Good as Gold by Candace Buford

e-Audio, 08:51:33
Narrated by: Grace Capeless
Release Date: June 6. 2023
Published by: Disney Hyperion
Read from: June 6-7, 2023
Stand-alone
Source: Netgalley (I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the Publisher in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
TW: Gun Violence, Racism, Toxic Friendship, Classism
For Readers Interested In: Contemporary, Coming of Age, Realistic Fiction, Treasure Hunt, YA

    Fans of Netflix’s Outer Banks will devour this contemporary YA novel with a propulsive mystery about one girl’s search for her town’s legendary sunken treasure in order to clear her family’s name and save her future.
     Some treasures are meant to stay buried . . .
     Casey’s life in Langston has been charmed. She’s the queen bee of her prep school, a shoe-in for prom queen, and on her way to the Ivy League come fall. She can’t wait to leave the whole town of Langston behind her. That is until her father loses his job and she finds herself on the brink of losing her ticket out of town.
     The town of Langston is known for its picturesque lake and robust summer tourism. Everyone who lives in town has heard the rumors at some point– there is a treasure buried deep below the surface that no one has ever been able to find. Few people actually believe in the treasure, and even fewer have searched for it. But some have tried . . .
     Suddenly an outcast from her popular squad, Casey falls in with a new group of friends who are exactly the opposite of her usual crowd, but are more accepting. Together they devise a plan to find the elusive treasure, in a quest to get the money and save Casey’s family and her future. But what they find is much more complicated than just a pile of gold. With thrilling twists and turns and high stakes adventure, fans of Outer Banks will devour this summer adventure.

*MY THOUGHTS*

I NEVER in my wildest dreams expected to read something like this. I’m going to learn to stop going into books blind. I had no idea what was going on or where this was going. But I think that made it so much better. I liked it a lot more that way.

So the cool thing about this was the treasure hunt. I just wish there was more information on what happened and what was going on in the back story. Even if it was just like giving some chapters from the past or something. I just wish it hadn’t been so much focus on Casey, but moreso the town. Don’t get me wrong, we DO get that information, BUT it’s like at the end once everything is already done. I would have wanted all this earlier. I just felt like not knowing would have been the reason I said naw and just wouldn’t care anymore lol That’s just me tho.

I thought her trying to figure it out would somehow make this repetitive. But it wasn’t. It was actually more thrilling? I guess it felt that way because I knew her parents were in a crunch because of the money thing. And then once things started really going, and they tried all these different things that damn near got them killed? Yeah it was weird as hell and not what I was expecting AT ALL. But because of that it definitely made for good entertainment.

The characters were ok, but let me tell you Casey was annoying. I CANNOT STAND people who hate you until they need you. And that was her. Her nose was always stuck so far in the air and then when things happened with her family and she was shunned (without being actually shunned) from her “friends” the people she was so rude to were the people she needed. Proving that they were never really her friends. I just wish she could have realized it before she did.

I don’t really want to say anything else because I don’t really want to give spoilers, but like this weird ass mystery thriller about hunting for gold is pretty cool. There’s a romance that is in my honest opinion unnecessary because it had nothing to do with furthering this plot, but it was still for a reason in the end. I just didn’t think it had anything to do but further the plot. Because what should have happened was that person telling her don’t you remember how you acted toward me?! But I digress.

Overall, I give this