Gold Star Chance Review — Is It Worth Reading?

Verdict: A warm, action-filled second chance romance between a 54-year-old West Virginia sheriff and the high-school girlfriend who comes home three decades later — low on relationship angst, high on rescues and small-town family, and a little too in love with its hero for some readers.

Best for: Readers who want leads over fifty, first-responder action, a couple who talk to each other like adults, and a series to settle into.

Heat level: Not rated (romance.io has no steam rating; readers describe it as steamy, without saying how explicit)

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4.1/5 — a 4.34 Goodreads average across 352 ratings, tempered by recurring criticism of the hero worship)

Tropes: Second chance, first love, over-50 leads, small town, sheriff and veterinarian, first responders, K9 partner, found family, crime subplot, series opener.

Gold Star Chance is CJ Murphy’s 2019 contemporary lesbian romance from Desert Palm Press and the first book in her Five Points series. Sheriff Chance Fitzsimmons, a retired smoke jumper with the burn scars to prove it, keeps the peace in Tucker County, West Virginia, with her K9 partner Zeus. Then, at the end of a rescue operation, she comes face to face with Dr. Jax St. Claire, the girl who left for college three decades earlier and took Chance’s heart with her.

It holds a 4.34 average across 352 Goodreads ratings, with 84% of them four or five stars. It is a small book by readership, but a well-loved one, and the reviews agree more than most on what it is: an old-fashioned hero romance with women in their fifties at the centre.

What Is Gold Star Chance About?

This is a second chance romance wrapped in a rural first-responder story. The title comes from Chance’s badge: five points, each standing for a principle — honour, duty, courage, integrity and empathy — that she lives by in and out of uniform. The day her father stepped in front of a bullet taught her what those principles cost, and the forest fire that later burned her taught her again.

Jax arrives from California wine country with two horses in her trailer and a failed marriage behind her, to take over her retired uncle’s veterinary practice. The romance between her and Chance runs alongside a lot of plot: drug runners moving into the county, search-and-rescue call-outs, an angry ex, a disgruntled employee and, eventually, a kidnapping. One early reviewer summed the book up as “romance and action rolled together”, and that is exactly the balance.

What Makes This Second Chance Sapphic Romance Work

Leads over fifty: This is the most praised element. Reviewer after reviewer singles out the age of the heroines — “the main characters are over fifty! Yes! Grown-ups!”, as one put it — and says how rare it is to find an action romance starring a woman of 54.
A couple who communicate: Readers repeatedly say the drama comes from outside the relationship, not from misunderstandings between the leads. One called it “adults, with adult relationships”; another was surprised the two talked “like reasonable adults”.
First-responder authenticity: Murphy has written that she has thirty years around emergency services, and her wife worked in 911 communications and emergency management. Readers notice: the rescue protocols, jargon and interagency work are described as the real thing.
Family and community: Chance’s two mothers, Maggie and Dee — “Mom Squared” — her sister Kendra, her deputies and the dog teams give the book its warmth, and the moms’ banter with Chance is a highlight for many readers.
The setting: Tucker County’s mountains, canyons, rivers and Blackwater Falls give the rescues a real landscape, and one reader compares the sheriff-in-rugged-country feel to Longmire.

Book Synopsis

High in the Appalachian Mountains, Sheriff Chance Fitzsimmons puts her specialised rescue training to use more often than most sheriffs would. The retired smoke jumper turned law enforcement officer is devoted to protecting everyone who lives in or visits Tucker County, West Virginia, and with her K9 partner Zeus she keeps the peace — even though peace eludes her off duty.

Dr. Jax St. Claire drove away from California with two horses in tow and a broken spirit. After her marriage ended, she has come back to West Virginia to take over her retired uncle’s veterinary practice and start again. At the end of an intense rescue operation, the former lovers come face to face for the first time since they parted, and long-dormant feelings flare up like a hot spot in dry tinder.

