Before Goodbye by Mimi Cross (Epub)

Description

Music means more than anything to high school student Cate Reese; it’s also what unites her with Cal Woods. Devoted classical guitar players, Cate and Cal are childhood friends newly smitten by love—until a devastating car accident rips Cal out of Cate’s life forever. Blaming herself for the horrific tragedy and struggling to surface from her despair, Cate spirals downhill in a desperate attempt to ease her pain.

Fellow student David Bennet might look like the school’s golden boy, but underneath the surface the popular athlete battles demons of his own. Racked with survivor’s guilt after his brother’s suicide, things get worse when tragedy darkens his world again—but connecting with Cate, his sister’s longtime babysitter, starts bringing the light back in.

As Cate and David grow closer, the two shattered teenagers learn to examine the pieces of their lives…and, together, find a way to be whole again.

User’s Reviews

Review “I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to any YA fan. Stunningly beautiful!” —Night Owl Reviews, 5 Stars “The perfect mix of love, life…The complex nature of the novel allows the reader to connect with the different sides of each dynamic character.” —South Florida Arts News & Review “Author Mimi Cross has crafted an engaging and important story that considers not only how adolescents, themselves, deal with tragedy but also how the adults around them aren’t always the supportive emotional rocks they’re expected to be. The complex, yet honest, nature of the novel allows readers to connect with the characters and builds a natural empathy for their tribulations. Highly recommended.” —Canadian Review of Materials From the Publisher Reading Before Goodbye for the first time felt very much like listening to my favorite symphony (Beethoven’s Sixth, for the record)—the highs, the lows, the beauty, and the tragedy that coexist within the music. The story starts on a high with Cate, a young woman who is at the top of her artistic game, in love with classical guitar, and also a little bit in love with her childhood friend Cal, fellow guitarist and creative muse. When disaster strikes, Cate is thrown off the path she’d always imagined for her life and forced to find a new one. How do you pick up the pieces of your heart and move on when you can’t find a reason to? Cate discovers help where she least expects it and must rely on her guitar to learn to love again. Author Mimi Cross pulls from her real-life experiences in writing this very personal story, and her voice echoes on every page. A lifetime performer and music educator, Cross understands what it means to lose yourself in a song, to be lifted away on a stream of melody, to let music carry you through tragedy. Cross has communicated through her music for years. In Before Goodbye, she shares that music in the written word through Cate, and it is just as affecting and heart wrenching as you’d imagine. When I finished reading Before Goodbye, I let out the breath I seemed to have been holding for four hundred pages. This book is a journey, tense but riveting, tragic yet hopeful, and when it’s over, I hope you experience the same feeling I did: that overwhelming peace that comes when you’ve just listened to a piece of music that touches your soul. – Miriam Juskowicz, Editor From the Back Cover When life pitches her nothing but low notes, can Cate find harmony once again?Love. It’s a totally different thing than a crush. And losing love, that touches everything. Or maybe it’s just me, losing Cal, but I swear, I can’t pull out of this. Can’t pull the music out of me, the way I did before. Every note I play . . . sounds different now. I can’t find that sweet spot on the strings, can’t get those full tones that come once the warmth of my body, the warmth of my hands, has opened up the wood grain of the guitar.Maybe it’s because there is no warmth in me, no music. The music was in Cal.

Reviews from Amazon users, collected at the time the book is getting published on UniedVRG. It can be related to shiping or paper quality instead of the book content:

⭐ Choosing a First Pick of the Month is sometimes hit and miss. I never really know if the book will be good. It may be a genre I don’t normally read. There usually aren’t many reviews to look at and often the authors are unfamiliar to me. This month was a good pick. If you’re looking for a book for a young teenager, don’t choose this one. Some of the subject matter is too adult.The main characters are high school aged with serious issues. One theme that’s explored is how to deal with the death of a loved one. Grieving is never easy and the solutions chosen here are sex and drugs. Both of these may feel good but they create a whole different set of issuesThe parents are not role models for their children. In fact, they are the last people their kids should look to for help. Most of them put up a facade for the rest of the world to see. They seem to put their own needs and wants first rather than being a good parent.The characters are believable with realistic emotions who sometimes choose their hearts over their heads to deal with life. This is a book that I believe should be in the Young Adult category. It is well written and moves quickly. For me it was an easy read that I finished in a day.

