Persea Books and NetGalley provided me with an electronic copy of When You Never Said Goodbye. I was under no obligation to review this book and my opinion is freely given.

When You Never Said Goodbye is a novel written mostly in the form of poems and journal entries. Liz McLane is a young woman searching for her past, especially her birth mother and her reasons for giving her baby up for adoption. Will Liz be able to put the past behind her once she discovers the circumstances behind her birth?

The book is more like a stream of consciousness, with Elizabeth's random thoughts and feelings about her life in general. I did not really like this approach, as the compelling nature of the young woman's search was told in such a disjointed fashion that it took away from it. When You Never Said Goodbye was unique, but did not give enough weight to Liz herself. The book is more about her journey to find her birth mother and does not convey to the reader Lizzie's thoughts and feelings in a meaningful way. For these reasons, I would be hesitant to recommend When You Never Said Goodbye to other readers.

Highly readable and likely an important conclusion for those who read the earlier two books. references to previous storylines were subtle and helpful to me, since I had not read them. I can see this being of very strong interest to anyone struggling with identity issues related to adoption.

This book was written unlike anything I have read before and I loved it. This might have confused some readers but for me it was something different and new and I liked it. The character is so relatable and you can't help but to feel empathic while reading. This opened up a dialogue with my daughter. I had her very young and she asked me if I ever struggled with the idea of putting her up for adoption. It never crossed my mind but I did know some young teen moms that have done it. It is selfless and I guess I was too selfish to give her up.

I must admit I struggled to finish this book. It saw not aware that this is the third book of this serie.
Modern poem is something i do not understand, i am more traditional, so the long poems that seemed meaningless to me was hard to read. Overall i love the story. It was easy to predict here and there what will happen. As a mother I understand and relate more to the mother than to Lizzie ( even if our name is alike).
Maybe if i would have read the full story I would have understand the main character more.

As I read, I fully expected this book to be a true life story with a totally sad ending, but was pleasently surprised--with a fiction tale that felt real.

Through poetry and journal entries, Liz relates the story of her first year at NYU and her search for her birth mother. As she forms a circle of friends, she gradually shares with them the truth about her adoption and her search. She finds support and love from these friends and from her family, though each member of her family struggles with the search for different reasons. Liz won’t give up looking, even as one obstacle after another rises to meet her.

One of my favorite things about this story were all the references to literature and poetry contained in the text. It made me want to read a lot more poetry and to pick up my guitar and head to the park to play. Liz’s journey tugged my heart. Her thoughts and emotions come through so clearly and make it so easy to empathize with her.

I didn’t realize when I picked up this book that it’s the third (and last) in a series. After reading it, I would definitely consider reading the first two.

Review will post 2/20/17 at 7am ET

I wasn't aware this was part of a trilogy, but I enjoyed the story quite well on its own. The ending is bittersweet and heartwarming without being saccharine.