Book ~ Everything was Good-Bye (2012) Gurjinder Basran

From Amazon ~ The youngest of six daughters raised by a widowed mother, Meena is a young woman struggling to find her place in the world. Originally from India, her family still holds onto many old-world customs and traditions that seem stifling to a young North American woman. She knows that the freedom experienced by others is beyond her reach. But unlike her older sisters, Meena refuses to accept a life dictated by tradition. Against her mother’s wishes, she falls for a young man named Liam who asks her to run away with him. She must then make a painful choice — one that will lead to stunning and irrevocable consequences.

Heartbreaking and beautiful, Everything Was Good-bye is an unforgettable story about family, love, and loss, and the struggle with living in two different cultural worlds.

This story starts off in the 1990s when Meena is in her last year of high school. She is going to school with Liam and they become friends, which displeases her mother because he is white so she has to sneak around with him. Liam's homelife isn't great and he runs away. He asks Meena to go with him. She's torn and has a difficult decision to make. Does she defy her mother and culture and go with Liam or does she stay home and stay on the track? That's just the first section of the book and I don't want to ruin the story by telling you what she does (there are four sections).

The book is written in first person in Meena's voice. The Indian culture is so difference from mine and I can't imagine being bound by such traditions and rules like arranged marriages, not defying your parents, etc.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend it. It's not a happy funny story and I was cheering for Meena.