Good as Gold

De: Sarina Bowen

Narrado por: Jason Clarke, Lessa Lamb

A swoony, heart-wrenching small-town romance from USA Today and Wall Street Journal best seller Sarina Bowen!

Leila:

What I meant to do: quietly divorce my lout of a husband and then have a child all on my own.

What happens instead: my crush comes back to town when I’m at my most vulnerable. After too many cocktails, I ask him to be my baby’s father.

In my defense, it’s been a rough couple of months. Seeing Matteo Rossi again after 14 years has done a number on my emotions. And my libido.

In the morning, I’m hoping he’s forgotten the whole thing. But no such luck. In fact, Matteo has a few clarifying questions. And a few naughty ideas, too....

Matteo:

What I meant to do: visit Vermont for my brother’s wedding. Make amends to my family, and mourn the loss of a friend.

What happens instead: a hot affair with the one who got away. But it can’t last. My life is 2,000 miles away, and Leila deserves everything. She’s as good as gold.

©2023 Sarina Bowen (P)2023 Sarina Bowen

Small town Vermont & Second Chance ❤️

I love being back in the True North world. Yes, this is its own story but we see characters from True North. And I feel like we’ll be getting some more books in the world of the Giltmakers/Rossis and I am here for it.

Leila and Matteo were best friends growing up. They were also attracted to each other but never told each other. So this is one of my favorite tropes: a second chance romance.

Matteo returns home after being gone for over a decade. Leila is recently divorced and looking to have a baby since she’s getting “old”. After a drunken night she asks Matteo to help her get pregnant the old fashioned way. This forces them both to face their old feelings and come to terms with what they want in life. Matteo is also dealing with the loss of his best friend in a tragic snowboarding accident.

This is such a hard story to review/talk about. It’s very emotional. It was definitely harder for me to read about Matteo dealing with his grief. They both have heavy stuff to deal with, his just hit me harder at this point in my life. The decision to have sex with the intention of having a baby added an interesting dynamic. I’m not sure I’ve read something like that before. It made the pacing odd. Not bad odd, just odd. Those scenes were hot and emotional but were prompted in a different way. Also because of that, the emotional beats for the romance just felt different. Again, it’s hard to explain. I think as a romance reader you kind if expect certain plot points at certain times and this was varied.

This was a beautiful love story and I’m so happy to be back in Vermont with Sarina’s characters. You can easily jump in here and read it as a stand alone or read this after the True North books and love all the mentions if characters we already know.

Sadly, Jason Clarke carries this audio. Lessa Lamb just doesn’t connect as well. It isn’t un-listenable, but I recommend reading by ebook if that option is available to you.

Female narrator didn’t do it for me.

Good story, love Jason, wish they had gone with a different female narrator. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

One of my top 10 favs

I absolutely loved this book!! It is now on my top 10 favs.. all the feels.. I laughed, cried and felt the love along with the characters! Amazing job!

Heartwarming Gold

I love the flow of this audiobook. The narration perfectly portrayed both of these characters, the story was a beautiful and the very realistic friendship and love story. What I love the most was how tender Matteo was with women in his life from the very start. His character was genuine and Jason Clarke did an incredible job with his performance. Lessa Lamb is becoming one of my favourite female narrators. Sarina Bowen has done it yet again. She is an automatic purchase for me and this trio is perfection for this story. The internal struggle these characters work through together and apart feels very real life and relatable. You don’t need an abundance of angst to keep the reader interested and the solid foundation this couple has speaks volumes about Sarina Bowens writing and her gift to pull you into her books from the very first chapter.

Great Story!

Loved this story and this world Sarina Bowen has made. Jason Clark was wonderful but the female narrator sounded like she was over acting , she wasn't terrible but it was annoying.