I really wasn’t too sure what to expect going in for this book - I’d seen rave reviews but also didn’t know too much about it. I’m really pleased I read it - it’s a lovely tale on friendship and family.
My favourite character was either Valorie or Carolyn lol. Though it’s hard not to empathise with both Eden and Bonnie in some ways. Bonnie for the stress you can put yourself under and feeling trapped and dull and like you’re doing life wrong. And Eden for being angry and upset and protective all at once. I’d have been devastated if I’d been her.
I also loved Eden and Connor - cuteness! And super yay for sensible attitudes towards sex shown in YA lit. Plus their job goals are both super adorable and a really nice change to see in books - they’re rare hobbies for young people so that made me smile. :)
Really this book covers so much more but I can’t review it without talking about the main theme. I can’t really say anything not said by any of the adults in the book - it’s just wrong! However it’s well shown from Eden’s perspective and I like what we get to see of Bonnie’s side of it (both her feelings and how it started). I have liked to have seen more into Jack really, even towards the end he doesn’t come off as creepy as I’d have liked.
Overall, I gave it 4 stars. I liked it enough to pull it up from 3.5, and I’m definitely interested in reading more works by Sara Barnard.

I did enjoy this. Although at times it felt a little dull. I think I would of loved more of the aftermath of the return. It just seemed to end unfinished.

After soaring once more into my YA favourites with the gorgeous, expressive A Quiet Kind of Thunder, Sara Barnard's third book delves deep into the bittersweet side of friendship touched upon in her début Beautiful Broken Things with the latest addition to her contemporary repertoire, Goodbye Perfect. This standalone's straightforward writing style and highly readable length are true to form, but there are also some fresh details, from protagonist Eden’s unexpected love for gardens and growing things to clever character descriptions through quick-fire lists.

A brief stint as a wild child has left Eden McKinley with a moral compass that only occasionally needs to be prodded into better alignment. She is earthy and mouthy and loyal and blinkered in believable but tremendously significant ways, particularly when it comes to her best friend Bonnie. A deliberate contrast to Barnard's previous heroines - caring but sheltered Caddy and sweet but painfully anxious Steffi - she's a character readers will find themselves rooting for even amid her mistakes. In fact, this may be Barnard's best book yet in terms of building down-to-earth, individuated characters. Eden’s adoptive parents Bob and Carolyn are kind but firm and a tricky relationship with older sister Valerie is pleasingly explored. In a novel which balances a variety of relationships with incredible dexterity, the established romance between Eden and boyfriend Connor is a fantastically warm, supportive and healthy one, and these family and relationship dynamics were my favourite part of the novel.

Barnard improves in some way with every book she writes. Goodbye, Perfect is easily her most thematic book and it is with unprecedented clarity that she takes on the deconstruction of perfection as Eden comes to realise that the people around her all have faults and unseen depths. Straight-laced Valerie isn't quite the unbending, unapproachable figure she had imagined her to be; all-round boffin Bonnie hid her insecurities with disastrous consequences. Barnard takes particular care to note the realistic immaturity of her teenagers, whether it's Bonnie's lack of common sense or Eden's misguided belief that loyalty is in this case more important than her friend's safety. There are notable subplots and back-stories involving adoption, identity and young carers, too.

The full version of this review will appear on my blog closer to publication.

There is something so wonderful about YA books that take you both on an emotional journey and also show how rocky life can be. Goodbye, Perfect manages both of these things effortlessly. I have been a fan of Sara Barnard for a while, having devoured both of her previous books and thus I was somewhat excited about this third book. I was also scared too. Fortunately I didn’t need to be. This book sucked me in with Sara’s writing style and her excellent storytelling from the very first page. Just as her other books did too. She is a truly talented writer and I am very much looking forward to seeing what she writes next.

