Review : Golden by Jessi Kirby

Title : Golden
Author : Jessi Kirby
Genre : YA contemporary
Release Date : May 14th, 2013
Publisher : Simon & Schuster

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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.

When I finished this book, with tears still in my cheek, I have the urge to go to the nearest bookstore and buy the sequel of this book, which, of course, doesn't exist. If you're all wondering, why are you being so dramatic? Well, I'm not. This book is truly beautiful, both realistic and unrealistic, and give you so much lessons.

Our main character, Parker Frost, is the typical nerdy, high school valedictorian girl. She's also a finalist for Farnetti-Cruz scholarship--a scholarship to remember Julianna Farnetti and Shane Cruz, who's basically a popular high school students that died ten years ago. It may seem like the typical contemporary, but I can assure you, it's not. When her wild, reckless bestfriend, Kat, ask her to do one extraordinary thing before she moved out, she agreed, even though she's confused. That's when Julianna Farnetti became the topic--Parker found her journal from 10 years ago. Instead of give it to her teacher, she read it and eventually found out something that could change her life.

I have no problem to connect to all of the characters. Eventhough Parker is smart, she didn't looked down to another people. Kat, on the contrary, is wilder and louder than Parker. Both of them actually remind me of me and my bestfriend--I'm the shy one, while my best friend is the reckless one--and that's one of the reasons why I like the characters.

There's another characters in this book, namely Trevor, Parker's crush. If I only have one word to describe him, it would be sweet. Yes, he like to flirt with girls (including Parker), but he's also nice and sweet to Parker. Not to mention, there's an obvious chemistry between them. Not the sexual-tension-chemistry, but more like a 'sweet chemistry', where they both know that they like each other but didn't do anything. It probably sounds strange, but if you read this book, you'd understand.

Beside the characters, I also like the plot. I always love a book with a journey in it, and this book isn't an exception. I love how their friendship grew stronger throughout the journey, eventhough they fight sometimes. I also love how from their journey, Parker realized that the better road isn't always the right road, and sometimes risks are worth it. To sum up, I love everything from the beginning until the end (although, to be honest, I think the ending end too abrupt and there's a little cliffhanger, but I still love it since it's beautifully written)

Overall, this a beautiful coming of age stories that you have to read. I can promise that you'll end up loving it too.

"In three words I can sum up all that I've learned about life : it goes on"