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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
Books like this one make me want to read more historical fiction, seriously. Love the Western setup and the characters and the slowburn romance. (Although really, why didn't we get one proper kiss????) What an epic journey to California this was. Also, the audio narration was awesome!
I wanted to love this book but it fell flat for me.
I really enjoy books with magical realism - this one was about a girl who has a special sense for finding gold (set during the gold rush era.)
It covered her trek from Georgia all the way to California. I felt like although a lot of things happened in the main character’s day to day life, but there wasn’t a whole lot going on with the plot. This is the first book in a series so it was probably setting everything up.
I did enjoy the idea of the book but felt like the execution of it was lacking a bit. Sadly not motivated to read any more books in this series.
I really enjoy books with magical realism - this one was about a girl who has a special sense for finding gold (set during the gold rush era.)
It covered her trek from Georgia all the way to California. I felt like although a lot of things happened in the main character’s day to day life, but there wasn’t a whole lot going on with the plot. This is the first book in a series so it was probably setting everything up.
I did enjoy the idea of the book but felt like the execution of it was lacking a bit. Sadly not motivated to read any more books in this series.
This book really sits at about a 3.5 rating for me. If 3 stars means it's an ok read, count this as a better than ok book but not great. I tried my hand at an audio version of this and I've never "read" an audio book before but it was interesting. It did motivate me to try more audio versions of books so it wasn't the worst experience. Listening to the audio version may have given me a different perspective of the book, who knows.
I can't comment really about the writing because there were times I would get distracted and lose interest (is that normal?). However, there were quite a few times I found myself saying, "Dang! That was a long walk for a short drink of water." I found this novel to be way too long and overall extremely verbose to the point that it distracted from the story. I'm not a giant fan of authors who take half a page to describe a mundane activity, like combing your hair or drinking from a stream. Sometimes brushing your hair is just brushing your hair. I've never read a Rae Carson book before but I was wondering if she got paid by the adjective on this one.
However, I liked the subject of the novel and found the topic unique. I appreciated the story and was sucked in from the get go. My only real complaint with this book is that is just a little too long and gets really boring in the middle. But I think this novel is worth the read and is a good story. It's pretty interesting and has a great historical feel to those interested in historical fiction. The author throws in a slight fantasy element to the story but it seems to fit perfectly in the tale. A solid book for the start of a new trilogy.
Pop Sugar Challenge: A Book About A Road Trip
I can't comment really about the writing because there were times I would get distracted and lose interest (is that normal?). However, there were quite a few times I found myself saying, "Dang! That was a long walk for a short drink of water." I found this novel to be way too long and overall extremely verbose to the point that it distracted from the story. I'm not a giant fan of authors who take half a page to describe a mundane activity, like combing your hair or drinking from a stream. Sometimes brushing your hair is just brushing your hair. I've never read a Rae Carson book before but I was wondering if she got paid by the adjective on this one.
However, I liked the subject of the novel and found the topic unique. I appreciated the story and was sucked in from the get go. My only real complaint with this book is that is just a little too long and gets really boring in the middle. But I think this novel is worth the read and is a good story. It's pretty interesting and has a great historical feel to those interested in historical fiction. The author throws in a slight fantasy element to the story but it seems to fit perfectly in the tale. A solid book for the start of a new trilogy.
Pop Sugar Challenge: A Book About A Road Trip
This had far, far less magic and vengeance than I had initially thought it would. It's essentially a journey book with a whisper of magic.
Leah “Lee” Westfall's parents are murdered in 1849 Georgia by her evil, greedy uncle because he has somehow figured out that Lee has the talent to sense gold. Lee runs away to California to escape her evil uncle and get rich off the recent gold rush. This premise promises MAGIC: gold sense. And VENGEANCE: evil uncle murdered beloved parents. Unfortunately, Leah only uses her gold sense very, very sparingly and its only use is getting random pocket change and locating people who have gold on them. There is no other known magic, although there is passing mention of water dowsers. There is also NO vengeance – Lee spends the entire time running scared. I suppose that since this is a trilogy, Lee will start seeking vengeance in a later volume.