Goodbye, Perfect is a book with a very controversial topic at its centre which may split audiences but I personally thought it was dealt with very well. But what is also central to this book is that it is also a friendship book. It’s a book about two girls who have been friends forever and then something happens to make everything shake between them. It’s about knowing that sometimes you have to do the right thing, even if it’s not easy. That is why this book is incredibly important and why many teens may find it useful as well as entertaining.

One of the things that always keeps my attention glued to a book are the characters. I need strong, interesting and powerful characters and this book definitely has those. I found myself hoping for things to change, urging the protagonist to do something and also cheering on the little victories that occurred throughout the book too. Not to mention breaking down in to a puddle of tears after a certain moment in the book as well. With strong characters, Sara really manages to evoke an array of emotions in the reader as you get fully invested in the story.

All in all, I truly loved this book. It was addictive, emotional and entertaining. I loved the themes running throughout it and I loved how well Sara handled the topic as well. Not to mention that I also really love friendship books. Especially the ones that show how raw and painful they can be. Sometimes breaking up with a friend can be harder than breaking up with a loved one – especially as a teenager. I would highly recommend this book and as said above, am highly anticipating the next book from Sara Barnard.

Goodbye, Perfect is Sara Barnard's third novel and if you loved Sara's other books you will LOVE this one!

Goodbye, Perfect is centred around the disappearance of our Eden’s best friend Bonnie who has run off with the school music teacher, Mr Cohn during Eden and Bonnie’s GCSEs.

This book features many different themes such as loyalty, friendship,family bonds and student - teacher relationships. This book tests you on the idea of right and wrong and really makes you think.

Goodbye, Perfect is written so beautifully and stays true to what it is like to be a teenager in stressful situations and the things teens have to go through. I also loved the realistic relationships in this book.

I honestly just want to shove this book into everybody I know hands.

This book I honestly perfect and should be on your February tbr!

What I liked about this book is that it didn't fit into clichés. As in the main character wasn't unconventially pretty (she wasn't really described though) or popular, she was already in a relationship that lasted for the whole length of the book!! With a non-bad boy let me add. The focus was on her and the relationship between herself and her best friend. It dealt with the taboo surrounding a student-teacher relationship, a runaway teen, dyslexia, young carers, all relevant issues in this day and age.

So this takes place during exam period time (GCSE's) and just before they start Eden's best friend Bonnie runs off with their music teacher Mr (Jack) Cohn. Which is a complete shock to Eden as she thought she knew her best friend and thought she wouldn't keep such a secret as a relationship with their teacher to herself, Eden has to deal with the aftermath of it all with questions from the police, Bonnie asking her to keep it a secret that they are in communication with one another, her adoptive parents and Bonnie's mum's lack of trust, etc.

Eden begins to question the supposedly perfect Bonnie and why she would do what she did, why she kept it from her, and begins to realise that nothing about Bonnie was ever perfect.

I enjoyed this book, it was a quick read. Eden had a vivid and outspoken personality which I loved and Connor was just the sweetest, and one of my fave parts was when Eden reassesses (seriously, how many s's are in this word?) her relationship with Valerie.

I would have loved more on Connor though and his whole situation of being a young carer but there's only so much that you can say I guess as it isn't really his story. Anyway, definitely younger readers (than me that is) should read this book.

Once again Sarah Barnard has amazed me with her beautiful writing. It is so gorgeous and captivating. This story is full of heart. Her characters are realistic and completely plausible in their actions, while the plot is absolutely compelling. I cannot decide if this is my new favorite Barnard read. Regardless, I highly recommend to other readers.

Let's just say it shall we? I liked this. I did. I liked the themes explored - adoption, fitting in with a new family, the struggle with being stereotyped. There were some interesting discussions going on and I was glad to see representation for this in a way I have never seen before. A pair of adopted sisters who know they're adopted and love the new family they're in, no actual 'relationship' drama was surprisingly refreshing (like yay - I ship this and they're happy together #winning), young carers, conversations around opening up and learning to become trustful. It's great, it really was. Yet . . . it was a bit dull. I feel like it wasn't explored enough, and fair enough the main focus is on the story of Edith being upset/confused/conflicted about finding out her best friend ran away with their teacher, but it still could've done a bit better on expanding the sub-plots. I thought it was great when we finally got scenes like that - like the screaming match between Valerie and Edith in the car *might* have made me tear up.

