Book Review: Say Hello, Not Goodbye by Andrea Officer (Tour)

The last few years have been hard for Catherine Lothbury. Suffering from agoraphobia she’s never left the sanctuary of her house, and with no friends to help her she’s started to believe that she’ll be stuck inside forever.

Enter Elliot Farringdon, a soldier in the British army, who vows to help Catherine overcome her fears and reintroduces her to the outside world.

Their friendship quickly grows until they become inseparable, but when Elliot is sent away on deployment Catherine finds herself feeling far more alone than she did before. And when he doesn’t return home she starts to believe that she’s lost him forever.

Two years pass and they end up meeting again by chance. But when they do they both discover that their lives have become very different…

Say Hello, Not Goodbye was a fast-paced and interesting read. While it wasn’t the type of book I usually read, the story intrigued me. The story revolves around Catherine, a woman who suffers from agoraphobia due to a trauma from her past, and Elliot.

I really enjoyed the book, it had likable characters, Elliot and Catherine as well as other supporting characters. I also really liked the author’s writing style, which added a lot of credit to the book.

Going into the book, I though it was going to be an emotional rollercoaster though it wasn’t but rather it was more of a light romantic-read. While I loved these aspects of the book, as well as the romance and the writing style, I believe it had a lot more potential considering what the storyline was.

We didn’t get to see any actual history behind it so it felt a little rushed. It could’ve added a lot more depth to the story and the romance, if we knew more about Catherine and Elliot’s past together and alone. How their friendship grew, how Elliot helped her, what it was like for her when he was gone and she tried to live her own life? None of these aspects were covered, the focus was more on the present, on their chance encounter again. Had we known more about the past, even about how Catherine actually came to have agoraphobia, it would’ve added a lot more depth to the story.

I’d have loved to know more about Catherine’s past as well as maybe a little bit of Elliot’s and see how they developed into the people they were and how Catherine overcame her fears and learned to live for herself, without Elliot’s help, when he was gone.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy this book, because I did and since it was a novella, and short, I devoured it in one sitting and it’s a great light-hearted romance read for anyone!

Thank you to Love Book Tours and the author, Andrea Officer, for a gifted copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion and all opinions on the book are my own.

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