Goodbye, Forever

Barbara Conklin masterfully scripts yet another bittersweet teen tale in "Goodbye Forever", a gentle, slow-developing story that still manages to affect the reader with its low key characterizations and life-affirming conclusion. The first person narration by melancholy teen Kari Langtree strikes a perfect balance of genuine fears, loneliness, and eventual acceptance, as she grieves for the death of her father and another loss, in the form of her sister's marriage and leaving home. Despite her dramatic insistence that she will never find someone to love, Kari does just that when she and her mother are whisked away on a Caribbean cruise as a post-wedding gift from Kari's aunt and uncle. Anyone who has been on a Caribbean cruise can attest to the authenticity of Conklin's lively descriptions and nautical lingo; the novel is aided heftily by its exotic tropical settings and entertaining on-ship sequences. Although the novel is really about Kari's personal growth, it beautifully weaves in an intertwining story line in which she falls for fellow passenger, kind but troubled Noah Walters, and together the two help each other to overcome their fears and learn to accept what cannot be changed. Barbara Conklin conjures her usual magic with this sensitive and sweet novel.