While I have been following Kat Jackson on TikTok for a while, and I met her last summer at GCLS, I had never read any of her books until now. I have a signed copy of In Bloom, which I’ll read someday, but at the moment, my ears are much better at focusing than my eyes. And then Golden Hour appeared in my Audible suggestions, and I’m a sucker for sunsets, so voilà, I didn’t read the blurb, I dived in and let Kat Jackson’s words and Lila Winters’s voice carry me away.

A military lab technician, Lina believes she’s unlovable, or not worthy of love. Her parents, then her lovers made her feel like she was never enough, and then, there’s her PTSD. I don’t know if anyone can come back from active war zones one hundred per cent healthy, and PTSD on top of her low sense of self-worth has convinced her no one deserves to be burdened with her. And then she meets Regan, a gorgeous, sweet, funny, strong, gentle nurse, who makes her want to at least try.

This audiobook was at once pretty hard to listen to and extremely cute and healing. As someone with my own PTSD—I’ve written about it in previous reviews—I’m always mindful of potential triggers, even though I manage it a lot better now than I used to. I loved Regan’s open mind, her understanding, her absence of judgement, her patience too. Her calming presence and her respect and love for everything Lina is felt utterly believable to me. As did the descriptions of the physical and emotional manifestations of PTSD-related episodes. Jackson’s writing is efficient, to the point when the reader is in Lina’s head, mellower when Regan is on page. I enjoyed Lila Winters’s narration a lot as well, to my ears it fit each character to a T.

Experience Golden Hour:

Libro.fm (audiobook)

Bookshop.org (paperback)

Kobo (audiobook – ebook)

Amazon (audiobook – paperback – ebook)

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