Blog Tour and Giveaway: If You're Gone by Brittany Goodwin

Book Blurb:

Lillian White was planning for the perfect summer- spending every waking minute at the lake with her heartthrob boyfriend, Brad Lee. But her world is shattered when Brad mysteriously disappears the night of his graduation ceremony- the same night he tells her he loves her for the first time. After law enforcement dismisses the case, classifying Brad as voluntarily missing, Lillian becomes desperate to prove that he couldn't have just walked away. Not from his family. Not from his friends. Not from her.

Heartbroken but determined to find answers, Lillian begins to uncover secrets from Brad's past that force her to question everything she thought she knew about him and their relationship. Will the truth lead her to him? Or are Brad's lies just the beginning of the mystery?

"Soul-stirring... Truly one of the most innovative voices to come along in a while. Goodwin has weaved an engaging web of deceit and intrigue that embodies not only her storytelling prowess but highlights her visionary filmmaking abilities in novel form." (Justin Price, creator of 'Future' SVOD channel)

If You're Gone will be available June 20th, 2016 from Edge of 22 Publishing.

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My Review:

3 Out Of 5 Stars

Genre: Mystery, Teen--

Lillian is madly in love with her boyfriend Brad and on the night of his high school graduation he tells her he loved her too. That same night, Brad goes missing. As Lillian and his family try to discover what happened to Brad, secret come out about his past that cast doubt on who Brad was. When the police and her friends give up the search, Lillian can’t. She longs to find the answers, whether they are good or bad and she can’t give up.

So to be honest, I was really expecting something else from this book. Based on the synopsis, I thought this would be an engaging mystery, with tons of twists and huge reveals that shocked me. But… that is not what this book was. Instead, the book is more about the mental damage that a lonely depressed girl struggles through. The writing was fairly good and realistic, you could feel Lillian’s emotions, and the book was a very fast read. But, it was kind of depressing (and not in a good way for those who know me and my love of a good tear jerker).

Sure she tries to find Brad, but really she acts desperate, despondent, needy and depressed. This girl lets her goals, ambitions, friends and her entire life go down the drain because her boyfriend of 6 months disappeared. Everyone assumes he left on his own, as does Lillian, so really she should feel rejected, maybe with a touch of scorn and get over it. And FYI, if he really loved her like he claimed (and she was convinced), he would not want her to hurt like this or throw her life away. Lillian drove me a little insane. I personally can’t relate to people like this (sure I have never been in this situation, but still I’m a big believer in living life regardless of what others do/think). At one point in the book, Lillian’s best friend vocalized my exact thoughts about the length of Lillian and Brad’s relationship in relation to the amount of grief she expels. I mean really, she grieved for longer than she even dated Brad. And yes, people heal in their own way and time, but she lets it control her every action. Her life should be bigger than this one boy! (Her despondency reminded me a little of another weak female I failed to relate to- Bella from the Twilight series). Finally, she grows a backbone and does something so out of character that I could not help but cheer. I loved how strong she became, like an epiphany or something, and I could not have been happier. (I rooted for Chris, FYI, and I had high hopes for the two of them).

Side note, there was a lot of referencing of religion and praying to God, which I don’t have a problem with per se, but maybe a heads up that this is a religious book would be nice because I usually avoid that topic in my fiction reading if I can. Not a negative towards the book, just a personal preference.

Overall the book had its pros and cons (Lillian’s life choice at the end of the book being one of those cons). I was not overly enthusiastic about the story and Lillian lacked as a strong main character for most of the book, but I would read more from the author because I like her writing style. I am sure that someone else will love this story and the emotional saga that Lillian had to experience.

I received this title in exchange for my honest review.

Author Bio:

Brittany Goodwin is an author, screenwriter and director, best known for the internationally distributed faith-based feature films, Secrets in the Snow and Secrets in the Fall, which have both been awarded the highest honor of five Doves from the Dove Foundation.

Brittany lives outside Nashville, TN with her husband and every growing number of rescue pets. She enjoys traveling with her husband and dogs, DIY projects, quoting John Hughes films, playing (and winning!) movie trivia games, and binge-watching Investigation Discovery Channel. A self-proclaimed armchair detective, Brittany is an active member of many Missing Persons blogs and Facebook pages, which inspired the topic of her debut YA novel, If You're Gone.

You can find her on Twitter, Goodreads and her website

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Book Tour provided by YA Bound Book Tours