I love books set in this era and this did not disappoint. I literally felt like I was at the beach looking out at the waves.

We meet Mindy and Ginger, whose father walked away and their mother Carol has no desire to be a mother. She would rather surf all day. She pulls them out of school often to surf with her.

I had a pretty strong dislike for Carol, but did like that we got her entire point of view near the end of the book. I don't feel it makes anything she did okay, but it did help me to understand why she was the way she was.

Ginger was a hot mess. She wanted love so badly that she thought she was getting it from a man who mistreated her. She seemed stuck in childhood wanting someone to care for and love her.

Mindy was probably my favorite character. She wasn't always likeable. But she was real and y ou couldn't help but cheer her on. She was stronger than Ginger, but tended to push away love rather than embrace it. She was so driven to succeed, to not live the way her mother did, that she almost didn't have room for anything else in her life. Both sisters were clearly damaged by their upbringing. I did enjoy her choices later in life!

I enjoyed this book and will check out more from this author.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing - Ballantine (Delacorte Press) for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Carol is a star of Southern California surfing but at what cost to her daughters Mindy and Ginger? Set initially in the 1950s and following the women through to the 1980s, this is a story of a family. A family fractured by aspirations. Mindy and Ginger must come to terms with the fact that they will not achieve what Carol has- but what has Carol really achieved? It's an interesting portrait of the era, surfing culture, and Southern California. You'll find yourself rooting for the women at different points and for different reasons. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. A very good read based on real life.

I don’t read much historical fiction, so when I was approached to receive an arc of this book I was hesitant. I loved Malibu Rising (because of TJR’s writing) and California Golden shares a lot of similar vibes to it. They are both family oriented, have surfing culture and are set in a different time period. I learned more about the 60s, and it wasn’t just the peace and hippy tones you imagine. I thought Melanie’s writing style was wonderful, and it was almost a 4.5 stars from me. There was a couple of things that happened near the end of the book with the characters making bad decisions that dropped my rating down. Overall it was a solid great and captivating read!

California Golden follows the point of views of three family members, mom Carol and her two daughters while growing up, Mindy and Ginger from the 1950s until 1980. The setting is set in California early surf culture. Carol is a distant mom who never wanted to start a family, therefore has a difficult relationship with her daughters. Mindy is athletic and loves surfing, but things don’t go as planned with a career in surfing. Ginger is not a natural surfer, dependent on her good looks who ends up in toxic relationship. It is an emotional and tempestuous journey for the three of them throughout life.

While I still prefer Malibu Rising to California Golden, I think California Golden is worth the read! It just happens to be an Aardvark subscription box pick for August. If you are interested in joining let me know so I can get a referral credit!

Thank you NetGalley and Randomhouse Publishing Group for the advance reader copy in exchange for a review! The publishing date is soon, this Tuesday, August 8.

Okay, so… I want to start this review with a note for readers that this novel is very (VERY) loosely inspired by Marge Calhoun and her two daughters, Candy, and Robin. These three were real, champion female surfers back during the 50s and 60s, and they actually achieved quite a bit, despite the misogyny of the times. According to Benjamin’s author’s notes, a photograph of the three of them was what inspired her to write this novel. However, because everything else about these characters is strictly from the imagination of the author, I’m not calling this biographical fiction. I am, however, including romance in the other categories because there is quite a bit of romance in this book. Mind you, it is closer to PG rated than R, and since surfing (and just surviving) seems to be the main goals of these women, and not finding the loves of their lives, this wasn’t too much of a problem for me.

Admittedly, this isn’t my favorite of Benjamin’s novels, and that romance could very well be part of the reason for this. Also, while I have a touch of a problem with anything that takes place as recently as the 70s or 80s as ‘historical’ I’ll not argue the point. Even so, I do find books with timelines during my own lifetime to be a touch less compelling than those that are set in eras before I was born. Despite this, there are some more… shall we call them modern historical books that can blow me away (i.e., Daisy Jones & the Six). Furthermore, as I recently revealed to my followers of this blog, I hate summer. Add to that my total revulsion for the beach and great dislike of the sea (both of which I find I can only enjoy as a view from the top of a very high mountain), and you might wonder why I kept reading this book after finding out the settings. But you see, I know that I’m going to have an interesting story when Benjamin is writing the novel.

