About 100 pages in and really enjoying this...author makes the characters come alive and I LOVE she didn't resort to the time shift thing to fill us in on the past, but makes it part of the story as you go along. Might not have read this, but our club won copies from Book Movement!

When you hear about catastrophic events in the news caused by a single individual or two I've often wondered what happens to the families of these individuals. How do they cope? How do they feel? How do they deal with the notoriety from their son or daughter, sister or brother? What happens to their lives? These people left behind are victims too. Their lives torn apart. They are never the same just as the actual victims.

I won ten copies of this book for my book club on BookMovement.com The author sent me a sweet note with the box of books and I told her we would read the book and give her an honest review.

Collectively we gave this book a 4.08 star rating out of 5 stars. It was pretty well received. The author did a good job letting us "feel" many sides of an unbearable horrifying situation to be thrust into.

Some of the comments from book club members:

All members: We LOVED the short chapters. Something about short chapters made us all feel that we were conquering the book at a rapid pace. A few members felt the book was a little too "wordy" but even they agreed it moved along quickly.

Member: I loved the story. It kept my interest the entire time.

Member: I felt some of the present-past didn't transition well.

All members: There were a few major parts that weren't sewn up as well as we would've liked. We would've liked to have known what happened in some of the major plot points at the end. I don't want to give anything away so I won't give details. LOL I will be more specific in the email I send to the author.

Overall, we felt this was an impressive read. We felt she effectively showed us different sides to a very complex situation. Depending upon what we "brought to the table" we sided with different characters in the story. What a thrill to win and really enjoy the prize!

I've had GOLDEN STATE hiding in my bookcase since 2015. I forgot about it. But now I've finally read it and can only wonder why I haven't heard more about Stephanie Kegan, this wonderful writer who I just discovered, since then. She seems so thoughtful and perceptive about her characters, and what a character study this book is!

Kegan's main character, Natalie, is a teacher, happily married to lawyer Eric. They have two daughters. They live in California, she has always lived there, her father was a California politician, and her ancestors were involved in California's development. But she's just realized that her brother, Bobby, may be a criminal, the "California bomber," responsible for seven deaths.

GOLDEN STATE is an examination of these families, Bobbie's mental health problems that are obvious now, the possible signs they chose not to see, and the damage this ordeal may be causing to Natalie's immediate family and to her marriage. From the time Natalie brings her suspicions to Eric's attention to the final verdict, the reader lives inside Natalie's head, sees and remembers everything from her point of view. I felt for her to the point that I was nervous when she was. You may wonder, how did Kegan imagine all this, because it sounds so real, like she really does know.

If you haven't read this almost-10-year-old book yet, do. It isn't out of date. But I do wonder why I haven't been able to learn anything current about Kegan. I want her to write another book.