Review: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith

25 August, 2015 Reviews 11 comments

Clare and Aidan decide to wait until the last minute to figure out if they should stay together or break up. They are about to leave for college on opposite sides of the country and the only logical thing left to do is to retrace the steps of their relationship and see if there’s something to salvage in the first place. So, will they break up? Will they do the long-distance thing? Will you even care about any of this by the time they make a decision? 

I read somewhere that the author wanted to write a long goodbye rather than a “hello” story and I was immediately drawn to the idea. I thought it had a lot of potential and it could be a nice change of pace. I’ve been reading the same stories for so long that I was craving something different so my expectations were sky-high. Even though I liked the concept, I did not enjoy the final product. This novel is less than 260 pages long but it took me ages to read. I was bored out of my mind and I wanted nothing more than for them to make up their minds so I could move on with my life. I kept waiting for something interesting to happen but all they did was whine and go around in circles and whine some more. It is possible that I’m just bitter but this maybe-breakup was a thousand times more dramatic than it needed to be.

I think the main reason I had such a hard time putting up with this story is that the main characters are awful. Clare and Aidan are bland, flat, and incredibly boring.  I didn’t like them so I didn’t care about their relationship status at all.  And since I didn’t care about their relationship then everything felt like a huge waste of time. The one thing that made this mess tolerable was every other character besides Clare and Aidan. Their friends are entertaining and quickly became my favorite aspect of the novel. I kept pretending like the story was about them instead so I could put up with the other two (while secretly wondering why awesome people would put up with so much unnecessary drama).

Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between is very hit-or-miss. I can see people liking this story but it wasn’t for me. I have to confess that I cared a tiny bit about the story at the very end but maybe I was just relieved that it was over.

11 Responses to “Review: Hello, Goodbye, and Everything in Between by Jennifer E. Smith”

  1. Hannah

    Gah, I tried to read one of the author’s books before, but I just couldn’t get into it. You know it’s not for you when you find the side characters more interesting than the main couple!

  2. Kyra @ Blog of a Bookaholic

    I’ve read The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and I loved it, so I’m hoping that I’ll enjoy this too. It’s such a pity that you didn’t like it, especially when you were so looking forward to it! Great review! 🙂

    • Paola Carolina

      Thank you 😀 I looooove The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight! Which is why I HAD to read her latest novel. I hope you enjoy it more than I did!

  4. Vane J.

    The concept of a goodby instead of a hello is indeed interesting. Bland and awful characters, though, are not. Great review!

  5. Carina Olsen

    Awesome review Paola 😀 But aw, I’m sorry that this book disappointed you :\ but yay for not fully hating it, lol 🙂 I think the cover is so pretty. Sigh. But I don’t think I would like this book either 🙂 Thank you for sharing your thoughts. <3

  6. Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf

    Agh, that’s so disappointing when the concept really drew you in! I’ve loved all of the Jennifer E. Smith books that I’ve read and I have pretty high hopes for Hello, Goodbye, and Everything In Between so I’ll probably still give it a try 🙂 . Sorry this one was a miss!

    Zareena @ The Slanted Bookshelf

  7. Krys

    I had similar thoughts about this book too. Some parts were okay, and others were kind of -meh… Definitely is not on top of my recommendation list of books with cutesy love stories.
    – Krys