We Are the Goldens by Dana Reinhardt

We Are the Goldens
by Dana Reinhardt
Released |May 27th 2014 by Wendy Lamb Books|
Edition |eARC|
Source |Netgalley|
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Nell knows a secret about her perfect, beautiful sister Layla. If she tells, it could blow their world apart.
When Nell and Layla were little, Nell used to call them Nellaya. Because to Nell, there was no difference between where she started and her adored big sister ended. They're a unit; divorce made them rely on each other early on, so when one pulls away, what is the other to do? But now, Nell's a freshman in high school and Layla is changing, secretive. And then Nell discovers why. Layla is involved with one of their teachers. And even though Nell tries to support Layla, to understand that she's happy and in love, Nell struggles with her true feelings: it's wrong, and she must do something about it.

We Are the Goldens was a very interesting read. But one thing I have to mention is that on Netgalley there was a different synopsis use that doesn't give so much away, but the one on goodreads practically tells you what happens. I thought that was a bit odd, but anyways, this story was very enjoyable. Yes, this book does involve a student/teacher romance so if you are not comfortable with books that involve them this might not be for you. We witness two sister that have always been close slowly start to drift apart. Layla (Nell's older sister) is keeping secrets from Nell and when Nell finds out her secret she knows that she should do something about it. But doing the right thing was not the easiest decision for Nell to make. Her sister is her idol and she's the only person she looks up to.

Throughout this book, I really felt bad for Nell. In the beginning, I really didn't understand her obsession with her sister. It was kind of annoying and I wanted her to step out of her sister's shadow. Nell had no problems being her sister's shadow, but slowly she starts to become her own person and I really liked seeing her character growth. We saw Nell go through many ups and downs in this book. Not only was she struggling with what to do about her sister, but she is a freshman in high school and is just trying to find herself and deal with average teenage things. When it comes to Layla, I didn't like her. She was very bratty and whenever she got upset at Nell she'd put her down in the worst of ways. She new exactly what buttons to push to set her off and I thought that was just really low especially since she knows how much her sister cares for one another. Nell's friend Felix was great though. He was an awesome support system for her and was always there for her and I liked that.

The whole teacher/student thing is always an ugh to me. I don't care how young the teacher is or whatever the case may be. Overall, this was a very quick read for me and some of the characters were very realistic. But what made me drop this rating a bit was the open ended ending. When it comes to standalone books I don't like that. It just stops at the point you've been waiting to get to and the story felt incomplete to me. But overall, the book was actually pretty good and kept my interest. Would I recommend it? Yes, I do believe that I would :)