Lee essentially spends this book playing Oregon Trail. She runs away from home/her evil uncle and disguises herself as a boy. She is partly hoping to meet her childhood best friend, Jefferson, who ran away from his abusive father a few days before Lee left town. Jefferson had tried to get Lee to come with him by proposing marriage “or we can pretend we’re siblings I guess.” Ah, romance. She gets robbed by two evildoers on the road, then falls in with a friendly riverboat crew, whose quirkiness and bon homie is the sort that exists mostly in children's adventure books.
Lee finally arrives in Independence, Missouri where Jefferson said he’d wait for her if he could. She spends days and days camped out in Independence, losing precious time and spending money she doesn’t have. She doesn’t see Jefferson anywhere. She finally meets up with a group of the weirdos no one else wants to travel with, which apparently includes Jefferson, who has been camping out with a German family and NEVER DID ANYTHING TO LOOK FOR LEE. Apparently that “I’ll wait for you” wasn’t very serious. He didn’t even leave a message at the post office (where travelers usually leave messages for each other)! Anyways, Lee gets hired to join the band of misfits and off they go.
Basically almost everything that happens in Oregon Trail happens to Lee’s crew: fording the river, running low on supplies, disease (cholera AND measles), broken axle, dying oxen, shooting too many buffalo. There were no snake bites, though.
There were also Indians who passed by (but did not attack), a stampede, and a (temporarily) missing child. And TWO births. I wasn’t bored by the book by a long shot (something is always happening), but I was never invested. In fact, I cared more for the poor oxen and the nameless Native Americans (who got harassed by the psychos in the wagon train) than I did for any of Lee's traveling companions.
Maybe that's because Lee's traveling companions only got one or two character traits instead of being fully fleshed out characters. There's Mrs. Joyner, a sheltered Southern wife who becomes hardy on the trail. The French wagon full of...French people. Nice French people! The German wagon full of...German people. Including Therese, a sweet young girl who is sweet on Jefferson. The "Missouri men," a collection of racist troublemakers. The three "confirmed bachelors," all homosexual college men who had dropped out, too eager to get rich in California to complete their training. The three confirmed bachelors were intriguing characters, but like everyone else were not fully developed. Were any of them in a romantic relationship with each other? Were all of them? None of them? How did they meet? Did they quarrel? What were their families like? Did they have any friends or lovers they left behind to go to California?
I am still intrigued by the book's premise, and now that the journey part appears to be over, I'm interested in what will occur in the next book. My hope is more magic and more vengeance.
Leah “Lee” Westfall's parents are murdered in 1849 Georgia by her evil, greedy uncle because he has somehow figured out that Lee has the talent to sense gold. Lee runs away to California to escape her evil uncle and get rich off the recent gold rush. This premise promises MAGIC: gold sense. And VENGEANCE: evil uncle murdered beloved parents. Unfortunately, Leah only uses her gold sense very, very sparingly and its only use is getting random pocket change and locating people who have gold on them. There is no other known magic, although there is passing mention of water dowsers. There is also NO vengeance – Lee spends the entire time running scared. I suppose that since this is a trilogy, Lee will start seeking vengeance in a later volume.
Lee essentially spends this book playing Oregon Trail. She runs away from home/her evil uncle and disguises herself as a boy. She is partly hoping to meet her childhood best friend, Jefferson, who ran away from his abusive father a few days before Lee left town. Jefferson had tried to get Lee to come with him by proposing marriage “or we can pretend we’re siblings I guess.” Ah, romance. She gets robbed by two evildoers on the road, then falls in with a friendly riverboat crew, whose quirkiness and bon homie is the sort that exists mostly in children's adventure books.