Three decades ago, Jax went off to college and left Chance behind. Now she is back, and the formidable sheriff is determined to take her gold star chance. But the county is changing: drugs are coming in from the cities, old tensions are resurfacing, and forces beyond their control may cost them everything before the mistakes of the past can be put right.

My Review

The first thing to say is how refreshing the premise still is. Romance with leads in their fifties is uncommon; action romance with a 54-year-old sheriff hauling people out of canyons is rarer still. Murphy writes her heroines as fully adult — careers behind them, scars, families, ex-partners — and lets them want each other without apology. Readers over fifty wrote about seeing themselves in it, and that is the book’s real achievement.

The second strength is how the romance is handled. Chance and Jax pick up almost where they left off, and the book does not manufacture a misunderstanding to keep them apart. The tension comes from outside — the job, the danger, the drug trade, an ex who has not let go — which is why reviewers keep calling it low angst despite the gunfire. Lez Review Books called it “a real feel-good romance that is low angst”, while noting that this “does not mean that there wasn’t any drama”. That is a fair description.

The criticism is consistent, and it is about Chance. She is brave, principled, broad-shouldered, beloved by the whole county, and wounded in the line of duty more than once. Admirers compare her to Captain America; detractors to John Wayne. “The hero worship is a little bit too much” is the most common complaint, and the lowest-rated reviews call it melodramatic, cartoonish in places, and full of repetition — the family’s worry about Chance’s dangerous job comes up chapter after chapter. One three-star reader found the middle repetitive and the moms’ fussing hard to read through; another felt there was more telling than showing.

The other recurring eye-roll is plausibility. Best Lesfic Reviews joked that it wished these “all-lesbian towns” imagined by authors actually existed, and several readers noted that nearly everyone in Chance’s family and circle is gay and supportive. Most treated it as a pleasure rather than a flaw; a couple found it pulled them out of the story.

My honest note: If you want a principled, heroic lead and do not mind a book that adores her, this is a warm, exciting and unusually grown-up romance. If you need your heroes flawed and your small towns realistic, the reviews suggest you will find it sentimental.

Element	In Gold Star Chance
Central relationship	Chance Fitzsimmons & Jax St. Claire — county sheriff and divorced veterinarian, first loves reunited after three decades
Core tropes	Second chance, first love, over-50 leads, small town, first responders, K9 partner, found family
Setting	Tucker County, in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia
Heat level	Not rated — romance.io has no steam rating; readers describe it as steamy
Series	Five Points #1 — happy resolution for the couple, with side threads left open
Content notes	Gun violence, drug trafficking, kidnapping, on-page injuries, burn scars, a parent killed in the line of duty (backstory), a homophobic parent (backstory)

How Spicy Is Gold Star Chance?

We have not given this a heat score, because the sources do not support one. romance.io has no steam rating for Gold Star Chance — only eight readers have rated it there — and StoryGraph has too few structured responses to say anything about sexual content. What reader reviews do say is that the book has “action and steam”, and one reviewer praised it for showing that women “can be sexy in their 50s and even 60s”. So the romance is physical and on the page, but I could not confirm how explicit it gets.

The content worth knowing in advance is mostly about the action plot. StoryGraph has no content warnings submitted for this book, so these notes come from reader reviews: shootings, drug trafficking, a kidnapping, injuries treated in the ER, Chance’s burn scars from a forest fire, and the backstory of her father’s death and of Jax’s homophobic mother.

Who Should Read This Book?

You’ll likely love it if: you want leads over fifty, you like women in uniform and first-responder action, you prefer external drama to relationship angst, and you enjoy a big supportive cast. It sits on our low-angst lesbian romance and women over 40 lists for good reason.

You may want to skip it if: an idealised, near-flawless hero grates on you, you want a realistic small town, repetition bothers you, or you need a confirmed explicit heat level before you commit.

In short: A warm, grown-up action romance for readers who like their heroes heroic.