Also this book felt surprsingly long. It seemed to just draaaag. And the whole time I was shouting at Edith to just tell. I rememember being around like 39% of the way in and was like "Okay this back and fourth should I - shouldn't I and will she - won't she has been going on long enough now" but nope. And (view spoiler). So yeah. I just felt as if this book should have been shorter than it was because it really did start to feel formulaic. Like present day scene / things that now meant something different I knew the truth / present scene (usually included an argument / her texting Bonnie being #conflicted). It just felt like it took forever to get somewhere.

But it wasn't terrible. I did like it - I'm just sad it wasn't better.

Hmm As a huge fan of Barnard I really wanted to love this book but for some reason it just didn't happen for me. It may just have been that the story, about a girl whose 15 year old best friend runs off with her music teacher, made me uncomfortable or it may just have been that I was in the wrong frame of mind when reading it but I just didn't connect with it the way I have with the authors other books.

It is very well written as you would expect from Barnard and even though I didn't love the story I did find it very readable and flew through the whole thing in a couple of days.

There were elements about it I absolutely loved, the relationship between main character Eden and her adoptive family (the fact that the main character was adopted), inclusion of a teenager who is a carer for his mother, the way it looks at how people are judged based on their background. All wonderfully done and so great to see in YA fiction.

I am not sure I necessarily connected with Eden but she was very different from what I expected and from what you usually find in these type of stories. She's not had the easiest of lives, is argumentative and immature in some ways but her attitude and goals are very grown up in a lot of ways. She's just full of contradictions, which I thought was wonderful, and she's not the only one. Almost every character has layers and depth, something I loved, and I really liked how both they and the relationships between them developed through the story.

The pacing is maybe a little on the slow side and I did find myself getting frustrated with it, particularly in the start. I felt like a lot could have been resolved much faster and much easier and far too much time was spent with Eden going back and forward trying to decide whether to tell everyone what she knows. With my general uneasiness around the teacher student relationship I just wanted it to be resolved and for the story to move elsewhere.

I think these are me issues however rather than any kind of problem with the book and based on the other reviews I can see that a lot of people have really loved it. It is definitely a worthwhile read even if just to get some discussion around the issues it raises.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. As always all views are my own.

It's so difficult to read a novel like this as an adult: I found myself practically screaming at Eden and Bonnie at times, but their mistakes are part of what makes this book.

Eden and Bonnie are best friends, despite their differences: Bonnie is a studious straight-A student who has never so much has handed a piece of homework in late, whereas Eden is less academic, and has had a bit of a rough time at home before being adopted by her wonderful adoptive parents (honestly, Carolyn gives me serious parenting goals).

But then Bonnie does the unthinkable: she runs off with a teacher.

Like I said, it's so difficult to read something like this with the benefit of age. But then I remember what I was like as a teenager, and how something like this (a handsome older man, offering me an escape from academic stress) could seem super romantic, just as Bonnie does. Eden struggles with this too, and I think this book tackles the issue of what is essentially grooming without being patronising to younger readers.

(I received a copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review)

Being a teacher myself,  I do enjoy a book that focuses on a school setting or school-centred topic, and knowing how talented Sara Barnard is, I knew I was in for an absolute treat with this book.  But, wow! What a story!

Eden is brilliant.  She's realistic, plain-speaking and flawed.  Yes, she's adopted, she's not the greatest student and she has a bit of a history, but it was so easy to relate to her and what she was going through.  Her best friend, A*, school prefect, high achieving best friend, has runaway.  With their music teacher. No one else knows where they are but Eden, and it's her loyalty and naivety that really helped me warm to her.

