Lucy Fox has dedicated her life to caring for her father and has never had a personal life. Now she is nearing thirty, and her life is going nowhere. Heck, she doesn’t even know how to drive a car, so in a fit of frustration, Lucy signs up for driving lessons. When her first driving lesson rolls around and her instructor arrives, she is not expecting the gorgeous Adonis that steps out of the sedan.

Thom Hill falls for the lovely Lucy during their first lesson, when she plows into a neighbor’s mailbox and flower bed. To him, she is a lovely Goldilocks – sweet, innocent and the exact opposite of his hateful ex-wife. His job as a driving instructor is just a temporary gig to get him back on his feet until he can rebuild the landscaping company that his ex took from him in their divorce. He is willing to work long and hard to accomplish his goals, and if he can continue to see Lucy while he does this, then that is a pleasant bonus. But when Lucy insists that she wants to help Thom realize his goals, he angrily rejects her offer to back him financially.

What’s a girl to do when her Prince Charming starts acting more like one of the three bears and when his evil witch of an ex-wife continually interferes? Lucy may be Goldilocks, but she is anything but a pushover. She’ll teach that wicked witch not to mess with her porridge, and she’ll deal with kissing the Frog Prince as well.

Pat Dale’s novel Goldie’s Bear is a lighthearted look at the trials of two people who fall in love but who don’t communicate well enough with each other to build trust in their relationship. Instead, they hold each other up to impossible ideals that cannot possibly be met. Thom expects Lucy to be a perpetually sweet and dizzy blonde who will always defer to his opinions. Lucy expects Thom to never make an error in judgment and to be blindly grateful for everything she does for him. He has anger issues, and she is bull-headed, and they might have been fun characters were they not portrayed in a somewhat inconsistent manner.

This novel somehow felt just a little too long for the plot. Perhaps it was the stilted dialogue that was at fault, but the action seemed to drag quite a bit in the middle. I found myself losing interest in the characters and in their story, unfortunately. On the positive side, a number of comedic scenes in this story stand out, and all of them revolve around Thom’s ex-wife and her catty interaction with Lucy. I never would expect sweet Lucy to resort to name-calling and fisticuffs, so when it does happen, it’s a comic and agreeable surprise.

I can’t say that I completely enjoyed reading Goldie’s Bear, but it was definitely good for a smile or two. And it is always nice to see a couple realize their happily-ever-after.


Reviewed by: Whitney