I absolutely love Jessi Kirby! I did after reading In Honor, and reading Golden has cemented that!

So, I was expecting something a little bit different with Golden...like the town mystery being something that happened in the last year or two, not something that happened ten years earlier. Still, I liked how Parker came across Julianna's journal and the senior project of writing in a journal mailed 10 years later. Actually, that's such a cool project, and it would be really interesting to see what 17-year-old me wrote...well, interesting but also a little scary and weird.

I really liked Parker as a character and I can definitely relate to not taking the road less traveled. It really is easier for her to do things that make her mom happy instead of what will make her happy, but that's something she discovers in her quest to uncover the mystery of ten years earlier. What happened to Julianna and Shane is really something she latched onto, but discovering what really happened...she learned a lot about herself.

And naturally, I couldn't help but cry at the end, because Parker's story...I just loved it. I don't know what it is about reading book where the main character goes on a journey of self-discovery but they are very near and dear to my heart. And Golden is no exception, because I liked that she finally told her mom how she felt about the expectations placed on her. I also liked Julianna's story, and how well it matched Parker's story. We see her journal entries, which were really nice to see. I do wish they were their own chapters, instead of mid-chapter, because I felt like they stood on their own really well. Other than that...I loved how their stories intersected.

To Sum Up: I just totally loved Golden, and Jessi Kirby is definitely one of my favorite authors! While I wasn't expecting the town mystery to be a decade earlier, I still liked the parallels between Parker's story and Julianna's story, and how Parker did something completely unexpected. Golden gets 5 stars!