What Readers Are Actually Saying (September 2026)

This is a word-of-mouth lesfic book rather than a trending one, and a web search surfaced no Reddit threads. Its readers are largely established lesfic readers and fans of Murphy’s earlier books, and some reviews came from Desert Palm Press advance copies. On Goodreads the split is 54% five stars, 30% four, 10% three, and only 4% two or one. StoryGraph shows 4.01 across 28 reviews — a small sample, which is why I do not quote its mood and pace percentages. It was not showing in Kindle Unlimited when I checked, and I found no audiobook edition.

Why readers love it (according to the discourse): The age of the heroines first — nearly every positive review mentions it. Second, the absence of miscommunication drama; readers tired of couples who do not talk to each other until the final chapter found this a relief. Third, the authenticity of the rescue and law-enforcement detail, and fourth, Chance’s family, especially the two moms. Many reviewers went straight on to book two.

What readers argue about and complain about: Chance herself. Readers who love her call her admirable and inspiring; readers who do not call the hero worship overdone, the tone melodramatic and the patriotism heavy. Second: repetition in the middle, particularly the family’s worry about Chance’s safety. Third: a town with implausibly many lesbians in it. A smaller complaint is Chance’s ex, Faith, an ER doctor with “control issues” whom readers found hard to like and whose thread continues into the sequel.

The series question worth asking first: Gold Star Chance resolves its central romance, but it is written as the opening of a series and deliberately leaves threads — the ex, the new deputy candidates, the drug problem — for later books. Forever Chance continues Chance and Jax’s story, followed by Redemption’s Road and Sovereign Chance, and Amazon lists five books in all. If you prefer a single, fully closed book, go in knowing the world keeps going.

Frequently Asked Questions

How old are the main characters in Gold Star Chance?

Both leads are in their early fifties. Reviewers give Sheriff Chance Fitzsimmons’s age as 54, and Jax St. Claire is her high-school girlfriend, so she is the same generation. That is the book’s biggest selling point for many readers.

Is Gold Star Chance a second chance romance?

Yes. Chance and Jax were together as teenagers before Jax left for college and a life in California. The blurb says thirty years pass before they meet again; the author has written that it is thirty-six. Jax comes back divorced to take over her uncle’s veterinary practice.

How spicy is Gold Star Chance?

romance.io has no steam rating for it yet, so we have not scored it. Reader reviews describe the book as having steam and call the leads sexy, but none I found says how explicit the scenes are.

Does Gold Star Chance end on a cliffhanger?

Not for the romance. Reviewers describe a satisfying, happy resolution for Chance and Jax, though none specifies whether it is a full HEA or a happy-for-now. Several side threads are left open for book two, Forever Chance, and one reader felt a little cliffhanger-style angst at the close.

Is there a Gold Star Chance audiobook?

I could not find one. Libro.fm has no listing, and no audiobook edition showed up in a web search. It is available in Kindle and paperback from Desert Palm Press, and the ebook is also sold through Bella Books.

If You Loved Gold Star Chance, Read These Next

The obvious next step is Forever Chance, book two of Five Points. On this site, Beyond the Blue is another romance with a law-enforcement lead. For more mature heroines finding love, try Hooked on You and Discovering Nicola. For more, browse our lesbian romance with women over 40 list, the mature lesbian romance hub, the feel-good lesbian romance guide, small-town lesbian romance, or the full Book Reviews archive.

The Bottom Line

Gold Star Chance sets out to give a fifty-something sheriff and her first love a second chance amid rescues, drug runners and a close-knit mountain county, and it largely succeeds: the leads are grown-ups, the romance is free of manufactured angst, and the first-responder detail has the ring of experience. What holds it back is how much the book adores its hero — readers who find Chance too perfect find the whole thing melodramatic — along with some repetition in the middle. For readers who want mature heroines and a feel-good action romance, it is worth it. Check Gold Star Chance on Amazon →

The Eikna Overall Ranking

On the Eikna scale, Gold Star Chance ranks as a very good, warm series opener — rare for its over-fifty leads and its low-drama couple, authentic in its first-responder detail, and held back by an idealised hero and a repetitive middle.