Striking Gold
-
-
4.0 • 1 Rating
-
-
- $4.99
-
- $4.99
Publisher Description
“Janine Amesta's debut is everything you want in a romance--it's charming, funny, and romantic and the characters pop off the page.”- Denise Williams, Author of How to Fail at Flirting
Not all that glitters is gold...especially in love.
Mia Russo is well aware that being voted "most likely to succeed" in high school doesn’t guarantee anything, especially after her political career crashes and burns. Without a plan for the first time in her life, Mia moves back home with her dad. After being rejected by the handsome local jewelry store owner who seems way too familiar, she takes a barista job while she determines her next steps.
Orphaned at a young age, Ross Manasse finally finds peace when he inherits his grandfather's jewelry store. It’s been a tough road, and Ross is looking for quietness and stability. When his former high school tutor—someone Ross once thought of as a friend—barges into his shop looking for a job and doesn’t recognize him, his safest option is keeping her at arm’s length.
Mia’s determined to make something in her life work, but in rekindling a relationship with the grumpy jeweler, she digs up more about their shared history than they expect. Mia and Ross will need to decide what's more important: finding success or true happiness?
Review:
Striking Gold absolutely sparkles! Janine Amesta's debut is everything you want in a romance--it's charming, funny, and romantic and the characters pop off the page. This book will transport you back to your own hometown and love stories that might have been. Amesta's writing is full of humor and the chemistry between Mia and Ross glitters with history and anticipation. I loved this book and I know you will, too. - Denise Williams, Author of How to Fail at Flirting
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Amesta's stirring debut proves there's fulfillment to be found in imperfection and spontaneity. Voted "most likely to succeed" in high school, Mia Russo really believed the honorific was true. After she burns out while working on a political campaign in D.C., however, Mia's perfectly planned life trajectory hits some bumps. She returns home to Placerville, Calif., to figure out what comes next. In the meantime, she takes a job at the local coffee shop—and crushes on the owner of the jewelry store next door. Former "bad boy" Ross Manasse immediately recognizes Mia as the academic superstar who tutored him in high school, and he's hurt she doesn't remember him. As they grow close in the present, old feelings mix with new. But with Mia treating Placerville as a temporary rest stop, can their relationship survive? Amesta makes answering this question deeply emotional as Ross shows Mia the joy of an unplanned life. Both protagonists undergo impressive growth over the course of the novel, helping each other to become better people. Readers are sure to fall in love with this perfectly matched pair.
Customer Reviews
Sweet and charming
I really liked this book a lot and related hard to the FMC. Mia, always studious and responsible and dutiful, has always tried to live up to the expectations of those closest to her. When her political career crashes and burns after just one campaign, she finds herself living in her childhood bedroom with her widowed father, a former judge, and working at a local coffee shop. Hardly the future she imagined for herself, the girl voted most likely to succeed.
Ross, the MMC, runs his family's jewelry shop and makes jewelry. He had a tougher past, ran into some trouble and ended up dropping out of school after struggling academically due to undiagnosed dyslexia. Though he and Mia went to high school together, their paths only crossed briefly when Mia was assigned to tutor him. A decade later, when their paths cross again, their lives are in much different places.
I liked this story, liked the idea of trying to figure out what your own life is free of external expectations. I liked the romance a lot too. And I loved that it took place so close to my own neck of the woods. I love books that take place in Northern California. The familiar setting was definitely a plus. Eager to read more of this series.