Review: Golden by Melinda Michaels

High school senior Hanna Loch just suffered a blackout in front of her entire homeroom class. She hasn’t had one in over ten years, and she’s terrified—the last time she blacked out, she woke up with no memory of her life before. To make matters worse, no one can explain why it happens. For Hanna, bad things tend to come in threes.
And that doesn’t even begin to cover it . . .
When she learns she could be a descendant of someone who lived once upon a time, Hanna must put her trust in William Vann, a descendant of one of the most hated villains ever known. Their histories are intertwined in more ways than she expected, and he has answers about her past, answers even her family won’t share.
But is it safe to put her trust in someone who appears to be danger reincarnate, while trying to escape the darkness that tried to kill her ten years ago?
A loose fairytale retelling, GOLDEN is a story that’s just right, weaving together lost secrets, vengeful enemies, and what happens when fiction becomes reality.

Most girls dream of living a fairy tale life, but not Hanna Loch. She is not looking for a fairy tale kind of life in “Golden” by Melinda Michaels, she is looking for the truth. Hanna’s earliest memories she has is of when she was eight years old, everything prior is a dark black hole. Having been raised by her grandparents in New Hope Michigan the whole town has helped keep her in the dark. Now at eighteen she is starting to have blackouts again and wants to understand why. Walking home one day after a blackout in school Hanna is almost hit by a truck that should have killed her. New in town, William Vann, saves her life. Like magnets the two are drawn to each other and only he knows why. Over the next few weeks Hanna’s blackouts get worse as well as mishaps in town. The whole town turns an angry eye towards William and his family but Hanna won’t see it. Her grandparents and her cousin try to keep her from seeing the young man but that only pushed them closer. After another blackout and being rescued again by William, Hanna starts having memories and with Williams help is able to unlock her own story line.

                If you like retelling of fairy tales like “Wicked” and “Once upon a Time” then this book is for you. Which I do. When I first started reading it I thought “Great, another Twilight. Bad boy saves awkward girl’s life. She should keep away but can see his goodness.” But it was more than that. I became more intrigued as the story unfolded and wanted to learn more about the mystery of what she had blocked. I like a book that gives an “oh wow” moment because I was unable to predict what was coming and this book did just that. My daughter loves “Sisters Grimm” books and other un-disney fairy tales and would let her read this. Enjoyable read that I did not want to put down. 

Golden is a fantasy told in the third person narration set in New Hope Michigan by author Melinda Michaels, of whom I've not read any thing from before, but will be sure to do so in the future. Her twists on some old stories to make them current blew my mind.
I loved this story because I have never read one like it before, she left the old stories alone and made this one current about later generations. The author took them in a whole new direction and I found it to be refreshing.This was a good clean read that was written well.