Charity Jones is looking for a home when she comes to Fool's Gold, California, as its city planner. After a childhood with a mother who was always sure that the next man and the next place would be better, Charity longs for roots. She falls in love with the town and the people she meets including local boy-made good Josh Golden.

Josh had a career as a world-class cyclist before giving up the sport and coming home. An accident in a race has shaken his confidence. Josh also had a difficult childhood. He was abandoned by his mother at a local hotel when he was ten and still recovering from a serious accident that had him in pain and on crutches. He was adopted by the town and aided in his recovery. He has always felt that it was some lack in him that caused his mother to abandon him.

While Fool's Gold looks perfect, there are a couple of problems. First of all, it has a severe shortage of men and one of Charity's jobs in to lure business to the city - especially if those businesses employ lots of men. Second, somehow $750,000 that was supposedly sent to the city by the State government has gone missing. No one really suspects Robert, the city financial officer and one of the few single men in town, of the crime but answers need to be found soon.

I liked the setting and look forward to reading more stories set in Fool's Gold. I liked both Charity and Josh very much and was rooting for their romance. I could understand why they were reluctant to share their goals for their futures with each other since both were more intrinsic than overt. The story had a nice blend of characters from the matchmaking mayor to the barracuda television reporter who really wanted to rekindle her relationship with Josh. I liked that the attraction was instant between Charity and Josh and that both of them were reluctant to pursue it until they got to know each other. I loved the happily-ever-after ending. ( )

2.5/5

This was just meh. Set up some stuff, had a more complicated plot than I expected. But ultimately not super memorable. ( )

The first novel in Susan Mallery's "Fool's Gold" series focuses on Charity Jones and Josh Golden.

Charity is recently hired as city planner in Fool's Gold. Charity is orphaned and is happy to be putting down roots in Fool's Gold and hopes that she can finally find a nice guy to settle down with after so many dating disasters. Josh is a world renowned cyclist who has moved back to Fool's Gold to recover from a bicycling accident that continues to haunt him.

The initial plot intrigued me but in the end I have to say that I found this entire novel to be a two star book. It really pains me to give this novel two stars. I mean seriously this does. I love Susan Mallery's Blackberry Island series and I am a bit perplexed that the author who wrote those novels wrote the "Fool's Gold" series as well. I purposely chose the first two books in this series for my To Be Read (TBR) 2014 pile because I loved the Blackberry Island books so much.

All in all I felt as if Charity and Josh were very flat, that the plot was patently absurd, and that the romantic chemistry was just not there. However, if only these things were present in the novel I would have still given it 3 stars. However, what really caused me to drop this novel down to two stars was the fact that several times throughout this novel it was shown that being a single woman with a good job was not enough. I several times had to put this book away because of that sentiment that kept being expressed by every single character that came into contact with Charity. She is told at one point to not purchase a home because she may meet a man and if they marry what is the point in having her own home. Several characters keep rhapsodizing about how hot Josh is, how perfect his body is, etc. and these are grown women with careers. I am not saying that women don't gossip (please) but each character was pretty much turned into a drooling imbecile around Josh and it became off putting after a while.

I am going to read book #2 since it is on my TBR 2014 pile and I hope that the series rebounds since in my mind it has to improve from book #1. ( )

Dear lord, this heroine is beyond stupid. Between judging others, flip-flopping, dishonesty, pregnancy and confronting Robert, I can't believe I'm supposed to like her. She's mean. Also, none of the relationships are developed; they just suddenly happen. ( )

This book felt sort of familiar as I read through most of it. The female lead (Charity Jones) falls for a man that, while single, doesn't seem to be totally "attainable" in her eyes. Josh Golden was a celebrity and supposedly lives a lifestyle full of fast women and fast bikes. But Charity finds out that her perception of him was not true. They spend time together and she falls in love. For some reason I felt as though I had read this same basic story before (woman meets man, learns he has a secret, falls for him, etc). It was almost a sense of deja vu and I though I knew exactly what was going to happen next. The last sentence in chapter 16 proved me right...Charity was pregnant. I had to take a break from the book and look at other books by this author that I have previously read. Most of them had a point where the woman found out she was pregnant and assumed she was alone in taking care of the child. I felt like I wanted to stop reading as soon as I saw that this was one of those books. The story was engaging and well written but I couldn't seem to get past the fact that it was the same thing I have read before. I really do love this author's books but I would like to see something different. Maybe a woman that doesn't assume she is alone? Maybe no pregnancy in the story? Maybe a couple that is trying to conceive but finds that it isn't as easy as having unprotected sex one time? I really hope that the next Fool's Gold story that I read switches it up a little. ( )