⭐ I’ve had a hard time deciding how to rate this one, because I really like this author. I like the way she writes. I like her depth and I really enjoyed her characters. I actually enjoyed the music connection. I’m not a musician, but I could feel this author’s love and appreciation for music–both lyrics and instruments. I like her writing style–there’s suspense here and I like the way she teaspoon-feeds the story. She mixes it up from chapter to chapter, only giving parts as you go. I really enjoyed that and it kept me very interested. However, the overall story bothered me–a lot.ISSUES (sort of SPOILERS): This book had so many deep traumatic, life changing events. They were all over the place. It was like the author tried to pack way too much into one small book. We move from one shocking life event to the next and I’m talking over and over again, not just a few.–Serious drug abuse from multiple characters–a dad, a daughter, friends–Dysfunctional parents with messed up relationships–Suicide all over the place–two teens who commit suicide and one parent who attempts suicide–LGBT relationships with high school friends–nothing explicit here, but kissing and romance–Traumatic death–two characters (not the suicide victims)–Language–Lots of language. Multiple use of the f-bomb and everything else–Rape victims–I appreciated the bonding that happened with the victims, but I felt this wasn’t really developed well. It was rather shocking and troubling and could be really tough for someone who has gone through this experience. I also find it troubling that the main character almost gets raped, and then she starts using a date rape/anesthetic drug to cope with the death of her friend–Domestic abuse–a father who starts physically hitting his son as a teenager after years of verbal abuse–Drug dealing in high school–high school kids who are dealing–Sex–nothing super explicit here, but it’s talked about a lot // one of the main guys in the book has a seriously rotten past. And, at the end he’s “changing”, but goes back to one of his cheerleader bimbos (I’m saying this because that’s the way this is in the story). Yuck.It really bothers me that the girl in this story is only 16 dealing with all of the above. I guess this could be realistic with a couple of these problems, but again just way too many life issues going on to make it real for me.If you’re thinking of buying this for your teenager, I would say please don’t. I would never want my teens to read this book.If you have issues with abuse, this book could really trouble you as a lot of those underlying issues are never really resolved. You know that they happen, but as far as resolution, I don’t think that comes.Mimi Cross–great author. This story–not my favorite.Good luck!

⭐ I wasn’t sure I wanted to read this as the blurb sounded so much like If I Stay: instrumental musician, car accident, loss, grief, huge decision making…. But it actually isn’t much like that other book at all. For one thing, the story is much more complicated, as there are two people struggling here, David and Cate. Then, too, a big part of the story is violence and the other ways people hurt one another, about being a victim and being complicit when we choose not to see what’s happening, or not to stop it. There’s a lot of choosing not to see in the book, from Cate’s parents not knowing who she is; to Laurel, Cate’s friend, not wanting to know her girlfriend is not a decent human being; to David, not able to acknowledge that he is responsible for how he treats the girls he sleeps with. A lot of heavy dark stuff in the book–from neglect to abuse to rape to drug addiction–but it definitely ends in a hopeful place. Well written, lots of things to think on further. I took off a star mostly because I felt the Cate of the last part of the book appeared out thin air. The writer didn’t do enough to make me trust how Cate went from addict to success, or even from addict to deciding to quit. The depiction of her in crisis just wasn’t persuasive enough, or maybe I just didn’t see why this experience changed her mind about taking K when none of the others had.At any rate a very good book, clearly written by a real musician, as the parts of the book about music and songwriting were both fascinating and rich in meaning.

⭐ Wow. I purchased this book a few years ago and just read it. I also just had a loss in my life and figured this would help me in dealing with it. The issues that these kids deal with and the way they handle it is something. Everyone deals with loss differently. There are 3 people who feel like they caused another person’s death/another person to die. Cate feels she was in love but she is dealing with the loss of someone she wishes had been her boyfriend. That loss paves who she is in the book and her growth with the loss. David did something where he was trying to help but he ended up causing someone to die. The thing is, as is stated, everyone has a choice so David did not cause a death because the guy had a choice. Bryn feels like the evil that happened to her caused someone to kill themself but, that person was evil and was already contemplating it. There is so much loss in this book from people dying to people losing relationships. I liked how everyone was joined together and through it all, it seems everyone was able to find his or her voice/soul/self.How do you handle things before you say goodbye?

⭐ Whew, what a heavy book. Suicide, Rape, Drugs, and more.Cate always thought David was good looking, but she has Cal. Cal is such a sweetheart who Cate develops a relationship with slowly since they have been friends forever. They both love music and playing guitar. She always thought that they would be perfect together. Their relationship is still so new when Cal and Cate gets into a serious car accident that kills him. She is devastated. Totally devasted because she thinks that it was her fault the accident happened.David has his own scars. His brother killed himself and he feels guilty that he wasn’t able to save him. Also, he feels angry because his father wants him to replace his brother. He loved his brother, but he doesn’t want to be him. He wants to be himself. So much pressure on a young man.What’s great about this book is that this story is not just about David and Cate getting together. It’s also about David’s friends and family. The story is much bigger than what you think it is. I loved how detailed it was and how complicated it was. It felt so real. Not so one dimensional. You get to understand and feel like all of the characters in this book is not there for no reason. They are there for a reason and they got their own story to tell. I love it!I’m glad I picked this as a Kindle First. I will not hesitate to read more of Mimi Cross’s books if this one is this great.

