<title>The Golden Season
<author>Madeline Kay Sneed
<description>Emmy Quinn is West Texas through and through: her roots run deep in the sleepy small town of Steinbeck, where God sees all and football is king. She loves her community, but she knows that when she comes out as a lesbian, she may not be able to call Steinbeck—which is steeped in the Southern Baptist tradition—home anymore.

After a disastrous conversation with her dad, Emmy meets Cameron, a charismatic, whip-smart grad student from Massachusetts who hates everything Texas. But Texas is in Emmy's blood. Can she build a future with a woman who can't accept the things that make Emmy who she is?

Steve Quinn has just been offered his dream job as head coach of the struggling high school football team, the Steinbeck 'Stangs. The board thinks he can win them a state championship for the first time—but they tell him he can’t accept the position if he's got any skeletons in his closet. Steve is still wrestling with Emmy's coming-out: he loves his daughter, but he’s a man of faith, raised in the Baptist community. How can God ask him to choose between his dreams and his own daughter?

This lush, gorgeously written debut is a love letter to the places we call home and asks how we grapple with a complicated love for people and places that might not love us back—at least, not for who we really are. The Golden Season is a powerful examination of faith, queerness and the deep-seated bonds of family, and heralds the arrival of a striking new voice in fiction.

<review>I remember getting to the end of this book and thinking this was a memoir. This genuinely speaks to the skill of author @madzsneed as she’s able to craft a story that generates such strong emotion from her reader, that it seems like she must have lived it in order to write so beautifully.
Our main character, Emmy, has a complicated relationship with her parents after she comes out as a lesbian…in Texas, where church and football are the driving forces in every community. Emmy has always been close with her parents, but especially her father, Steve, and football has been something they always shared. Steve gets the opportunity of a lifetime and chooses his career as a football coach over mending his troubled relationship with Emmy. It absolutely breaks your heart.
Meanwhile Emmy enters her first adult relationship with a woman named Cameron, who hates everything Texas except for Emmy. Cameron quickly drops to the bottom of my list as she starts being overly controlling of Emmy and her friendships. I really appreciated that the relationship between Emmy and Cameron isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.
Proceed with caution as there are some triggering elements in this novel. That being said, it is a great book and I highly recommend you read it.

As a Texan, we need more LGBTQIA stories shown in this state! I loved the perspectives provided throughout this story - really made you think!

A touching examination of the conflict that can occur when two seemingly disparate parts of a person's identity overlap, as well as the peace and resolution that can be found on the other side.

This story is thoughtful and impacting. Emmy Quinn is born and raised in the small West Texas town of Steinbeck. Emmy is a daddy’s girl and life at home revolves around football as her father is an assistant high school coach. Before returning to her senior year in college and the future marketing job awaiting her she decides to tell her dad her secret which he cannot accept. The book follows the year switching interestingly between Emmy and her fathers POVs.

Emmy’s story follows her back to college where she finds her first girlfriend and has to face the consequences and fall out from that in her conservative college. Her father gets his opportunity to be head coach and has put together a team that can potentially win state. But any scandal in his family can cost him his dream job. Religion plays a big part in the story too for both of the main characters. Their faith is important to them. I enjoyed the book and my heart broke at actions excused as being righteousness. It was a thoughtful read, and although there is a romance as part of the story it isn’t a HEA. It is appropriately promoted as general fiction. Thank you to NetGalley and harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Want a story that will stay with you long after you finish it? It's been about two weeks since I've finished this book, and I know it will be on my list of favorite 2022 reads at the end of the year.

This is a tender, bittersweet, and richly evocative story of a young woman's self-discovery and navigation into young adulthood. It's also an incredibly poignant story about loving a place that doesn't always love you back, and loving people that hurt you.

Sneed brilliantly brings to life small-town Texas life and football culture, both the good and the bad. Having lived in Texas for a few years, her description of hot Texas days and the relief of fall brought me back!

Librarians/booksellers: This would be a great book club pick!

Many thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing/Graydon House and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.