Proper Goodbye by Connie Chappell is an unusual story. Not a typical romance, epic novel, or Christian novel, it delves into the homelier part of life. Beebe’s mother, Abigail, who seemed so nurturing and faithful, enjoying baking muffins for her family, became addicted to painkillers after an accident and eventually stole them from the small town hospital where she worked. When she was caught, she ran. For many years no one knew where she had gone, except a nurse, Yates, far away, who came to know her by another name. She seemed like just a transient homeless person, marginalized by the towns she drifted through, and she wasn’t talking about her secret.

I wondered as I read what her family did and thought and how their life transpired after her disappearance. We also don’t really know if or how she had grieved the loss of her family, since so little is said about that. When Abigail realized she was dying, she reached out to her family in a distant way, probably fearful they wouldn’t accept her.

We are left to wonder how everyone fared at the end, leaving room for a sequel. Small town dynamics are in play as everyone remembers Abigail’s crime and dramatic disappearance so long ago. Can Beebe Walker and her father Cliff get through it unscathed? Proper Goodbye was an interesting read and will help readers think about how their actions and judgments affect those in their life. It was also a good read and the story line came together. Connie Chappell is an accomplished author.

I enjoyed reading Proper Goodbye by Connie Chappell. It is the journey of a family as they work through a past coloured by rumour and judgment. Beebe, one of the main characters, in a crisis of faith, gives up her position as a minister and goes home to re-evaluate her life. During this time, she endeavours to discover the truth about her mother, to find forgiveness and reconciliation to a history that taints her future. But bringing up the past can be a difficult task that can either heal or hurt everyone she knows. Truth, lies, and secrets; everyone has something to learn from the past.

To me, Proper Goodbye by Connie Chappell was an enjoyable and bittersweet story, filled with just enough mystery to keep me wanting more. While there are moments where scenes are a little overwritten, the majority of the work creates a vivid tale with great descriptions and touching moments. It is a story of love and life, faith, and truth. The characters, especially Beebe, were well-rounded and realistic — easy to relate to and root for. The honesty of Beebe’s journey was touching, a story of lost loves and reconciliation. I also found the characters of Vincent and Cliff compelling, and the interaction between the characters was realistic. Altogether, Proper Goodbye was a great way to spend a couple of winter nights, curled up and enjoying an intriguing and heartwarming story. I recommend Proper Goodbye to anyone who loves stories centered around family. Thank you for the read.

Proper Goodbye by Connie Chappell is a story about a woman searching for answers. Beebe Walker becomes intrigued by the unusual circumstances surrounding the burial of a homeless woman in a cemetery owned by her father. Her relationship with her dad has been haphazard over the years and there's plenty of unresolved emotion there, but the identity of the homeless woman forces her to bridge the gap and attempt to build a new relationship. Still, there's more to discover, as the appearance of one Yates Strand to their town opens up even more questions to answer.

In terms of appearance, the cover of the book was beautiful, even in eBook form. I know they say don't judge a book by its cover...but wow. I would definitely pick it up if I saw this book in print just because of the pretty cover. The genre is technically women's fiction, but I felt that the emotions, the plot-driven story, and the characters really could be relatable to many different people. Proper Goodbye is one of those books that could be placed in many different genres and defies categorization. It's a deeply emotional family drama that has aspects of mystery, self-discovery, and understanding.

Personally, I felt connected to both the protagonist, Beebe, and even the author because the book was set in my home state of Michigan, and I felt like Connie really got the setting and the scenes, and just the general Michigan feeling right. This was an enjoyable read from cover to cover and I can't wait to read more from Connie Chappell.

A devastating loss, especially when it comes with so many unanswered questions, tears at the fabric of a family in Proper Goodbye by Connie Chappell. When Abigail Walker escaped Larkspur, Michigan, when her daughter Beebe was only 16 years old, it began a chain of events that would play out to a very strange ending 30 years later. Cliff Walker could never get past his wife’s desertion, leaving their only daughter adrift. Beebe turned to the Church which then also left her behind at the age of 46, far from Michigan. The odd coincidence of a drifter’s death in Larkspur brings the story full circle and in the hands of the local homeless shelter’s director as Beebe’s former fiancé, Vincent, knows the truth and is torn about how to handle it. Finally confiding in Beebe, Vincent convinces her to come home and take a position in his growing Senior Center where she will be able to be with her father again and, hopefully, come to terms with the saga of Abigail’s absence.

