the cover of this was great. and fit perfectly for the bright, vibrant adventure you go on with this book. i love this book for how much you get to know and then care about these characters. because of such brilliant fleshing out of the characters you are so much more invested into the book. you are rooting for them, getting excited with them and getting tense with them too.
this is outside my norm for book reading but the cover and title drew me in. after my read im really glad i took to my book gut on this one, listened to it and dived in. it was something different for me for sure but that kind of made it better because it helped me explore and use all different kind of my imagination and brain as i followed.
we've got a treasure hunt, adventure and really great relationships to follow with this book.
there is also risk and dangerous dealings with some darker people. there is strangers met and joined. there is obstacles and trust to question clues and those around you.
Indian Jones is the only character i know who would just set out looking for a treasure. and one that also reminded me of this book because of the child and parent dynamic. it definitely had those angst and themes surrounding that relationship.
i would say this would b a genre that becomes a must read or type i go to often. we are all different so i know due to the character building, world building and story, for those who DO like these book will really enjoy it. and the skill the author had with doing that made me enjoy this book so much more. so for now im going to say it was a good read, maybe a little too different for me but i dont want to focus too much on that because i think my negatives might simply because its not my usual wheelhouse.

An action packed adventure - the story was fast paced and intriguing with a treasure hunt amidst violence, romance and betrayal. I enjoyed the action scenes and the obstacles faced by the group. What was not convincing enough was the motivation to set out with strangers and very little planning. The new members added to the team came across as a little flat, and seemed to be dealt with too easily. The danger and menace felt too weak at times. Overall an interesting read that would make a great movie.

Thank you for this read this book was ok I will give it 3 stars because I was waiting for something more can’t put my finger on it but I’m sure others will enjoy it

3.5 stars rounded up. If The Goonies and National Treasure had a baby- this would be it! This cover + treasure hunt in the desert, sign me up! As soon as I read the premise I envisioned "The Lost Dutchman's Mine". For those that don't know- it's a supposed hidden gold mine in Arizona surrounded by tales of curses, treasure, and mysterious disappearances.

The desert can be an unforgiving place and I was hoping that the author would delve more into the scenery of the desert landscape. Because I live in the desert, I was able to envision it rather easily. But I can imagine if you are not familiar with the landscape here, you would be missing out on being able to place yourself in the scene. The strongpoint of this author is the character relationships and development. I enjoyed and appreciated the exploration between mother-daughter relationships as well as friendships. I would say while there is some mystery and suspense, the main underlying theme is attributed to the characters and their relationships.

Thanks to NetGalley and Rising Action Publishing Co. | Rising Action for a digital ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley and to Rising Action Publishing for the ARC of Glitter and Gold by Jill Beissel.

I love a good treasure hunt adventure story. They're a great way to suspend your disbelief and just have a fun time -- Dan Brown's Robert Langdon series, The Hobbit, Ready Player One, Jacquelyn Benson's Raiders of the Arcana series, Something Wilder by Christina Lauren, Finders Keepers by Sarah Adler, etc. The description for Glitter and Gold immediately caught my eye, with its promise of high-stakes intrigue on a treasure-hunt that is both the burden and the escapism of Delaney Byrne's life.

Unfortunately, and I hate to feel this way for a debut author, but the description and the book itself did not align with my expectation in a satisfying way.

The book is dual timeline, which I did not expect, and which is normally a reason I do not buy a book -- I 'm already averse to it as a reader, which I want to own. In Glitter and Gold we have chapters in 2008 and in 2018, but we also have additional flashbacks to different times/memories. It's all a bit overwhelming, and it clutters the story away from the adventure and leans it more about the relationships between Delaney, Joss, Wyatt, and Delaney's mother and putting together their past than focusing on the present. It also seems like some of the flashbacks are just a dumping ground to move the plot or create intrigue - like Cat asking for the history of the treasure and Delaney popping back into a 2018 memory to tell it verbatim from another time, or to hint at previous danger the sisters have faced because of their mother's treasure hunting. I feel like the story would be much stronger solely in the present timeline, with the appropriate flashbacks as needed. I think it would make Delaney a grittier character and it would propel the action forward more concisely. Flashing back to her as a teenager means we see her stuck on aspects of immaturity that an older Delaney reflecting on a decade later might handle differently instead of the past speaking for her.

I then found the reason for the treasure's existence to be a bit confusing -- a Spanish nobleman in the late 18th century wants to hunt for gold in the American west. The late 18th century predates the American west gold rush by about 5 decades. And then, the gold seeker, for some reason, brings a bunch of his own gold and riches with him for no reason (it's not used to pay for anything or necessary to the other functions of the trip) and, after his death, that becomes the sought treasure.. Additionally, there is a brief quote from the nobleman using words like "thine" and "thee" for a Spanish translation, yet those types of terms were 1) old English and 2) stopped being used in the early 17th century. It just...for me, for there to be what felt like two large historical mishmashes so early in the book that are also meant to define the mystery of the book did not bode well for the rest of the story. I guess I stopped feeling very early on like this was well researched or well planned. I like to suspend my disbelief in an adventure story, but I want the story to feel tighter. Instead, between the two timelines, the weak origin story, and then the layers of criss-crossing danger and recompense Delaney faces, it just seemed like there was so much happening and the lines connecting everything were thin or forced.

I also struggled a lot with the voice/style of the author. Beissel really favors descriptive devices - simile, metaphor. Every sentence is overwhelming with description, but it doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the narrative choices she makes. Instead, it makes sentences stand out in weird ways that kept distracting me from the story. You can go from one sentence like "where pristine white paper edges stick out like modern flags in an antique" to dialogue like "Well our dream is to get outta here" to some sort of philosophical internal musing like "But the respite is brief, as temperamental as the breeze shifting directions" to more dialogue like "But I can't talk. I must go to work soon." It felt like it was trying to be too many things at once, both overshowing and telling, pushing really hard on distinct character accent but not matching the vocabulary or age-level throughout the book. I think it needed more consistency, but instead reading felt like driving over a bumpy road with how often I'd have to re-concentrate between sentences on what action was actually occurring.