The parents were also really well portrayed.  Whilst I really liked and supported Eden's parents, I often felt quite venomous towards Bonnie's mother (yes, I understood her daughter was missing, but still!) and again I think this is testimony to the writing and how well written the characters were.

Bonnie and Mr Cohn, whilst arguably the focus of the story, were not actually 'seen' much, but I valued the text conversations between Bonnie and Eden and seeing how Bonnie was feeling and responding to the situation.

The plot was well-paced and I tore through the pages eager to find out what would happen next and how.  The dialogue felt particularly well-written (Eden and Verity's 'chat' in the car was everything!)

This was a brilliant book and I could go on about the things I loved (Connor, his family set-up, Eden's little sister and their relationship, the gardening!) but I want.  Suffice it to say, I loved 'Goodbye, Perfect' and think you should read it!

The Characters
I’ve never spent time with a character like Eden. She’s far from perfect, temperamental and loyal to a fault. It’s wonderful to see her develop throughout the book and becomes self-aware.
The pain and confusion Eden feels when her best friend leaves and the truth begins to unravel is very raw and real. Her relationships (adoptive parents, boyfriend and sisters) add to her complexity and gives her a vulnerability and equal inner strength that makes her a relatable character.
Valerie is Eden’s sister and a surprisingly good addition to the plot. Initially, I disliked her; I trust Eden’s voice. However, as the plot progresses I warm to her and I’m able to distinguish between Eden’s perception and the truth of the character.

The Plot
Finally! A YA novel that doesn’t glamorise or romanticise the student/teacher relationship that is often prominent in teen fiction. Not only that, Goodbye Perfect delves into the consequences of engaging in this sort of relationship.
The key here is that the story focuses on those left behind, but leaves room to show how the core couple feel about each other. The book explores the complexity of love, the consequences and dangers of grooming.
The Writing
Barnard gives Eden a strong voice that makes Goodbye Perfect an easy read; it’s clear and modern with a message all should hear.

Eden and Bonnie have been best friends since they met when they were eight years old. Eden is sworn to secrecy when Bonnie runs away with her Music teacher,
Mr Cohn. Eden is filled with many emotions, guilt of keeping such a heavy secret and one of them is the realisation that her best friend may not be whom she thought she was.

This book was an emotional roller coaster and i really did feel the emotions of the characters throughout it, however i find it extremely difficult to rate this due to the fact
i felt like throughout my reading experience i was yelling at the characters to do things that they never did, well at least not until the very end which felt like we were just dragging the book out really.

spoilers below this point!!!!!


I felt Eden was being stupid, the secret went way past friendship because this man was predator, he had clearly groomed her friend but at the same time i think Eden had such a huge amount of pressure placed upon her.
As for Bonnie, i thought she was pretty naive for her age but i also believe that this man groomed her and tricked her into seeing everything his way and in her mind she then saw this perfect out look on life for the pair of them when reality was so much different
and it was completely wrong. She was also completely selfish to her friend, Eden and to her parents not even caring that they were worried sick about her and wanted her home.

My favourite part of the entire novel was Eden's relationship with her adoptive family and watching it grow and develop, even more so that with Valarie. It was really interesting and nice to see Eden and Valarie finally get to know each other more and let their guard down, i enjoyed that.

Sara Barnard is an author I've read before and i enjoyed her other book a quiet kind of thunder just a little bit more than this one, but with that being said i will be reading more from her as i enjoy her writing style.

I was really enjoying this book. Then there was a reference to Vienna, my favourite Billy Joel song. I was all in after that.

I loved this. It was the perfect story of an imbalance of power in so many situations. I also really resonated with Eden in a lot of ways, despite me not being adopted myself. But, I do know what it's like to think you don't have a place in the world.

This is a book I will be going back to time and time again.