And yes, Benjamin did deliver with this book, giving us three very fascinating women, who are both very different from one another, while in some ways, very much the same. I should note that in the beginning of the book, I did have a bit of confusion between Mindy and Ginger – for some reason, I kept mixing them up. I’m thinking that the reason was that in my mind, the name Ginger seemed a tad more mature than the name Mindy, but I’m sure that’s just me. However, once I got them straight, this book really started to take off for me. These aren’t simple characters, they’re very complex and flawed, which is always a good thing for me. We can easily see how they get in their own ways, and do things that make their lives harder, when we see choices that they could have made that might have had the opposite effect. Also, we can see when they had no choices, and followed the only paths ahead, sometimes for the good, and sometimes for the bad.

I also found it interesting that when we were just past half the book, Benjamin decides to shift the focus of the book from the daughters, to Carol, in order to give us her backstory. I found this to be a mechanic that I prefer to when an author jumps back and forth between the timelines. I did wonder why she did this instead of starting with Carol to begin with, and then continuing on to Mindy and Ginger. However, I did discover why Benjamin did this near the end of Carol’s story, and it made sense. However, it did also take me by surprise, and I’m wondering if it prevented me from more closely connecting to these women. In any case, it really is a very good read, and perfect for reading on the beach. I hope you don’t mind that I preferred to read it at the top of my hill on my balcony, far from any waters’ edge! I’m therefore recommending it, with a solid four out of five stars!

A beautiful story about the myriad aspects of mother-daughter relationships. Based against the backdrop of the California surfing scene of the 1960s, this novel is a clever blend of literary and historical fiction. Carol Donnelly dominated the Californian surfing scene at a time when it was clearly a men's sport. Following her footsteps are her daughters Mindy and Ginger. The coming of age storyline aptly highlights the unbreakable bonds between sisters, the hard choices women have to make to puruse their dreams and what it actually means to be a mother. The well-developed characters and unique storyline had me hooked from page one. Overall, a very entertaining heartwarming easy read.

Thank you Netgalley, Melanie Benjamin and Random House Ballantine for the ARC

Author Melanie Benjamin has written a compelling historical fiction account of the dark side of the California Dream post-WWII in CALIFORNIA GOLDEN. This is a tale of the-everything-seems-possible fiction that Southern California promoters sent out to the world through music, film, sports and literature. And this is the resulting dark underbody; the collision where anyone who didn’t quite fit the Hollywood mold fell into a different, darker trajectory. Two young sisters are nearly abandoned by their athletic, beautiful, surfing star of a mother. As they seek to make themselves over in her image, to attract her back, their lives diverge considerably from Gidget and Beach Blanket movies. This is a well-told tale of bigotry, frustration, fleeting success and endless struggle. The sisters’ relationship with each other and their difficult mother is fascinating and flawed, although difficult to put down. The entire book is an exquisite visit to a bygone era. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Thank you to Net Galley for the opportunity to read this ARC! I love a good California story and this did not disappoint, highly recommend for a summer weekend escape!

As much as I enjoy historical fiction, surprisingly this is the first Melanie Benjamin novel I’ve read. I did enjoy this, though I’m curious to read her other books set in earlier time periods—I think I might like them more. I’ve read several books about the sixties surfing culture in Hawaii, the cults, free love, etc. and I really enjoy them. California Golden was good, but I wouldn’t call it groundbreaking in this particular category. These characters, while sympathetic, were not likable at all and there were times when I struggled to care about them. Some of the more technical surfing language felt a bit unnecessary, but I think that’s just my preference. This book did do a good job of showing how difficult it is for a single mother to try to succeed at following her dreams, mainly because it showed what happens when she cares more about her dreams than her children. This isn’t a light, frothy beach read, but it’s good.

