Blog Tour - Spotlight, Guest Post & Giveaway: Golden by Melinda Michaels

Golden
by Melinda Michaels

March 24, 2015

223 pages

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Goodreads Summary:

High school senior Hanna Loch just suffered a blackout in front of her entire homeroom class. She hasn’t had one in over ten years, and she’s terrified—the last time she blacked out, she woke up with no memory of her life before. To make matters worse, no one can explain why it happens. For Hanna, bad things tend to come in threes.

 

And that doesn’t even begin to cover it . . .

 

When she learns she could be a descendant of someone who lived once upon a time, Hanna must put her trust in William Vann, a descendant of one of the most hated villains ever known. Their histories are intertwined in more ways than she expected, and he has answers about her past, answers even her family won’t share.

 

But is it safe to put her trust in someone who appears to be danger reincarnate, while trying to escape the darkness that tried to kill her ten years ago?

 

A loose fairytale retelling, GOLDEN is a story that’s just right, weaving together lost secrets, vengeful enemies, and what happens when fiction becomes reality.

Melinda Michaels on the Retelling of Fairytales in a Modern World

 

I may have a touch of animosity towards fairytales.

Prince Charming is perhaps the most troublesome idea ingrained into our psyches since childhood. I believe the majority of us have been told that one day, when we grow up, we’ll meet the famed Prince Charming who will love everything about us. He’ll be handsome, strong and adore everything about us because we are perfect princesses. Sure, marriage might not have worked for your parents or your friends parents, but they aren’t you. You are special and one day when you least expect it, true love will happen.

Except that it doesn’t. Relationships don’t just happen to us and no two people have ever thought of the same happy ending. Which is good, because how boring would that be? But, I think a lot of the time we can be a bit blind when it comes to how we perceive how relationships ought to be, and how they actually work.

I’ve always loved fairytales, I still do, but I the way we interrupted them can be dangerous sometimes. When the damsel in distress is in trouble, it’s the outside world that is happening to her and there’s nothing to be done except wait. I think in a modern world, it’s more of the internal obstacles that we must face and overcome before we allow ourselves to be happy. The wicked stepmother could be the insecurities we have about ourselves. The fire-breathing dragon could be our fear of loving someone and trusting them. The poison apples are our daily dose of selfishness that must all be put aside so that the princess and Prince Charming can live happily ever after, because no one just ends up living happily ever after. It takes time and hard work and even then we may not be fully aware of how happy we are because it’s not what we expected it to be. Our expectations are sometimes so high that we can’t see all the wonderful things we have and can accomplish by our own grit.

Golden is a retelling of Goldilocks. The original fairytale had a moral that our actions can hurt others and we must practice self-control. I agree of course and think that it’s a great lesson to teach especially in the modern world. Yet, I don’t think that it has evolved with us, nor have the heroes. The princess and Prince Charming always end up living happily ever after. Why wouldn’t they? The author has finished the story and the characters live an eternity in a blissful suspension. Yet, ever mythology, ever legend ever fairytale is based off of a true story that inspired a writer to create. I wanted to write a story that explained how they came to be, how happily ever after takes work, and how the beloved characters of our fairytales aren’t always what they seem to be.

I may have animosity towards Prince Charming, but it isn’t his fault. I believe if we all read those fairytales and applied them to our lives, really tried to incorporate them, we would gain a new appreciation for them and learn from them, just like when we were kids.


About Melinda Michaels:
Melinda Michaels is the author of Golden and currently lives in Milford, Pennsylvania. A self-proclaimed historian with a rare sense of humor, Melinda finds an immense amount of joy in knowing useless facts, exploring historical places and drinking copious amounts of coffee. When she’s not writing she can be found researching obscured time periods for her own amusement or refurbishing old furniture.

Melinda loves Philadelphia and visits often to enjoy the city with her husband Andrew. Together they have three rambunctious pets. Archie the Beagle, Winston the Boston Terrier and Beatrice the cat.

Golden is the first in a Young Adult magic realism series.

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