Tabitha's Book Blog

Golden by Jessi Kirby 
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers on May 14, 2013 
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult 
Pages: 278 
Source: Library 

Every now and then I’ll read a book that makes me remember why I love YA Contemporary so much, and GOLDEN is one of those books. I actually had to change my initial rating of 4 stars to 4.5 stars because I love this book so much.

Things I Loved:

Parker and Julianna’s stories. They were completely different people, and they have something like a ten year age gap – but while reading Parker’s reactions to Julianna’s journal entries you see that they’re actually really similar and Parker starts to grow as a person after reading her entries. AND IT’S JUST SO PERFECT.

The characters! Parker is like this stereotypical good girl, but when she gets the opportunity to do ONE crazy thing she takes that chance, and she matures so much during that period of time. Then there was the best friend, Kat – who I loved. The love interest, Trevor – who I adored. And the mysterious Julianna who we got to know through journal entires.

How the story is a romance, but it’s not really a romance. It has that element, but it never overruns the overall story. It definitely takes a backseat to the plot, but it was SO cute. I especially enjoyed Parker and Trevor’s relationship, but then there was also Julianna’s whole story. And I don’t want to delve into that because it’s amazing and something that needs to be read about firsthand.

I narrated the story in a very Veronica Mars like way. (I recently watched the entire series) It made it that much more of an entertaining read, just because I was able to relate it to something I love.

Things I Didn’t Love:

The one thing I didn’t like was how for awhile I was more invested in Julianna’s story. I wanted to know what was happening between her Shane and Orion. I wanted to know what happened the night of the accident. Basically, I just wanted to skip all of Parker’s story and read hers. This only lasted about two chapters, but it still happened.

Basically…:

This book was incredible and anyone who wants to read a unique coming of age novel needs to read it. This will probably become one of those books that I force upon people, but it was so good. And honestly. I could have gone on for a good 10 more points about things I loved, but I refrained from doing so.