Lee finally arrives in Independence, Missouri where Jefferson said he’d wait for her if he could. She spends days and days camped out in Independence, losing precious time and spending money she doesn’t have. She doesn’t see Jefferson anywhere. She finally meets up with a group of the weirdos no one else wants to travel with, which apparently includes Jefferson, who has been camping out with a German family and NEVER DID ANYTHING TO LOOK FOR LEE. Apparently that “I’ll wait for you” wasn’t very serious. He didn’t even leave a message at the post office (where travelers usually leave messages for each other)! Anyways, Lee gets hired to join the band of misfits and off they go.
Basically almost everything that happens in Oregon Trail happens to Lee’s crew: fording the river, running low on supplies, disease (cholera AND measles), broken axle, dying oxen, shooting too many buffalo. There were no snake bites, though.
There were also Indians who passed by (but did not attack), a stampede, and a (temporarily) missing child. And TWO births. I wasn’t bored by the book by a long shot (something is always happening), but I was never invested. In fact, I cared more for the poor oxen and the nameless Native Americans (who got harassed by the psychos in the wagon train) than I did for any of Lee's traveling companions.
Maybe that's because Lee's traveling companions only got one or two character traits instead of being fully fleshed out characters. There's Mrs. Joyner, a sheltered Southern wife who becomes hardy on the trail. The French wagon full of...French people. Nice French people! The German wagon full of...German people. Including Therese, a sweet young girl who is sweet on Jefferson. The "Missouri men," a collection of racist troublemakers. The three "confirmed bachelors," all homosexual college men who had dropped out, too eager to get rich in California to complete their training. The three confirmed bachelors were intriguing characters, but like everyone else were not fully developed. Were any of them in a romantic relationship with each other? Were all of them? None of them? How did they meet? Did they quarrel? What were their families like? Did they have any friends or lovers they left behind to go to California?
I am still intrigued by the book's premise, and now that the journey part appears to be over, I'm interested in what will occur in the next book. My hope is more magic and more vengeance.
This was not at all a bad book but it wasn't great either. I really love the premise of the book, the setting, and the tie period. However I thought the book lacked energy. It just felt very droll, I always wanted something to happen but it never did. I also really didn't care for many of the characters, mainly the side characters. Leah as a main character was nice. I liked that she took action almost immediately. I think the best thing about this book was the history surrounding it. I always love learning about history because I'm a big historian buff. It feels like Rae Carson really did her research and it shows. The weakest part to me was the magical aspect of it. Our main character Leah can sense gold but nothing is really done with it. I am interested though to see how the rest of the trilogy plays out.
Picked this up on a whim from the bookstore, and really glad I did! Lee(ah) was an interesting character to read, and I loved the setting. Looking forward to picking up the next one!
This book took me forever to read, but I absolutely loved it!!!! Review to come!
Georgia was the place to be for gold miners before word got around that California was filled with the precious metal. Leah Westfall's family were just fine in their town -- until someone got a whiff of her secret and murdered her parents. To protect her secret and run from the one person her parents trusted, Leah disguises as a boy and sets off on the Oregon Trail to California. Passing for a boy comes fairly easily on the trail, what with Leah comfortable with hard labor and harsh conditions, but some secrets can be too burdensome to bear alone.
This is most definitely more historical fiction than fantasy. Leah -- Lee, as she's called by friends and as a boy -- may be able to sense gold, and that sense comes in handy a few times throughout her travels on the harsh trail, but even without her uncanny ability the story still stands. She's a hardworking, strong, determined, no-nonsense kind of character, and that's enough to help her get by on her frightening journey from Georgia to Missouri, to joining her friend and a company to travel with from Missouri to California.
The evocative writing and developed characters kept me reading, despite the lack of magic in the story. Lee finds being a boy liberating and difficult all at once. People listen to what she says, they let her do what she wants -- they trust her mind and body without question. But she doesn't like to lie, she feels lonely by keeping such a big secret from the women in her company, and she's not sure who she really is: Leah or Lee. Thankfully her good friend, Jefferson, is there to remind her she can be both, is both.
