The story features three women during the 1960's, living in the golden age of sunshine and surf where women were a minority in the sport of surfing. It describes a carefree time yet a time of chaos featuring the Vietnam War, drugs, communes, free love and going against the establishment. Carol, the mother, is a surfer and never wanted to be a mother to her two daughters, Mindy and Ginger. So Mindy decides to have "the Plan" that she and Ginger would enter their mother's world of surfing to show her that she needs them and to find value. While Mindy catches the surfing bug, Ginger struggles. Ginger, sadly self-destructive, always struggles as she feels deserted and unloved by everyone, to the point that she eventually gravitates to an abusive relationship where he possesses her, telling her how to live, how to think. Mindy breaks away from her neglected childhood with the desire to be "real' to be regular. The story travels time back and forth, sharing the POV amongst the three women. But with three characters, each story was too diluted to make a difference. It's not a happy story, there is abuse, drugs, love lost, neglect, racism, family disfunction at its finest. but the story kept me reading until it just ended, not satisfactory at all. It just ended leaving the reader confused with no resolution to the story. I'm not sure that I could recommend this book as one that is a 'You've got to read this", or even for book clubs to discuss. It was just okay.
Many thanks to #netgalley, #californiagolden #melaniebenjamin for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This book is both a historical novel and a portrait of a dysfunctional family. It's set primarily in the 1950s and 60s, about sisters Mindy and Ginger and their neglectful mother Carol who'd rather surf than pay attention to them - so they take up surfing too. The book goes from the time no one knows about surfing, to the surf-crazy early 60s Gidget/Beach Boys era, to the drugs and hippies of the late 60s and even to the Vietnam war. But throughout, it's also about the very complex relationships between the sisters, and between them and their mother.

This book does a great job of painting a picture of an era and making you really see the scenes cinematically, with shades of Malibu Rising (for the surfing and family dynamics), and Mrs. Everything (for tracking a family through various historical eras). What I struggled with a bit was the somewhat unlikability of the characters - they're all kind of selfish damaged people and make some decisions that are just hard to accept, although I do think they make sense for their characters. I also felt like the end could have done a little more to pull everything together.

I've read all seven of Melanie Benjamin's books, and I think this one has many of the same elements of the others - she is really great at finding interesting historical stories and bringing them to life well, and she also seems to really like complex not always sympathetic characters (though this one is about fictional characters, unlike many of her others). However, she also often produces books I admire more than love. I did really like this one though, and obviously I am nonetheless a devoted fan and will keep reading everything she writes.

3.75 stars

Kickin’ off #BookstaReviewWeek with one of my favorite reads of September based purely on those deliciously serendipitous right place, right time vibes.

✨California Golden by Melanie Benjamin✨
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

There is no better time to read California Golden then when you’ve just boarded the plane for your first ever visit to the golden state for a book club retreat!

Melanie Benjamin’s latest historical fiction novel transports readers back to the 60s with a splash as two sisters learn to surf the waves with their legendary surfer mama. It’s not all fun in the sun for Mindy and her younger sister Ginger as they are literally left to grow up alone, and eventually as teens their lives diverge. Mindy who has a natural talent to surf finds herself becoming a celebrity, while Ginger is tugged into the undercurrent of the growing counterculture of drugs and cults. The two sisters’ worlds collide occasionally and are forever connected by the emotional damage that rocked their childhoods.

The way Benjamin weaves the sisters’ narratives allows readers to be fully submerged in California culture during a highly turbulent time in the US. I found it to be a page-turning, vibrantly-set, emotionally-fueled story about three women trying to stay afloat on their boards as wave after wave kept trying to crash upon them. It’s the quintessential summertime read and made me want to grab a board, find a beach, and break some waves.

Thank you to the publisher for the opportunity to read & review this book.

I really enjoy being taken back in time when life seemed simpler. That was definitely the case with this one. I enjoyed diving in the sun kissed world of surfing, something I also wondered about living in a land locked state. The story was easy to read and made you fall in the love with the characters, flaws and all.