⭐ Fascinating story and overall well-written and engaging. The very short chapters alternately narrated by different characters took a bit of getting used to – but didn’t detract from the story. In fact, it was interesting getting parts of the story from different perspectives. I do wish the characters in the book had been a bit older – maybe in their 20s – as the events in their lives were MUCH more mature than I’d hope for any 16-yr-old. There are probably 4-5 characters – all teens – who die over the course of this book – and while that is possibly reality for some high-schoolers, it’s really crazy to even think about! Between the sex, drugs, bullying, outright child abuse, absent parenting, and other topics – wow – I kept forgetting that the main characters were only 16-18! I hope most teens never have to experience ANY of this!! While I enjoyed the book, I felt the middle was a bit too drawn out – seemed repetitive and I almost stopped reading. Glad I didn’t – really good book except for some feeling of being “trapped” in the middle of it. I really LOVED the musical perspective portrayed – the introspection from the musician’s perspective. Very cool for me as a lifetime amateur musician myself. Great peak into how some musicians think and feel and interpret music differently than other people – they don’t just hear it or play it, they experience it wholeheartedly. I would highly recommend this book for other adults- esp musicians – but not for teens or any parent who has teens – pretty scary stuff!

⭐ Aspiring musician and song writer Cate hopes to one day make a career of music. After a summer internship in NY City shadowing the talented Cal, her musical future seems certain. But when Cate loses Cal in a car accident, she blames herself and looks for a way to block out the pain of the accident. And past hurts and pain as well. When her own music no longer works, she enters a slippery world of drugs. David Bennett – jock, mover, and big brother to Cate’s babysitting charge Kimmy – had a bright future as well. Following in his big brother’s footsteps. That was David’s father’s plan. But after David’s summer in Canada, and the unspeakable loss that occurred there, David is tired of pretending. He wants something different. As the familiar worlds Cate and David knew begin to crumble around them, will they stop pushing each other away? Will they find each other – and the peace and love they are both looking for?This is a well-written story with plenty of page turning angst and drama. The tough themes of sexual abuse, drugs, and domestic violence are presented in thought provoking ways and not glorified. The author lets the reader decide how to handle these life changing decisions. It is a story where learning to forgive and love yourself opens the door to a future of hope and possibility.

⭐ This young adult novel is written in first person perspective from mainly two people: Cate and David, a rising-sophomore and senior that are neighbors in an affluent suburb of NYC.Three stars because the music terminology is correct. The plot goes all over the place because the main protagonist is dealing with the aftermath of walking away from a fatal car wreck. There are descriptions of typical teenage forays into sex, but also rape and drug use, so I would not recommend this novel to anyone under 16. There is also occasional profanity in the dialogue.Another review also stated that the parental presence is basically nil. Poor kid was left to fend for herself and took crazy risks (it’s a wonder she wasn’t kidnapped and murdered) until a family acquaintance spotted her drug use and got her into a rehab like NA.I wouldn’t pay more than $1 to read this novel, but maybe you would if you want to expose your teenager to “real world” issues for discussion like drug rape, alcohol rape, peer pressure, drug use, absent parents, and teenage reckless driving. Yeah.

⭐ Extremely well written, thoughtful, almost poetic novel. I appreciated the deep character development that occurred and the changes and growth we saw take place not just with Cate but with David as well.I am not someone to review a book often; however, reading some of these extremely close-minded reviews who see David as a “disgusting monster” etc. makes me sad for those of you with that opinion – that you aren’t willing to believe in a story of redemption, and maybe, just maybe, step into his shoes and try to understand the journey he has faced. Many grown adults can’t say they’ve dealt with parental abuse, absentee parents, their brother’s suicide, their sister’s rape, the deaths of several people close to him – let alone an 18 year old kid. I highly doubt anyone would deal with this kind of trauma in the most perfectly graceful way. Everyone falters. Everyone ‘wobbles’, as the author says. This story wasn’t gratifying that type of behavior. It was a coming of age story glorifying the GROWTH these characters experienced and the POSITIVE changes they made to get there.As someone who has just come through my teen years into my mid twenties; I can confidently say that while those of you out there may choose to believe that your 16 year-olds are not dealing with these types of real issues – they are. Whether or not you want to accept that is up to you. Throughout my high school career I was deeply involved and invested in music and many aspects of this book rang very true to me. Suicide is something that is dealt with in high school. Drugs are something that are present. Sex, too, is present. While some teens may not partake in these behaviors, they are surrounded by them at a very young age, and choosing to shelter them from realistic, truthful literature about what they may be facing is a shame.

⭐ I picked this book as my book for the kindle first program. I thought the book was good, not great. I liked the characters of Cate and David, they really had a lot of different struggles to go through. I liked the fact that Cate and Cal played the classical guitar and I’m glad that in the end, Cate didn’t give up her guitar, she just changed who she was a little bit.There are a lot of things going on in the book and something I just wanted it to end since this is a long book. I love long books, but I didn’t think it was really necessary in this book. I wanted to get on with things at times. But I did love how the author wrote a lot of the book almost like poetry. Words that tried to get right into your soul.The book covers a lot of different issues such as: suicide, murder, drugs, rape, etc. All in all I thought it was a good read and I’m happy with the choice.MY FULL REVIEWS:http://melissa413readsalot.blogspot.com/2015/12/before-goodbye-by-mimi-cross_31.htmlhttps://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1485851517

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