I received the approval email just yesterday, but I felt like reading this novel immediately. I was quite intrigued by book's synopsis, but sadly, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

I hope others will love it more.

I received a copy of the book "The Golden Boy" by Patricia Finn, from NetGalley. at the beginning of the book Stafford, who has a very successful career in showbusiness, has been informed he has inherited four children who were the grandchildren of a childhood friend. Stafford lives in Maui with his wife Agnes. one of several homes they own in different states. Stafford is shocked since he does not know these kids or the father of the kids who is the son of Bobby his friend who has been deceased for years.
Now the book goes back in time when Stafford and Bobby were kids in Canada. they has their ups and downs as friends. we see them as kids in the book. The Golden boy meanders around a lot in this book which can be a bit annoying at least to me. Stafford does decide to fly to Canada to meet the kids he never knew existed. this is a good book for the most part. I wish it had not gone all over the place but a good story. I would give this a 3.5.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I’m a sucker for family sagas and I did like a lot about this one that meanders all the way from small town Canada to LA to Hawaii and back to Canada again.

There is childhood trauma (little t and big T) involved for most of the characters and the trauma underlies much of the “plot” and the behaviors of the characters.

Sometimes the story’s meandering is a bit distracting especially when the author gets wrapped up in lengthy descriptions about weather and such.

At times the meandering gets the reader to wondering where is this all going? There is an underlying connection/structure to ancient philosophy and personal histories repeat themselves. It feels as if the author has tossed out a jigsaw puzzle onto a table and then manages to put the puzzle pieces back together first slowly and then suddenly. The ending feels just a bit quick and too neatly fit and highly improbable. Also, confusing? What exactly was the lineage of this family? I wanted to see it all mapped out somewhere but wondered if it was deliberately convoluted.

All that said, I was rooting for everyone in the story. I loved the joke where Stafford corrects Agnes’s grammar and she reminds him she has a gun and they both laugh. 😊

(And I was happy about the swimming lessons and time in the water for the kids. Water is so healing…)

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks for the advance read. I enjoyed the story and always enjoy a new author. Good luck with the book

It is not often that I am less than a hundred pages into a book, and so enthralled by the writing that I check to see if the author has more books for me to read. I was shocked to learn that this was Patricia Finn’s debut into the fiction world, and just know that I will be first in line to get this book in physical copy and to read anything else written by the author. This book was a journey, a complex world of characters and family and history. I cried, I gasped, I had the full reading experience including staying up late to read because I couldn’t stop thinking about this book. The prose is beautiful, with wonderful descriptions. The dialogue is unlike most, but when I connected it to the way you would read dialogue for TV it all made sense. In some books ongoing exposition and information about the past can feel mundane, but not here. As we travel through the events of the current day, we also learn about the past and I’m left wanting more from both. If I could give this 6 stars I would. Thank you so so much to the publisher for the e-arc, I truly feel changed by this book and can’t wait to share it with everyone.