1960's California surf culture and the Vietnam War era are having a moment in the world of books, at least in my eyes. After reading and loving several novels set during this period, I was very excited to get hold of an advanced copy of California Golden by Melanie Benjamin, and the story of the Donnelly sisters and their mother, all surfers and flawed human beings, did not disappoint.

As much as the novel focused on the surfing life of these women, it is also the story of how mother-daughter relationships evolve and the sacrifices women make when they become wives and mothers. The book also tells how the relationship between the two sisters changed as the girls evolved and matured. Most of all, it was a tribute to the athleticism of women, and how during the 1940's, 50,s and 1960's, female athletes did not compete on a fair playing field.

While I could appreciate the need to relate what the events that occurred meant through Carol's (mother) eyes, the transition to her story late in the novel felt a bit abrupt and was initially confusing to me. It did not ruin my enjoyment, just jarred me a bit. Overall, the varying points of view and time jumps were smoothly transitioned.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Delacorte Press for the digital ARC of California Golden by Melanie Benjamin. The opinions in this review are my own.

With CALIFORNIA GOLDEN, Melanie Benjamin transported me to a time and place I have never known, but through her vivid, three-dimensional characters Mindy and Ginger and their lives as defined by a surfer goddess mother and hand-to-mouth survival and one another. I loved every moment of the story, so well-written, so achingly complex and totally relatable through smart love, bad choices, careers that implode and others that never get off the ground. I know nothing about surfing, was not in California during that golden and strange time of the 1960s and 1970s, but felt as if I knew those golden people with bright white smiles. Beautifully written, wonderfully exploring the tumult, triumphs, and terrible. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review. I'd rate this as a 3.5 - so rounded up to a 4. I thought it was well-written, and the relationship between Carol and her daughters was heart-breaking. I enjoyed several parts of this book, and the setting was so fun. However, some parts in the story were repetitious and made it too slow. I liked this book, but not my favorite.

#FirstLine - The surf giveth, and the surf taketh away—thus said the Surf God every morning, noon, and night in his church, which was the universe, the planet, California, the beach, the waves.

With its thrilling setting and emotional depth, readers can expect a captivating saga that delves into the challenges and triumphs faced by two sisters as they navigate their paths in life.

This was a captivating novel that shows us the not so glamorous surfing life during the 60's. I thought the author did a wonderful job of showing us how the surfing culture started in California and some of it's possible dark sides. The setting was unique for a historical fiction novel.

Mindy and Ginger took up surfing as girls to become closer to their detached mother who was always surfing. Mindy and Ginger often found themselves making their own way through life even as children. Their relationship with their mother had a profound affect on them through adulthood.

The novel also gives us glimpses of Hollywood, Vietnam and Hawaii. This is my third novel by the author and I appreciate reading about small parts of history that have become part of our known culture. I think this a great novel if interested in surfing, history and California. I would recommend it to most anyone who enjoys reading about history.

Thank you Netgalley.

This book is not light and fluffy. It's a raw look at how the surfing community really was during its height in the 1960s. There were many good times, sure. But there were downsides too, including drugs, alcohol, and homeless beach bums. There were surfing stars who were true athletes in every sense of the word. Movies shot on the beach that drew locals in the hopes they could be extras in those movies. The bonfires at night where friendships and relationships were born or died. Disappointment and envy as people simply tried to survive. This novel focuses on two sisters. Teenage daughters of a highly-skilled surfing star who now has a family she must be responsible for. Mindy and Ginger couldn't be any more different. One is lithe and athletic with ambitions of being a Hollywood star. One is pretty and naive, a follower, who depends on others to find her path. There are triumphs and heartaches for each of them, and how each navigates through their challenges and successes gives us a little insight (hindsight) into how our own lives might have been different based on how we handled our own situations. This book was a little bit slow at times, but I remained interested in how it would turn out nonetheless. I didn't like all of the characters. But that, for me, is a sign of a skilled storyteller. An author who can evoke many emotions, good and bad, is one whose work I want to read. Thank you to #Netgalley and #DelacortePress for my early copy. This book publishes Tuesday, August 8, 2023.