As a child born in the 60’s, I was not as aware of the culture of that time period. The author does a great job of describing the love scene, the carefree lifestyle, surfing, drug use, cults, and the lack of responsibility for many aspects of a person’s life. My heart was touched by Mindy and Ginger and the fact that their mother was not a parent in the real sense of the word. Well written and full of raw emotion. This is one to put on your to-be-read list.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for my advanced review copy. All opinions and thoughts are my own.

For more reviews, please visit my blog at: https://www.msladybugsbookreviews.com/. Over 1000 reviews posted!

California Golden
California Golden weaves together the lives of three women drawn together by blood and water, salt water. Carol Donelly is the original surfer girl in the 60s. She lives for the next wave and doesn’t care that she is an outcast at home, where society believes a woman’s place is at home raising babies, or in the surf community, where she is the only female. She finds herself married with two daughters and still trying to hold onto her dreams. Can she be a good mother? Can she be a top surfer? Can she do both, or will her worlds crash in on her like the waves she treasures? Melanie Benjamin’s story of the Donelly girls set in the young surf scene of the 60s entwines an entertaining story with a lens into an interesting sliver of the past.

California back in the golden #gidget days! Yes, there are beach boys, music, bikini-clad surfer girls, vw wagons ….but also the dark side of drugs, irresponsible parents, abusive boyfriends, racism…. It was easy to sink into the 1960s with this story of one practically perfect sister taking care of her self-absorbed mother and wacked out sister! And I loved the surfing stories!

This is a fascinating book. We learn about the beginning of surf culture in the US , and the story takes us from Malibu CA , to the west shore of Oahu, Vietnam during the war, Laguna, and back to Malibu.
However, at its heart is a dysfunctional family.

Carol is an athlete who’s a talented softball player, she is anxiously awaiting word from the Girls Professional Baseball League inviting her to tryouts in Chicago.

Her parents are pushing her to get married but she’s not interested. She meets a guy and he gets her pregnant, accordingly they married but Carol mourned the loss of her dreams. One day at the beach she sees surfing and becomes famous once she masters it.

Her two girls, Mindy and Ginger , think of all sorts of things to do so mommy doesn’t leave them. Mindy turns out to be as talented a surfer as her mom, while Ginger goes a different way entirely. It’s interesting to them make them way through LA in the 60s and beyond.

I feel an affinity for this book because I live near Malibu and know exactly the places they talk about. Zuma Beach looks pretty much the way it used to back then, it’s easy to imagine the Donnelly girls out on the waves. 4.5 stars.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed as in this review are completely my own.

I loved Melanie's style of writing. It was fun to keep up with while tackling some deeper issues like childhood trauma. This book lets you see how people's pasts shapes who they are and the choices they make in life. I enjoyed the time period and think they did a great job incorporating the world as a whole into the book while still being a fun beach/summer book.

I first want to thank Melanie Benjamin and NetGalley for this ARC eBook edition.

Beach boys, sunshine and rock and roll vibes! Story is about a mother and her two daughters. The mom is a surfer and not a good mother at all. Her girls are neglected and forgotten. Thrown to the side for surfing. The girls are afraid that their mother is going to leave them. So they come up with a plan to be surfers. One can surf and one cant. Story flows well. One daughter has a more successful life than the other since she kind of ran off with bad boy. It was a good book and I highly recommend it.

Melanie Benjamin is one of my favorite authors. I so enjoyed reading California Golden. Happy reading!

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

Wow. California Golden was so evocative of a precise slice of American and Cali culture in the sixties, particularly surf life. You can almost hear The Beach Boys playing in the background as you read, as well as the darker tones of The Doors. I love reading about this time of change in my nation, with the joy of great music and the sorrow of emerging drug culture and the tainting of innocence. Great read!

California Golden by Melanie Benjamin was a good way for me to say goodbye to summer. This book pays homage to California summers in the 1960s with its sweeping picturesque views. I watched Gidget when I was a kid and this book had many Gidget moments. I enjoyed reading about the relationship between the sisters as well as their mother and the paths forged by each. Some of my favorite moments were the references to historical events which walked parallel to the events of the plot.

