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gleefulreader 's review for:
Gold
by Chris Cleave
This is actually a difficult book to review as there were parts that were just so good - namely the race scenes and the training descriptions - that you could truly feel what it takes to be an athlete at the most elite levels, what is required to become an Olympian. But then in counterpoint to this is a storyline that is almost unnecessarily melodramatic. That characters are either unbearably good (Kate) or over-the-top bad (Zoe). It definitely detracted from what could have been an excellent novel. Combine that with a too-tidy ending and you have a novel that is a bit of a disappointment. That said, it was compulsively readable especially as I finish it one day before the end of the 2012 Olympics. But it's a lighter novel that Cleave's normally are - best saved for the beach when perhaps expectations are a bit lower?