Golden by Jessi Kirby

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.

Golden has turned out to be one of my favorite books of 2013 so far. I’ve read both of Jessi Kirby’s previously published books, and I loved them both. Because of this, I had super high expectations for Golden. It managed to surpass even my highest expectations. Golden was fantastic. I fell in love with the story, the characters, and the prose.

Parker was such an amazing character. As the book went on, I loved watching her creep out of her shell and start doing things a little daring. She was smart, witty, and an overall fantastic character. When Parker finds the journal of a Julianna, teen who (along with her boyfriend) went missing from her town ten years prior, she doesn’t plan to investigate it any further. However, her curiosity gets the best of her and she forces herself to reevaluate the evidence surrounding Julianna’s mysterious disappearance. Parker then goes on a journey with her friend Kat her classmate Trevor to find out more about what happened in her town ten years ago. Kat is hilarious and her parts in the novel were fantastic. Trevor was adorable and awesome and I loved him.

As the mystery unfolded, I just became more and more amazed with Kirby’s writing. Though I wouldn’t completely call this a mystery book, it still definitely had a really well written mysterious aspect. Golden captured be from the very beginning. It’s the type of book that I would be glad to reread on a moments notice. Jessi Kirby is an extremely talented writer. Her books never fail to amaze me. You will not regret reading Golden at all. It is beautiful.

FTC- Received from Edelweiss.