It Started with Goodbye

Written by Christina June

Narrated by Amanda Sanfilippo

After being falsely accused of a crime, Tatum is confined to her house under the watchful eye of her step-mother. But when a twist of fate comes in the form of a mysterious client to her graphic design business, maybe there’s a bit of fairytale luck after all.

Sixteen-year-old Tatum Elsea is bracing for the worst summer of her life. Trapped under her stepmother-imposed house arrest and her BFF ghosting her, Tatum pours herself into the assigned community service. With a helpful push from her fellow community service member, Abby, Tatum fills her time at homebuilding her covert graphic design business, right under her stepmother’s nose. When a cute cello-playing client sweeps Tatum off her feet, she’s left breathless and eager to get out of these four walls.

But Tatum discovers she's not the only one in the house keeping secrets as she takes the chance to make amends with her family and friends. Encouraged by her feisty step-abuela/fairy-godmother, and filled with a new perception of life, Tatum is ready to start fresh and maybe even get her happy ending along the way.

 A contemporary twist on the Cinderella tale, It Started With Goodbye features:

• secret admirer and hidden identity trope
• a strong, spunky female lead
• for fans of Elise Bryant, Meg Cabot, and Sarah Dessen

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blink
• Release date: Aug 9, 2022
• ISBN: 9780310149880

Christina June

Christina June writes young adult contemporary fiction when she’s not writing college recommendation letters during her day job as a school counselor. She loves the little moments in life that help someone discover who they’re meant to become—whether it’s her students or her characters. Christina is a voracious reader, loves to travel, eats too many cupcakes, and hopes to one day be bicoastal—the east coast of the US and the east coast of Scotland. She lives just outside Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter.

Reviews for It Started with Goodbye

[ftbooklover · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It Started with Goodbye is the story of Tatum Elsea who starts her summer by being charged with shoplifting after unwittingly being the getaway driver. In reality, Tatum was only with her best friend because she was trying to protect her from her boyfriend who was the real thief. When Tatum tells the truth to the police, her best friend deserts her, she receives hours of community service as her punishment, and loses the trust of her father and stepmother. Nothing goes right for Tatum as she spends most of her time in her room resenting her stepmother for keeping her locked up in the house in what amounts to house arrest. Things start to change for Tatum when her stepgrandmother, Blanche comes to visit.

This modern Cinderella story very successfully conveys all of the emotions that Tatum is feeling from anger and hurt to frustration and loss. The "Goodbye" in the title refers to valediction or the closing of letters and emails that are sprinkled throughout the story. Tatum obsesses over these and that adds a level of realism and heightened emotion. A very well written story with lots of depth and feeling.

[kbranfield-837433 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

4.5 stars.

It Started with Goodbye by Christina June is a wonderful young adult novel that explores the relationships between stepfamilies.

Sixteen year old Tatum Elsea was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and although she is guilty of nothing more than being loyal to her best friend, Ashlyn Zanotti, she is paying a steep price.  While Tatum completely understands she could have handled the situation differently, her father and stepmother Belén impose a harsh punishment on her and she is essentially under house arrest for the summer. With a lot of free time on her hands, Tatum spends the summer working to pay off her fine and fulfilling her community service hours. At her feisty step-grandmother Blanche's urging, she also begins a graphic design business which leads to some flirty exchanges with a mysterious new client.  Blanche also teaches her some gentle life lessons that provide her with some much needed insight into her strict stepmother's behavior.  When Tatum's father returns home at the end of summer from a business trip, will the family find a way to heal their fractured relationships?

Tatum's relationship with both her stepmother and stepsister Tilly have always been strained. Stepmom Belén is not exactly the warm and cuddly type and she deals with everyone in a brisk, no nonsense manner. She has extremely high expectations for both Tatum and Tilly but luckily for Tatum, she is able to convince her father to intervene on her behalf when necessary. Which is why it comes as such a complete shock when her father sides with Belén and agrees to the harsh punishment her stepmother has imposed. Down but not out, Tatum creatively devises ways to work around some of the edicts but she still deeply resents her dad and Belén for their unfair treatment over something that really is not her fault.

While the storyline mainly focuses on Tatum's family relationships, there is a slight romantic element to the plot. Tatum's e-mail exchange with her new client is light-hearted, fun and flirty.  She has no idea who the young man is but she finds much to admire about him as she gets to know him over the summer. When they do eventually meet in real life, readers won't be too surprised about who he is, but Tatum sure is!

It Started with Goodbye by Christina June is a terrific novel of healing for Tatum and her family. The characters are multi-dimensional with easy to relate to human frailties and foibles. The storyline is quite engaging and deals with real life issues in a straightforward, realistic manner. A very well-written young adult novel that I absolutely loved and highly recommend to readers of all ages.

[christinegrabowski · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am reading a lot of retellings lately and this one held my interest as an adult. I loved that it stood on it's own, and you almost had to search for some of the Cinderella tie-ins. Having spent six years in Northern Virginia, I appreciated the setting

[annabastos-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.