Saturday, October 5, 2013

Quickie Review: Golden by Jessi Kirby


I find that I'm not always able to give a full-blown, in-depth review of all the books I read. But that doesn't mean they aren't worthy of a proper review or shout-out. It just means my time is limited. So I will be doing the occasional QUICKIE REVIEW, providing my thoughts in a few short but sweet sentences on some of my reads, because I still want to honor these books in some way. I hope you find these helpful.
Golden
Golden by Jessi Kirby
May 14, 2013
Simon and Schuster
278 pages
Genre: Young Adult
Source: Personal purchase
Book Blurb:
Seventeen-year-old Parker Frost has never taken the road less traveled. Valedictorian and quintessential good girl, she’s about to graduate high school without ever having kissed her crush or broken the rules. So when fate drops a clue in her lap—one that might be the key to unraveling a town mystery—she decides to take a chance.Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz are remembered as the golden couple of Summit Lakes High—perfect in every way, meant to be together forever. But Julianna’s journal tells a different story—one of doubts about Shane and a forbidden romance with an older, artistic guy. These are the secrets that were swept away with her the night that Shane’s jeep plunged into an icy river, leaving behind a grieving town and no bodies to bury.

Reading Julianna’s journal gives Parker the courage to start to really live—and it also gives her reasons to question what really happened the night of the accident. Armed with clues from the past, Parker enlists the help of her best friend, Kat, and Trevor, her longtime crush, to track down some leads. The mystery ends up taking Parker places that she never could have imagined. And she soon finds that taking the road less traveled makes all the difference.

My Review:

I read this a few months back and can't believe I never wrote my review, because I loved it. So I'll do a quick review because I definitely recommend it. This is a great coming-of-age story. The blurb summarizes it well, and I don't want to say more because that's part of the mystery of the book. I found I could really relate to Parker in a lot of ways and loved how the author developed her character and showed her conflict. And this has a great cast of characters, from both the present and the past. I say past because we are really getting two storylines here. There are mystery elements surrounding this story, but nothing supernatural. There are light-hearted moments and tear-jerker moments. I felt completely pulled into the story, wanting to know what the truth was of the past, and wanting to know how Parker was going to handle her personal dilemmas of the present. In addition to Parker, Kat is a fabulous best friend and Trevor is definitely crush-worthy. And even up to the very end, I wasn't sure how the author was going to play it all out. GOLDEN is a beautifully-written story, rich in intrigue, that I didn't want to put down, with characters who pulled me into their lives and didn't let go.

5 STARS
 
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