Beautifully written and poignant, Proper Goodbye touches on the gamut of human frailty, fear, emotion and compassion experienced by those facing loss and disappointment. Connie Chappell writes gently but with keen insight and laser-like directness regarding the variety of ways in which people confront and ignore the issues that make up the fabric of their lives. Fabric is also a concrete element that ties these pieces together as friends of the grieving create quilts that represent the lives of those who have passed on. Wonderful story that captures the essence of the emotions we feel without beating each one to death. Truly touching and moving with a great big dose of hope and peace. Although Proper Goodbye could be considered sad, it is handled deftly and positively, leaving you with an abiding feeling of love and hope, no matter the sorrow or loss that has come before. In other words, this is an excellent story about coping.

This is a sequel to Wild Raspberries, though it is a standalone as well. If you read Wild Raspberries, you may remember the grief counselor, Beebe Walker. This book, Proper Goodbye, is her story. It was just released a month ago.

This is a wonderful book. It's full of the emotional messes that we all love to read in women's lit and the untangling of the stories to get to the truth that lies at the heart of the matter. And what lies at the heart of this mess is worth 300 pages! This is very well written. I really think Ms. Chappell has a knack for this genre. She knows how to convey all those twists and turns life takes when we're not watching. She brings out the best and worst in her characters just when they want to be wallflowers. She puts the right words in their mouths when they are really needed. Then sometimes they're the wrong words. She makes her characters real. They get caught listening at doors and are embarrassed. People are talking behind their backs, and there's a good reason for it.

This is such a great book, I think it needs to end up on my favorites list. I will definitely read it again. I highly recommend this to you and to anyone who likes a good puzzle of emotions and family messes. Keep this book in mind when they start looking for the best books written in 2016. Proper Goodbye needs to be on all the lists of bests.

Filled with the intricacies and nuances of everyday relationships, Connie Chappell’s latest novel, A Proper Goodbye, is both easy to read and compelling at the same time. Fraught with the emotions of someone grieving, the book is a lesson in understanding. Forty six-year old Beebe Walker, a grief counselor from Chappell’s first novel Wild Raspberries, returns home to Larkspur Michigan with the intent of divulging a secret to her estranged father, and healing her grief-stricken mind at the same time.

Renewing a relationship with a former love, breaking a deathbed promise, and embarking on a search for answers with a stranger, Beebe must find a way to tell her father that the wife and mother who had abandoned them thirty years ago has returned to be buried in Larkspur under an assumed name. The novel deals empathetically with loss, grief and rehabilitation almost like the emotion associated with an erupting volcano.

The simmering lava overflows and envelopes other members of the community, even as the final eruption must ultimately end it. Four members of this small town find themselves intrinsically intertwined in the wake of the tremor that has caused the peak to give way in the first place. Just as the earth rebounds after the rich volcanic ash becomes a growth medium, so Beebe and her father must also retrieve the essence of their pre-alienated and precursory father/ daughter relationship.

From the initial paragraph to the last, the reader is captivated by the characters who are altogether human and thus make mistakes in both judgement and action. It is a read into the depth of souls who are working through grief and apprehension, even as they struggle to regain relationships, access the truth, and stop a railroading gossiper from destroying future hopes and dreams. I highly recommend this fascinating journey into the minds of those who grieve in different ways.

This is a wonderful book that is well written and provides a great story with a secret to be solved in a typical small town in the Midwest. What a great idea to expand on the life of Beebe Walker, a minister and grief counselor that was introduced in the author's first novel "Wild Raspberries". Instead of helping others, Beebe must now help herself and her father deal with loss, anger, heartbreak and mend their difficult relationship. I come from a small town and I find the characters (including the wonderful dog, Barleycorn) in the story to be believable and with the exception of a few, very lovable. Highly recommended.

This is an interesting novel, a fast read, and one that provokes mind games. Is Beebe's withdrawal from the church family a loss of faith, just a hiatus, or a necessary time out while she learns to handle the problems associated with her mother's long disappearance? Will she, like her father, wind herself around her pain and seal out the world? All of the characters in this novel are fully rounded, charismatic, and easily understood. It is a book I can easily recommend to friends and family.

I liked this book very much. It explained a lot of things from the first book Wild Raspberries, but it could also be a stand alone book. I received a free copy because I agreed to review it. I'm very impressed with this author. She has a great deal of insight into the feelings and emotions of grieving people.