Golden State cover art

Golden State

A Novel

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Try for £0.00
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Golden State

By: Michelle Richmond
Narrated by: Käthe Mazur
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Dr. Julie Walker wakes on a summer morning in San Francisco to find a city in chaos. Today Californians are voting on a controversial ballot initiative that will change history. With the future of the state and the nation uncertain, the streets have erupted into violence.

Injured, Julie must make her way across the city by foot to the Veterans Administration Hospital, where her sister, recently returned from Afghanistan, is in labor. At the hospital a brutal scene is unfolding as a man who shares an intimate past with Julie begins to take his revenge. Throughout the ordeal Julie's estranged husband, desperate for reconciliation, sends out coded messages from the radio station where he is the well-known Voice of Midnight.

Five years in the making, Golden State is both a political thriller and a meditation on marriage, love, and loyalty. Like The Year of Fog, it is a page-turner with a philosophical bent.

©2014 Michelle Richmond (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Contemporary Contemporary Romance Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Romance Romantic Suspense Women's Fiction Suspense Emotionally Gripping Hospital City
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Year of Fog cover art
A Thousand Doors cover art
All the Lasting Things cover art
'Round Midnight cover art
All the Things We Never Knew cover art
Schroder cover art
Suddenly cover art
The Condition cover art
The Clock Keeper cover art
The Marriage Pact cover art
Smoke cover art
This Bright Beauty cover art
Into the Wilderness cover art
14 cover art
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants cover art
The Very First Damned Thing cover art

Critic reviews

"Nearly every feature of this mesmerizing novel is provocative, as Richmond explores the fragmented, hopeful lives of complex characters... Gripping, multilayered, must-read fiction." ( Library Journal)
"Mesmerizing and intricate, Richmond's dissection of a California on the violent brink of secession from the nation provides the backdrop to her deeper inspection of the uneasy, fragile relationship between siblings...[a] riveting read." ( Booklist)

What listeners say about Golden State

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    27
  • 4 Stars
    12
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    30
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    24
  • 4 Stars
    11
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

original and heartfelt

I liked this story a lot, beautiful prose and an interesting backstory, give it a go!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

intriguing

wasn't sure what to expect, and thought about giving in, but I'm glad I didn't, on reflection an intriguing story

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

pleasantly surprised by this book

it's definitely an easy read and there's nothing I would say was amazing about it but I finished it which always tells me that at least for me it was a good book. it was very engaging and I find it so interesting reading about marriage and family that's in a very personalised way.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Couldn’t get into it

Came to this book after The Marriage Pact and left disappointed. Too much going on but not coherent and I felt like I was missing too much. Didn’t connect with the story and only finished it as didn’t want to waste the time I’d already spent

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Surprisingly good

I was fully engaged with this story. It was full of emotional intelligence and characters who grew over the years. Never read this author before but I will find other works she’s written.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Golden State

That has to have been the mother of all bad days!

Overall I liked this book well enough. There was just too much going on though.
I think it would have been better without the political backdrop and the strange hostage storyline. If it had just been about the marriage, the child and the sister, that would have been enough. Those were the strongest parts anyway.
I assume that the author was trying to make a bigger point, bringing everything together but you can make the point just with the main stories and a bit of subtlety.

In saying all of that, there weren't so many things that you lose track of what's going on. It's well written and easy to follow. The book examines some very poignant and complicated elements within different types of relationships.
It held my attention until the end. (Well until the resolution of the hostage situation at least - after that it got a little annoying!)

The narrator did a decent enough job. Often when narrator's need to convey a character as being upset they tend to overact a bit, but even though this narrator did do this a bit, I mostly believed it when she did it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable

An interesting tale of one woman told over the period of one day. Emotionally rounded and believable characters. Worth a listen as there is so much going on to keep you moving forward.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very enjoyable

I simply liked the way the story was built. The narration was absolutely spot on!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story

I really enjoyed this; it’s a great story, with loads of adjoining stories. The writing is such that you understand and empathise with all the characters and their emotions. An addictive listen, that couldn’t wait to get back to each time I had to turn it off.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

A very long story - not a page turner

Whilst I enjoyed the first book i read by this writer, this one is bland in comparison, and after 9 gruelling hours i still don't know why the general state of unrest was in the city, it could have been cut down to half the size of book and possibly better because of it.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!