A GOLDEN LIFE is a kind of Night Before Christmas tale, where celebrated romance writer Traci Oliver is having writer’s block while trying to write her fiftieth (golden) book in the aftermath of her husband’s death a year previous. She is late delivering this fiftieth book but is unable to start writing. On the one-year anniversary of his death she is visited, much like the ghosts of Christmas past present and future, by some of the characters in her books, who help her move on in her grief and think of something to write that will be perfect. The book is charming, and Traci has a wonderful voice, full of grief and delicacy, and her friendship with her agent is believable. The feeling you get from her is that she loved her husband very much and misses him greatly, and that that love was tied up deeply in her writing ability. The plot is somewhat predictable, but the characters from her books are endearing.