I still really love this book but as I listened to the audiobook, it became so apparent that every Christian was portrayed as a jerk/brat/overall-just-a-bad-person. ( )

Disfruté mucho de este libro, pues mezcla un poco de fantasía con novela histórica. Es ameno de leer y te engancha desde los primeros capítulos. A los personajes les coges cariño rápido y la trama está muy interesante. En resumen, Leah es una chica que puede sentir el oro, y nos debemos situar en 1848, Norteamérica, y a tener en cuenta la fiebre del oro. Por esto mismo, el tío de Leah mata a su hermano y mujer (padres de la protagonista) para obtener la custodia de la joven, pero ella escapa hacia California junto con Jackson y un grupo más de personas. En el viaje se verán envueltos en sabotajes y otro tipo de problemas que mantendrá al lector completamente intrigado. Sin duda una de las mejores lecturas que encontré en 2022. ( )

This one is probably a hit-or-miss for most.
The problem many are probably having is that the entire book just follows the MC on an arduous journey to California following the gold rush. There is no real plot of any kind beyond this.
So if you are neither grabbed by the wild-west setting nor manage to build a strong connection to the cast you are not going to have a good time with this story.
Luckily the characters, as well as the book in general, are very well written so it is pretty easy to find something to connect to.
But I can see disagreement with the actions of the MC or inaccuracies in the settings breaking the immersion quickly for some.

My biggest problem was that the MC never even seemed to consider any kind of revenge. She had plenty of opportunities and options available to her.
Yes, she is young but she is clearly not pampered and familiar with the hard realities of life, so her conveniently selective nativity never really sat right with me. It was just too convenient and even necessary for the inciting incident to work which is the weakest part of the story in my opinion.
(Spoiler for the opening of the story) She always treats the antagonist more like his worst deed was stealing their savings, not like he literally murdered her parents.

Considering that the story at its core is only a basic "travel from a to b" story the pacing is well done but there is only so much tension you can squeeze out of this kind of story so the pacing feels rather ponderous in some sections and might be considered boring by some.

I wasn't precisely disappointed by the completely open end of this book but I am a bit doubtful that I will enjoy a more complex setting as it was set up for the next book.
It seems like this first book has set itself up to be followed by all the worst clichées.
I am not really a fan of this shallow version of the cheesy "found a new family" trope and there are many other clichées of the same shallow ilk just begging to be fulfilled by the setup so far.
All in all, despite not regretting reading this I feel a bit exhausted and have little motivation to pick up the second one not only for the reasons I mentioned but I struggle to put the others into words. ( )

A deliberately paced story free of angst if not grief, of Leah whose secret ability to douse gold is not as secret as it needed to be. When her parents are abruptly murdered just as news of the gold strike in California reaches her town in Georgia, she decides to head west on her own rather than stay under her uncle's dubious protection. It is no easy trip. It is a girl with something special story, but her special ability is not really what's most important about her. ( )