Not due for release until early 2018, I am grateful to NetGalley for allowing me to read this prior to publication, although I can see it being a book that will split opinion.
Let's deal with the elephant in the room first of all...this book focuses on a teacher/student relationship which means it is not ever going to be an easy book to recommend. Though we learn about Bonnie's relationship through her friend, Eden, there's no escaping the fact that we're likely to judge things even before we start reading. I can't see my way past this, and think the subject will put a lot of readers off without them picking up the book. This would be a shame as I felt the book was more about Eden and her growing character.
'Goodbye, Perfect' opens with Eden finding out that her best friend has run away. There's been some talk of an older boyfriend, but Bonnie hasn't shared details and this struck me as odd. If you are best friends, the only reason you don't want to tell someone about it is because you know there's something inappropriate. Very quickly, Eden learns that this mysterious boyfriend is actually the girls' music teacher. From this point on we're in strange territory.
Eden has always been the friend most likely to cause trouble. Adopted as a young child, Eden has made her share of mistakes. Perfect she is not. But her best friend, Bonnie, fits the stereotype of perfect pupil. Straight A student, head girl, positive...we get the idea. So, is Bonnie a victim of grooming or a deluded teen desperate to break free from the constraints and expectations placed upon her?
Barnard takes us through the process of investigating Bonnie's disappearance. We see a little of how the police work and we are encouraged to consider behaviour of adults and those in authority as Eden and those left behind try to come to terms with what has happened. We are offered numerous reasons to try to explain why Bonnie might have fallen for her music teacher. However, because we are never given the view of those involved directly it is difficult to feel we are being given a satisfactory reason for these events to have happened.
The initial part of the book seemed rather slow if I'm being honest. As a reader, I felt I'd already decided there was nothing to justify what was happening and it frustrated me that Eden didn't immediately try to take the course of action I would have hoped for. However, I really enjoyed seeing the growth in this rather prickly young woman as she comes to realise what's important to her, and overcomes her own barriers to try and forge her own life. The latter part of the book picked up the pace and became a story that will certainly engage readers.

I really enjoyed A Quiet Kind of Thunder, and so when I was told there was an arc from Netgalley of Barnard’s newest book, I jumped at the chance to get a copy, and I wasn’t dissapointed.
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It tells the story of Eden, whose best friend Bonnie runs away with her teacher. Instead of following Bonnie, the story shows how Eden copes with the loss of her best friend and the fall out of Bonnie’s actions. I fell in love with so many of the characters, particularly Eden’s big sister. There are so many emotions in this book, as it deals with a multitude of issues, from family and adoption, to sexuality and teen stereotypes.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I found it really gripping at the start because I was interested in the subject matter and then it seemed to drag. I think this was maybe due to the first person narration. I thought it picked up at the end when we found out that the police were tracking them and knew all along, but then the ending happened so quickly. I wanted to know more about the fall-out that happened when they got home. The police interviews, how Valerie and Eden dealt with the deception and if it affected their relationship, what Eden’s parents said, etc. I think the book could have really benefited from an epilogue from Bonnie’s perspective or chapters interspersed from her side - particularly after they were found and those looks between them which felt sinister. This would have improved the pace and made it more interesting. Nevertheless, it was an interesting subject matter and I enjoyed reading it in general albeit with a few issues. Thanks for the read.

Eden knows she has to get through the next few weeks doing her GCSEs without upsetting her adoptive parents by seeing too much of her best friend or her boyfriend as she needs to work to get even half decent grades. What she hadn't factored in was her best friend, who seemed to have life sussed, disappearing with a boyfriend Eden knew nothing about. First the police arrive to question Eden, then Bonnie's Mum is convinced Eden knows more than she is letting on. Hurt by the fact Bonnie hadn't told her she was going, Eden is mollified when Bonnie texts to fill her in with her side of the story. Eden knows Bonnie is wrong, but loyalty prompts her to maintain her ignorance.
Eden is determined to persuade Bonnie with her side of the argument. What follows is a spiralling mess of lies, all with the best intentions, with everyone unable to see the point of view of others. Confidences are made and broken and Eden starts to see love and loyalty she hadn't appreciated before. Black and white becomes grey for more than just Eden.