Level: Teen
Recommended Age: 13+
Genres: History, Adventure
Tags: Gold Rush, Paranormal, Murder Mystery, Diversity, Disguise
Mature Content:

  - Moderate violence: physical attacks, shooting scenes.

  - Mild romance: detailed kissing scenes.

  - Moderate language: some swearing, insults, sexism and racism.

Leah Westfall feels gold in her soul, but her uncanny ability to sense treasure makes her life dangerous during the Gold Rush in the early years of America. Everyone is moving out west to find their fortune in California, but Leah can’t leave her parents. But then she finds she parents dead in their home, with her uncle as her first suspect. Leah becomes Lee, a solitary young boy on his way to make his fortune. She figures she isn’t too far behind her best friend Jefferson, and once she catches up they’ll be able to find a place in California far away from her devious uncle. But trouble strikes at every corner and Leah begins to wonder if she’ll ever make it out west alive.

Review:

This book describes your typical trek across the country during the Gold Rush, a dangerous time of battling with both the elements and basic human greed. Except Lee isn’t your typical case of “Gold Fever”. She loves the feeling of gold singing to her from the ground, but she’s aware of how it sets her apart and puts her in danger. When she finds her parents murdered, she knows somehow her secret has been discovered and she needs to leave her home.

Lee is tough and unwilling to give up on both herself and her control of her life. She never lets people tell her that something is impossible, which is good because she travels across the country with nothing but a horse and her strange ability. Lee is a good protagonist and keeps the plot moving forward. She grits her teeth and trudges forward, no matter what. She’s used to people pushing their opinions on her, whether it’s over her role as a young lady, the truth of her parent’s death, or the respectability of being friends with Jefferson, despite his Native American mother.

The story starts off fast, then meticulously trudges through the dangerous, difficult, and frustrating aspects of traveling across a new country where people live by prejudice instead of basic survival skills. This author shows what it was like for women to rely completely on either their father or husband, with no control over their own life. She shows how making that long journey across the country either peeled back peoples’ racism and sexism and prejudice against class as they worked together to survive, or enhanced their need to set themselves apart. Lee and her new friends help each other in their journey, all while fighting against the difficult members of their group.

There’s definitely an emphasis on both history and prejudice, with lighter moments of romance and paranormal abilities. The writing is very descriptive, with beautiful imagery. This story focuses on a time of Western culture, something that is usually reserved for action movies or romances. This angle is fresh in its perspective and meticulous in its examination of a difficult time period.