From the Blurb:A fresh, funny and poignant romance set in the beautiful Adelaide Hills.
Olivia Murphy is a woman on a mission. The Ducati motorbike that once belonged to her brother has come up for re-sale. Liv wants to buy the precious bike, and she needs the ink dry on the paperwork before the approaching long weekend, when tourists with fat wallets will descend on her hometown of Hahndorf.
Only one person stands in her way; and she’s just tripped and fallen at his feet...
Owen Carson likes rare and beautiful things and he has the Ducati in his sights. Then Liv literally falls into his path, and he finds his heart captured by beauty of a very different kind.
How far will Liv go to make the motorbike hers? Can a viticulturalist fall for a man who prefers beer? And will a long weekend among the grape vines be long enough for Owen to convince Liv he's interested in more than just a holiday fling?
The Review:
Olivia wants to buy the bike that once belonged to her (now dead) brother so she can take it for a memorial ride with his boyfriend. Owen makes a better offer on the bike, though, leaving Olivia distraught. He makes a deal, however, that she can buy the bike from him if she helps him with some grape vines.
This is a quick read and a quick romance. The whole story takes place over only a few days, in which time the hero and heroine go from meeting each other, to falling in love and making life affecting decisions to be with each other - so I think it's important to keep that in mind. It was the perfect book for me right now, because I'm run off my feet and struggling with the attention span required for longer, more involved stories, but you definitely need to just jump with the whole swept up in love thing.
As I expect from Lily Malone's romances, the characters are sweet, caring individuals. Olivia is still struggling to deal with certain aspects of her brother's death and especially the effects this had on her family, restricting her independence and ability to move on. Owen has just moved back into town and is keen to look after little lost Olivia - I have to admit, his determination to help her, and encourage her to question her life, feels a little pushy at times, but equally she needs a little outside help to make much needed life changes.
The main secondary crisis outside the romance centers on Olivia's issues contending with the homophobia of her family and others in response to her brother being gay. I feel like we've come a long way (in an up and down kinda way) in terms of LGBT acceptance in Australia, so occasionally some of the homophobic attitudes seemed ridiculously conservative to me and I had to remind myself that this is a rerelease from a few years ago AND that it's set in a small town(!!). I also would have liked to see Owen make more of a stand in defense of homosexuality (particularly when his cousin uses the f word), rather than just passively accepting that Oliva's brother was gay. Either way, it's always nice to see authors bringing these sort of issues into their mainstream romances and in such a positive way!! A+++.
As you can tell from all my above rambling thoughts, there's quite a lot of emotional drama and some intense issues packed into this little novella. The best thing about this is that these are wound through so nicely, part of the three dimensional characters and their lives, without it becoming a heavy story. Quite the contrary, this novella has emotional, full, real characters, but is really a fun, easy read that is perfect for those times when you just need to fall in love with characters and a good book, quick snap!
Goodbye Ride by Lily Malone is a contemporary romance, released originally by Lily Malone in 2013 (I think!), and rereleased by Escape Publisher on May 1, 2016.
Book Links: Amazon - Amazon UK - Amazon AUS - Goodreads - The Publisher
More from Lily Malone on Love Reading Romance:
What’s in a name? by Lily Malone - Guest Post
Fairway To Heaven by Lily Malone - Book Review
So Far Into You by Lily Malone - Book Review
Making Beautiful Music by Lily Malone - Guest Post
