3.5 stars
Leah “Lee” Westfall lives on a small farm in Georgia, trying to make ends meet with her parents. The only reason they’re really managing to survive at all, is Lee’s unusual ability, she can sense gold. It calls to her and is the reason her father is known in town as “Lucky”. No one but her parents know about her gift, or so Lee believed. Then she comes home from town one day to discover both of her parents shot (her mother is still just barely alive, and warns Leah to be careful with her last breaths) and the sack of gold dust they had hidden under the floor boards missing.
Her neighbour, sixteen-year-old, half Native Jefferson McCauley is planning on heading west to California, as the news that gold has been found there has just been announced. He wants Lee to come with him, but she’s reluctant to leave her family’s farm. Then her uncle Hiram shows up, now her legal guardian, and with her gold sense, Lee can tell he’s been near a lot of gold dust lately. She’s suddenly all too certain who’s behind her parents’ murder, and once her uncle starts dropping hints, she begins to fear that her father may have told him about Lee’s abilities. She regrets not going away with Jefferson, but enlists the help of a friendly shopkeeper in town, cuts her hair, dresses in men’s clothing and runs away while her uncle is distracted.
Lee needs to make her way west and try to find Jefferson again, all the while staying out of her uncle’s clutches. She quickly discovers that life on the road is dangerous and meets several set-backs before she manages to get a place on a caravan going towards California. Can she keep her real identity hidden with so many people around? Will anyone discover her special gold sense? Will the caravan actually survive the hard and challenging journey across the country to the gold fields of California?
Full review on my blog.