I received a review copy of this book from the author/publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Good historical account of the surf culture in the mid-to-late 1960s. Sisters Mindy and Ginger grew up on the beaches of California with their almost non-existent surfing mother and their father who ups one day and abandons them. The two girls manage to take care of each other during their adolescent years, until one day, they lose each other along the way. Mindy gets caught up in the glitter of Hollywood, while Ginger takes up with a group of surfing drug runners.

This was a good character-driven story. If you like stories set in California, or stories set in the turbulent 60's, then you will love this one!!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book via Netgalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Would recommend for fans of…
🏄‍♀️ Malibu Rising
🏄‍♀️ Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
🏄‍♀️ Bad Times at the El Royale

I was a big historical fiction reader as a kid, but as I’ve grown older I’ve largely replaced that genre with thrillers and romances. But, over the past couple of years, I’ve realized that I love reading stories set in the 60s and 70s (thanks, Daisy Jones!). There’s just something about everything that happened in that era that makes for some great storytelling.

California Golden is a great story weaving a decades-long tale about surf culture in the region with the personal triumphs and pitfalls of the Donnelly women – Carol, the mother, and Ginger and Mindy, her two daughters – as they ride the waves.

I loved California Golden so much! One of the best things about this book is that it has a little bit of everything in it, from celebrity and music to cults and fashion. It’s built like an elaborately constructed cake, with layer upon layer building into an incredible final product that is full of beauty and emotion. As I read, I kept thinking I knew where the story was heading, only to be served surprise after surprise, and realize these reveals had been teed up since the first page.

The emphasis on surfing and family genre begs for comparisons to Malibu Rising, and while both stories are excellent, I miiiiight like California Golden a little better. There’s just something about the way everything played out and how the story ended that will stay with me a little longer than Malibu.

California Golden is out now. Thanks to Delacorte Press and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you love the 60s and 70s and find yourself toggling between Patti Smith, Joan Didion, and Taylor Jenkins Reid, then this book is for you.

California Golden is a beautifully written and engrossing novel that captures the spirit of the 1960s California surf scene.

Benjamin does an excellent job of weaving together the stories of sisters and the challenges they face as they navigate the turbulent waters of the 1960s.

The character development in this story is impeccable. I loved them, I hated them. I think a great story can make you feel numerous ways an outer characters even when those feelings oppose each other. The historical setting was really well done. It was very well researched and felt all encapsulating. Overall, I loved this book and would recommend it to others looking to read historical fiction or a good character centric novel.

A great read. I read it in one day. Couldn't put it down. Very well written, well researched. Melanie Benjamin did a wonderful job on this historical fiction (1944 to 1980's) of family, love, craziness, selfishness, forgiveness. A real page turner. Descriptions of the time frame and places couldn't of been more perfect.

In 1960's California, Carol Donnelly lives to surf. Her young daughters, Mindy and Ginger, start surfing as a way to get closer to their inattentive mother. Mindy becomes a champion, later doing surf movies and a USO tour, while Ginger gets involved in a cult.

I wanted to read this novel because I love the 1960's setting, and found the California beach life interesting as well.

The book is told from alternating points of view - mostly Mindy, but some Ginger and a smaller section on Carol. I found Mindy a sympathetic character - she does everything she can to get close to her mother and to also look out for Ginger when they are young girls. I had some frustration with Ginger, who makes some self destructive choices. Carol, also, is not a very likable character - although the chapters about her earlier life give more details on her background, growing up as a very athletic, driven girl in a time when this wasn't encouraged.

I found this a leisurely read, and of course perfect for summer. I would recommend it for fans of historical fiction, and especially for anyone interested in 1960's California surfing.

First and foremost I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this novel. Thank you!

What I loved the most about this novel is how the family “curse” of being a parent and how hard it is is so relevant. There were times where I could relate to the main character’s decisions when it came to her mother, sister and love interest

This is a very good story if you are rooting for the underdog and wanting to break generational curses.