Canadians, Germans, a preacher and his wife, the Joyners (a family that hired Lee from the beginning on a flatboat to Missouri -- keep your eye on Mrs. Joyner), college students, herders, and veterans all make up the company Lee and Jefferson join in Missouri. They all have their reasons to go to California or Oregon, but they tend to work together for the sake of keeping each other (or even, selfishly, themselves) safe. Everything I remember seeing so early on in The Oregon Trail computer game cropped up, too: cholera, measles, wandering children, stampede of buffalo. You name it, it happened. It made me wonder if I could ever give up everything like those pioneers did for the sake of a new life. I'm not sure I'm made of such tough stuff.
In the end, this felt like a solid standalone adventure novel. It's a story about a journey, from start to finish. Every single day of it, from sunrise to sunset, all the joys and troubles, laughter and heartache. A part of me was bummed there was so little magic -- I was promised historical fantasy, and this delivered historical. Nothing wrong with that; this is an excellent historical. But it is not historical fantasy. Upon realizing this is part of a trilogy, I'm looking forward to seeing how the remaining cast of characters, and Lee's gold-sensing abilities, play out in the future books. (I've got my eye on you, Mrs. Joyner.) Maybe the fantasy elements amp up later on.
This is most definitely more historical fiction than fantasy. Leah -- Lee, as she's called by friends and as a boy -- may be able to sense gold, and that sense comes in handy a few times throughout her travels on the harsh trail, but even without her uncanny ability the story still stands. She's a hardworking, strong, determined, no-nonsense kind of character, and that's enough to help her get by on her frightening journey from Georgia to Missouri, to joining her friend and a company to travel with from Missouri to California.
The evocative writing and developed characters kept me reading, despite the lack of magic in the story. Lee finds being a boy liberating and difficult all at once. People listen to what she says, they let her do what she wants -- they trust her mind and body without question. But she doesn't like to lie, she feels lonely by keeping such a big secret from the women in her company, and she's not sure who she really is: Leah or Lee. Thankfully her good friend, Jefferson, is there to remind her she can be both, is both.
Canadians, Germans, a preacher and his wife, the Joyners (a family that hired Lee from the beginning on a flatboat to Missouri -- keep your eye on Mrs. Joyner), college students, herders, and veterans all make up the company Lee and Jefferson join in Missouri. They all have their reasons to go to California or Oregon, but they tend to work together for the sake of keeping each other (or even, selfishly, themselves) safe. Everything I remember seeing so early on in The Oregon Trail computer game cropped up, too: cholera, measles, wandering children, stampede of buffalo. You name it, it happened. It made me wonder if I could ever give up everything like those pioneers did for the sake of a new life. I'm not sure I'm made of such tough stuff.
In the end, this felt like a solid standalone adventure novel. It's a story about a journey, from start to finish. Every single day of it, from sunrise to sunset, all the joys and troubles, laughter and heartache. A part of me was bummed there was so little magic -- I was promised historical fantasy, and this delivered historical. Nothing wrong with that; this is an excellent historical. But it is not historical fantasy. Upon realizing this is part of a trilogy, I'm looking forward to seeing how the remaining cast of characters, and Lee's gold-sensing abilities, play out in the future books. (I've got my eye on you, Mrs. Joyner.) Maybe the fantasy elements amp up later on.
I found this book pretty compulsively readable, albeit not without its problems. Mostly it's a historical fiction adventure story with a smidgen of fantasy thrown in (I'm thinking the fantasy element may come into play more in future books). I found Leah to be my favorite kind of character - strong and caring and determined, but not without failings and mistakes. There is an interesting and well-developed cast of supporting characters, as well. However, there are definitely problematic depictions of Native Americans in this book and that would make me hesitant to hand it to teens. Definitely check out Debbie Reese's post on this subject for more: http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/2015/10/not-recommended-rae-carsons-walk-on_8.html