How to Say Goodbye by Amber Lin

 "Be near me so that I can be near you..."

I adore the worlds Amber Lin creates with their complex, damaged characters who often struggle with the same things I struggle with. People I'm seldom instantly drawn to, but who always win me over. How to Say Goodbye is this kind of story.

Description...

Amy has a secret: no one’s ever held her hand. She doesn’t even know how to hug. Everyone thinks she’s smart, but straight A's are way easier than making friends. Then she meets Dane, a golden-haired surfer whose easy charm and hot touch teach her what she longs to know.

Dane lives for the salty breeze and a sweet wave, because that’s all he has. He’s been on the streets since he was fourteen. A drifter. Homeless. Then he meets Amy. Smart and accomplished, she’s everything he’s not. He wants to be the sort of man who deserves her.

Except that means facing down his past—and that past might very well swallow them both.

My review...

If you've read Amber Lin's stories you already know that she has an amazing talent for showing us the very best in people, but also the very worse in people and doing it in a way that no matter their past, no matter their crimes, we can't help but end up loving them. Amy and Dane are such provocative, emotionally complicated people and I truly wasn't sure, until the very end, if I'd be able to care what was to become of them - either apart or together. From childhood, they'd both been emotionally abandoned and didn't quite know how to feel for another person in a healthy relationship. To say I enjoyed watching them grow is true, and yet, I didn't enjoy watching their pain. My heart ached at how wounded and broken they had become over time, but they found in each other what they had lost. What they needed to be whole again.

The bottom line...

If you enjoy the 'coming of age' angsty feel of the New Adult genre but want a storyline that hasn't been done to death, I'll say to you... Stop reading reviews and buy this book. Amber Lin's stories will haunt you, uplift you, and make you want more.

An eARC was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.