I really want to like Wanda Brunstetter’s books.  I really, really do.  So I keep trying them!  My latest attempt is the new mini-book Goodbye to Yesterday.  In this first of 6 installments, the reader is introduced to Luke and Meredith Stoltzfus.  Luke recently lost his job as a carpenter, and the young couple is running out of money.  When Luke’s uncle approaches him with an unexpected opportunity, Luke determines to start a new career.  To do so, he must travel several hundred miles away, leaving Meredith, who suspects she is pregnant, alone on their farm.  Along the way, Luke meets an unsavory character…and there this chapter of the story ends.

As usual, Goodbye to Yesterday has an interesting story line.  But the book itself is just not captivating.  There’s too much dialogue, and it feels as if the author is telling what is happening instead of showing it to readers.  Some folks obviously like this type of story-telling, but I just can’t get into it.  I found myself skipping entire pages of the book just to get to the next part.  And, as my daughter says, there’s just too much trouble, which makes the stories unrealistic.  Yes, much of fiction is unrealistic, but the trick is to make the reader believe it’s plausible.  In this case, I don’t find the story believable.  As much as I’d like to love this book and say I’m so excited for book 2, I just can’t.

**Disclaimer:  I received a free copy of this book from Barbour Books in exchange for my honest review.