Review: Golden by Jessi Kirby

Golden by Jessi Kirdy

Goodreads Summary:

Love, tragedy, and mystery converge in this compelling novel from “an author to watch” (Booklist).

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.
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I read this on Simon & Schuster's Pulseit, which is a fantastic site and everyone should be a part of it! 

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5/5
This was my first book my Jessi Kirby and I was hooked from the very first sentence, I read it in one day, that's how much I loved this book. I couldn't put it down. It just flowed so well. I could identify with Parker's need to please people and always act the way she thinks people want her to act. She doesn't take chances that she thinks will affect her future. Then she finds Julianna's journal and she starts taking those chances, living the life that she wants and not what she thinks her mom wants. I loved that Parker finally took her life in her own hands.  

I loved the slow development between Trevor and Parker and Trevor actually turned out to be one of my favorite characters. I loved that there wasn't a love triangle and that Kirby acknowledged the fact that Trevor had a past. They were real and Kirby captured that perfectly. 

The predictablity of this book works for me and I love that it has a happy ending. Sometimes you just need a happy ending!