A charming story about dreams, hope, and how human compassion can help make the world a kinder place. This magical journey is rich with sweet life messages and inspiration that lead a young woman on a quest to discover her destiny. It is a memorable and meaningful story I didn’t want to end.” Angela Aja, author of Summoned To Soar.

The cross-country road trip began innocently enough–but unexpected detours lead them down a road that will change their lives.

Megan and Katie Summers are leaving on their long-planned road trip and are thrilled when the departure day finally arrives. But Katie is apprehensive because her dreams are confusing; a mysterious fire, two sisters screaming, an Indian woman with a long grey braid, a white horse, and trees that want to hurt her. She didn’t know how to interpret them.

Katie believes her mission in life is to spread the word that kindness toward others can change people’s lives, so she creates a club called The Golden Hearts Club and initiates new members when they do something nice for others. When she becomes ill, they stop at a run-down motel and meet Rose, an American Indian woman who nurses her back to health. The sad story of Rose’s family lost to tragedy sparks Katie’s determination to return to Arizona to help Rose find a new home so she will have a family again.

Things get complicated when they trespass on a California horse ranch and meet Jay and Luke Larone. Suddenly they are entangled with a family of a pharmaceutical empire that also includes a world of deception and family struggles. But when a tragic accident threatens to shatter many lives, the family unites to help a young woman they hardly know.

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon (paperback) | Amazon (kindle) | Goodreads 

About the author, Cinda K. Swalley

Cinda grew up in Galion, Ohio with her parents, three brothers and sister, and many generations of family all living close by. She attended Columbus Business University and then Capital University Law School for her Paralegal Certification. Shortly after graduation she and her sister set out on a cross-country road trip that would change the direction of their lives. During that trip, Cinda interviewed with and later began her career with Continental Airlines as a flight attendant. Working for the airlines afforded her many opportunities to travel around the world; from New Zealand and Guatemala to Europe, Russia and Africa. She also embraced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend Paris Fashion Institute and live for an exciting month in Paris during their most famous fashion week.

This story was inspired by the cross-country adventure she took with her sister. Cinda plans to promote world-wide kindness to businesses and community organizations by offering Golden Heart contests and scholarship awards to encourage people to embrace the opportunity to offer kindness toward others to help make the world a kinder place.

Connect with Cinda:

Website | Facebook 

My Thoughts

The Golden Hearts Club: A Novel by Cinda Swalley begins with a premise I genuinely loved: a sisterly road trip built around the idea that ordinary acts of kindness can ripple outward and change lives. What starts as a cross-country adventure slowly shifts into romance after Megan and Katie trespass onto a California horse ranch, and while I enjoyed parts of both storylines, I ultimately felt as though the novel was trying to tell two different stories at once.

The “Golden Hearts Club” concept itself is lovely. In a world that often feels exhausting and cynical, there was something comforting about Katie’s belief that kindness matters, even in small ways. Not grand gestures. Not dramatic heroics. Just everyday humanity: holding open a door, sharing a buy-one-get-one coupon, offering someone working outside a cold bottle of water on a hot day. That thread felt warm, hopeful, and deeply needed.

I’m also an easy audience for stories about young people traveling, especially when beaches, horses, and unexpected detours enter the picture. I may be firmly anti-camping in real life, but even I had to admit that beach camping sounded tempting here. Katie and Megan’s enthusiasm for stopping to meet horses wherever they traveled was honestly one of the more charming recurring details in the book.

Where the novel lost me somewhat was after the romance storyline took center stage. Once the ranch and the Larone family entered the narrative, the original emotional spine of the Golden Hearts Club began to fade into the background. The kindness mission that initially made the story feel distinct became less central, and the book shifted toward family drama and romance in a way that never fully blended with the earlier themes.

Cinda Swalley’s writing style feels very much like that of a debut author. The prose is simple and straightforward, which is not inherently a criticism. Laura Ingalls Wilder and Ernest Hemingway both proved that uncomplicated language can still be powerful. Here, though, there were moments where deeper research or stronger editorial guidance would have strengthened the story considerably.

One issue was characterization. Katie and Megan are women in their twenties — Katie has completed college and Megan has earned an associate degree — yet they are often written with the emotional tone and explanatory dialogue of much younger teenagers. Medical scenes especially suffered from this simplification. Characters explained concepts that most adults would already understand, and Todd, the neurologist specializing in traumatic brain injury, never fully felt convincing as a physician. The dialogue surrounding the medical situations often felt overly simplified rather than natural.

The novel also would have benefited from tighter line editing. Homonym mistakes — there/their/they’re and similar errors — appeared multiple times, enough to pull me out of the story. There was also a curious vagueness surrounding the setting’s time period. No dates are given, but the absence of cell phones and reliance on paper maps, road guides, and travel books creates a strange almost-outside-of-time atmosphere that occasionally made the story feel unintentionally dated.

I think my biggest takeaway is that while this book is marketed as general fiction or women’s fiction, it reads much more like YA crossover fiction. Readers who enjoy gentle romances, inspirational themes, emotionally earnest storytelling, and a softer, younger narrative voice may connect with it more strongly than I did.

That said, I do think Cinda Swalley has good instincts as a storyteller. The core idea behind The Golden Hearts Club is compassionate and heartfelt, and there’s enough sincerity here that I would absolutely be willing to read more from her as her craft continues to develop.

Goes well with: a chilled California chardonnay, grilled chicken fresh off the barbecue, and a big scoop of potato salad eaten outside just before sunset.