Reviews for The Sound of Goodbye

The average rating for The Sound of Goodbye based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-05-26 00:00:00 Darren Heil 4 Stars ~ Victoria grew up in a home of privilege but she hungered for�the love her parents were too self-absorbed to give her.�� Young Ben was up and coming in her father's firm and he'd befriended the 16 year old Victoria and�for Victoria that friendship blossomed into love.�� When�she turned 18, her father arranged for her marriage to a wealthy tycoon, and with the marriage would be the merger of the two family firms.� With the wedding only months away, Victoria was desperate to have at least one night with a man she loved, and so she went to Ben, who was living in the estate guest house.� She was bold in her seduction, "Please, Ben. Let me learn about love from one who sees me as more than a pawn in a merger. Be tender and make the loving wonderful. I can stand whatever follows, as long as the first time is beautiful. Teach me, Ben."� And as dawn came, 'Ben watched as she gathered her scattered clothing and began to dress. The slither of fabric and the growl of the zipper recalled a vivid memory, and with it the ache of despair. He closed his eyes as he listened to the sounds of goodbye.'� � Ben waited two weeks for her to come back to him, and when she didn't, he resigned.� Two months later the papers announced the merger but there was no wedding, Victoria had disappeared.� Eight�years later and Ben now owns the guesthouse and the marvelous castle Victoria has once called home.� He's been living in the guesthouse with his daughter and housekeeper for the past seven years.� And he's vowed to give his daughter every chance in life so that no one can ever say she's not good enough.�� It's by the lake that he finds her; a mature Victoria.� Ben is the last person she thought to see on the estate that had once belonged to her family.� He's still magnificently attractive but gone is the gentleness he'd had in his eyes, now there was only bitter anger.� When Victoria collapses, Ben thinks it's hunger and he takes her back to the house.� His plans to get her out of his house before his daughter comes home are thwarted when she comes home early, rushing in "Daddy," the child stopped before him, declaring with an emphatic shake of her head. "We simply have to find me a mommy." "Oh, Lainie," Ben whispered hoarsely as he drew her into his arms.'� � Eager to have Victoria leave his house, he escorts her to the door, but she's in shock and she sits herself down onto a chair in the hall.� Asking who the child is, Ben tells her it's his daughter and she returns, "Yes, yes," she said in a slow, quivering breath. "Your daughter . . . and mine." At first Ben denies it, and then "Lainie is my daughter. Conceived the night you came to me here." Nothing in the world could have stopped him from adding bitterly, "The child you gave away." "Oh, Ben." She spoke in an eerie chant, the sing-song voice that of the young Victoria. "You know there's no baby. There never will be. Poor baby. Nobody wanted her. Not Mother, not Father, not Carlos. Only me. I wanted her. I tried... but it wasn't enough. Nobody loved the poor baby princess, so she died." Finally something stirred in the dark well of her eyes. An anguish that was worse than the emptiness. "Our baby died, Ben." Placing one foot carefully in front of the other in slow, deliberate steps, she left the room. Her footsteps were barely more than a whisper on the polished parquetry of the hallway, but in them Ben heard again the sound of goodbye.'� � When Ben catches her to stop her from leaving, he touches skin that's on fire with fever, and in the next four days as Victoria rants in her delirium, he learns all the horrible details of her disappearance eight years ago.� This is all from the first 80 pages and for me that's 5 Star writing!��The rest of the story is taken up with Victoria's discovery that her child lives and Ben's coping with his actions in the past and now that Victoria is back in his life.� It's obvious they love each other, but there's so much guilt and pain that has to be gotten out of the way first.��Some of the angst was over done and that's where this story lost some of it's pull for me.� I love both the young Victoria and the mature woman she became.� Ben won me over the moment he accepted his baby daughter without question.�� These star-crossed lovers have a hard won HEA.��

Review # 2 was written on 2014-03-07 00:00:00 Everette Adams Tate and Victoria I really enjoyed this book about two unlikely people facing in love. Tate works for the IRS and Victoria is a free spirit. I couldn't help laughing throughout the story.