The Donnelly sisters raise themselves amid chaos and neglect in 1950's California sunshine, while their absentee mother Carol pursues independence and a single-minded love of sport, in the ocean. Then in the 60's big sister Mindy finds the stability she's always craved through commercial celebrity, but in the process loses track of her little sister Ginger, who replaces one unattainable idol (her mom) to another (abusive sociopath surfer Tom Riley).

History repeats itself as surfing draws the 3 Donnelly women to Hawaii, where they come across members of the instrumental Chu family. There were important messages here around family dysfunction, beauty and strength, romance and heartbreak. I liked the dichotomy of masculine and feminine power, and the emphasis on godliness associated with surfing; and I especially loved reading author Melanie Benjamin explaining in the Author's Note section her inspiration from a Marge Calhoun and her daughters Robin and Candy!

I thought this would be a book about California surf culture during the 1960s, and it was excellent in that regard. All the beach vibes - the smells, the sounds, the feels - were there. The relationship setup in the novel (a surfing mother and her two daughters) was really well-done, as the characters were distinct and artfully drawn. What I wasn't expecting - and thoroughly appreciated - was the attention to the larger themes of the 1960s: Vietnam, countercultural pressures, cults, and more. I also really liked the way themes of cultural appropriation were woven into the story. In short, this was a historical novel that hit all the notes and didn't pull punches about what happened to all three of the women at the center of the novel and yet still left me feeling the sun on my shoulders and smelling Coppertone wafting in the breeze.

𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒏𝒊𝒂 𝑮𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒏
🎁📚 4/5 🌟
This one started out a little slow for me but soon found its rhythm and I became hooked on this story of two sisters and their famous surfer mother, Carol. Based upon real people, but with fictionalized events, Benjamin takes her reader through the tumultuous 60s via the lens of a
misunderstood woman and the repercussions on her neglected daughters. Great read!! Many thanks to @netgalley, @melaniebenjamin_author and the publisher for the chance to preview this book in exchange for an honest review!

This story contained many elements and the author wove them together to create a compelling emotional novel. The writing is very atmospheric of the California surfing culture of the 60’s. It was a great beach read.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Carol Donnelly is a champion surfer, her daughters Mindy and Ginger grow up in sunny California but in the shadow of their mother’s ambition. When you think of 60’s surf culture in California, an image of The Beach Boys and glittering beaches is probably what comes to mind. Melanie Benjamin explores the darker side of surf culture in California Golden. Told in the point of views of Mindy, Ginger, and Carol, this is a sweeping historical fiction about women in surfing, Hawaiian cultural appropriation, the Vietnam war, racism, fame, drugs, cults, and motherhood. I loved the setting of this book. I loved Mindy but had a difficult time rooting for Ginger and Carol. It is all and all a pretty heartbreaking read. I would recommend if you are looking for a non-WWII historical fiction with a unique setting.

Thank you, Randomhouse and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC!

My Ratings:
Plot ★★★★
Reading Experience ★★★★
Characters ★★★
Writing Style ★★★★

Overall ★★★.75

⭐️⭐️⭐️
California Golden
By: Melanie Benjamin
Pub date: 8/8/23
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, Delacorte Press

This book is told in 3 different timelines. When Mindy and Gi get are teenagers, then their mother Carol’s surfing era and finally we move in to the 70’s.
Mindy and Ginger are desperate to please their mother. Carol is way more concerned about surfing than being a mother so both girls start surfing to gain a connection to their mom.
The girls are very different which shows more as they get older. Mindy takes to surfing and is really good at it. Ginger is more known as the pretty one and gets mixed up with a not so nice surfer.
Their lives are different directions, one sister heads towards fame and the other towards drugs and unplanned pregnancy. But in the end the sisters are always there for each other.

This book was slow moving for me. I felt like the plot was a mess but it did wrap up nicely.