abandoned by her boyfriend in St. Louis. She meets April, an exotic dancer, who offers her a job, promising her enough money to make it the rest of the way to California if she worked just one night. Kandance accepts the offer and is quickly caught up in a lifestyle of lust, drugs, and dancing.

To me, this story screamed of a coming-of-age plot. Kandace (who is sometimes called "Kandy" in the book, a name at which I cringe as it's too cliche for the plot), and the writer relies on common tropes to tell Kandace's story: drug abusing parent, absent role models, a missing father, a child forced into a parental role, first love, first lust, drug using, fantasy lives, a naive main character, etc. Kandance makes her decisions without thinking, typical of a teenager and a coming-of-age story line. I found the author's portrayal of a teenager to be quite realistic. Often, I was cringing at the dialogue or the way Kandance reacted in certain situations, but that's because I'm not a teenager. So while the adult in me cringed, the writer in me respected the author's attempt at crafting an adolescent character in a starring role. I also appreciated that the author stuck to the dark and dirty side of humanity when telling this story. So many glamorize this lifestyle, but we get to see both sides: the fantasy and the pain.

With that being said, I couldn't relate to Kandance. Too many times I cringed at the things she said and the way she acted. I'm a fan of young adult literature, but this coming-of-age story was a little too unrelatable for me. I'm one who strives for realism, even in fantasy literature. So some of the character's cringe-worthy dialogue and unrealistic responses to situations were too hard to ignore.

I was given this book as an ARC through Netgalley (available October 2017) and when I started reading it I wasn't sure I would like it. But somehow I got into this book about Kandace and her life at home. Her priorities such as school and finding her father was heartwarming.

The story takes us on the adventure of 18 year old Kandace, not only trying to find her father, but through the choices she makes when faced being alone and broke. She hooks up with April who turns her on to fast money by teaching her how to poll dance/strip.

Quickly Kandace is hooked on dancing, making money, having clothes - a rich life. But is this the life she wants or does her desire to go to college, and help her family out trump that. A good read and page turner!

Great breakout novel! You actually feel like you're living the life of the characters.

I was given an advanced copy of Goodbye, Good Girl by Renee Blossom through netgalley for an honest review. I first off would like to thank Pikko’s house/Revolve along with the author for the opportunity to read this novel.
Kandace is an eighteen-year-old girl who just want to do write by her family. I found the first few chapters of this book really sad because I feel like a young girl should have to do so much to have to take care of her family. I understand that a girl needs answers and I understand that a father has to make a living but I felt that there was so much secrecy that the father daughter bond that should have been there just wasn’t.
As the story progresses Kandace is left by her boyfriend Kyle on her way to California and she is forced to continue the journey alone. I enjoyed the Character of April the girl who gets her into stripping and I enjoyed the story even though some people might find it a little too much I thought it was on the tame side since I don’t think all strippers are treated as well as these two girls were. The only downfall to this story for me is I wish that the father would have either don more to support her or at least not been so judgmental of her life style choices considering he was the reason she started this journey to begin with. Overall a 4-star rating from me. I look forward to reading more from the author.