Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson (Gold Seer trilogy book 2)

SPOILER ALERT! If you haven’t read the first book in the series, Walk on Earth a Stranger, Stop! I don’t want to ruin the story for you.

Please visit the Recaptains blog if you need a refresher on the first book.

Check out Epic Reads if you need a recap on the first book.

“After a harrowing journey across the country, Leah Westfall and her friends have finally arrived in California and are ready to make their fortunes in the Gold Rush. Lee has a special advantage over the other new arrivals in California—she has the ability to sense gold, a secret known only by her handsome best friend Jefferson and her murdering uncle Hiram.

Lee and her friends have the chance to be the most prosperous settlers in California, but Hiram hasn’t given up trying to control Lee and her power. Sabotage and kidnapping are the least of what he’ll do to make sure Lee is his own. His mine is the deepest and darkest in the territory, and there Lee learns the full extent of her magical gift, the worst of her uncle, and the true strength of her friendships. To save everyone, she vows to destroy her uncle and the empire he is building—even at the cost of her own freedom.” - taken from Goodreads.com

Where book one was all about the journey across the country to California, book two has Lee and her surviving friends trying to take a claim and find gold. Uncle Hiram isn’t going to let her get away and will stop at nothing to control Lee and make his own fortune. Fast paced and full of action, our heroine finds out the true meaning of friendship and personal freedom.

How far will Uncle Hiram go to control Leah? Are sparks building between Leah and Jefferson? Can Leah and her friends hold onto their gold claims and make it rich? What happens when Leah is offered her one chance of escape?

Leah’s story will be concluded in 2017 with book three. Visit Rae Carson’s website.

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson (Gold Seer trilogy book 1)

January 1849

Leah Westfall is fifteen years old and has the ability to divine gold from the Earth like others can dowse or witch for water. Since the Georgia gold rush has dried up, Leah has only found some dust in the creek beds after floods. While tracking a deer she shot, Leah finds a significant gold nugget, her first in more than a year. When she shows her father Reuben, nicknamed “Lucky” by the townsfolk because Leah’s ability is a closely guarded secret, the nugget, he wants to know where she found it. They both realize that she tracked the deer to their neighbor’s land, the McCauley’s. Even though they need it, the McCauleys’ are worse off than they are and it rightfully belongs to them. With her father ill, he hasn’t been able to take what gold dust they have hidden to the mint in Charlotte to exchange. They don’t want to draw suspicion in the town of Dahlongea. Her father tells her that he will take the nugget back to the McCauleys.

At school the next morning, Jefferson McCauley shows her a newspaper clipping from a month earlier where President Polk announced to Congress that gold had been discovered in California. Leah notices that he has the same look in his eyes that must be in hers. She thinks that life might be better if her family started over and her abilities could go unnoticed. Jefferson is ready to go but the money for the supplies to cross the country is exorbitant. He tells Leah that he only comes to school to see her and he knows that she works his family’s claim just like he works his for his drunken father. He asks her to go west with him as either his wife or they could pose as siblings. It could be their one chance but Leah shakes her head. Unlike Jefferson whose Indian mother left his father and went to the Oklahoma territory, she loves her family. Even if her father wants to go, her mother would talk him out of it because of his illness. After spending the day in a daze, pondering her future, Leah heads home and decides to talk things through with her parents.

On the ride home, Leah hears two gunshots in the distance. At home, she discovers her father shot dead on the porch. He has a small caliber bullet hole like from a Colt between his eyes. Remembering hearing two shots, she beings to look for her mother. Finding her nowhere, she uses her sense to locate her mother’s gold locket. Leah finds her shot behind the barn. She is barely alive. She whispers that they were wrong to be alone. Leah needs to trust someone. Her mother tells Leah to run just before she dies. She hears something in the woods and knows that she must go to the McCauleys’. She grabs her mother’s locket and heads to the house, grabbing the pistol. Jefferson comes back with her to make sure it is safe. Now that the rush of panic has died down, Leah realizes that her family’s stash of gold is no longer calling out to her. Inside the house, Jefferson helps her right the table and chairs and Leah confesses that their stash of gold that is missing. He is hurt that she didn’t believe she could trust him. Then Leah hands him the nugget she found on his place the night before. He pockets it. Jefferson wants her to find a safe place in town to stay but she refuses to leave her home.

Before her parents’ funeral service begins, Jefferson comes back to see her. He asks her to sell the home place and go west to the goldfields with him. He sold the nugget and bought his way onto a wagon train. Leah comes up with several excuses; the funeral, cleaning up and settling the estate. Jefferson says that he will wait for her in Independence, Missouri. As he leaves, he comments that he has been waiting his whole life for her to come around but he cannot wait forever. After the funeral in which the Reverend preaches a sermon on how “the love of gold is the root of all evil”, Mr. McCauley is the first to speak to Leah. He wants to know if she has seen Jefferson. She sees the advertisement in his hand that everyone was talking about during the funeral. It states that the Pacific Mail Steamship Company will take passengers to California for $200. in the spring. Remembering the bruises on Jefferson’s face, Leah lies to him, saying that if he left now he could possibly catch up with him in Savannah. Her father’s friend, Free Jim, informs her that her Uncle Hiram has settled the family’s debts with him. Hiram, her father’s brother and a lawyer who lives in the capital, walks forward in his fancy clothes. Leah notices that he has a shiny new Colt pistol on his hip. What really sets off the alarms in her head is the fact that she can sense traces of gold dust on him. Thinking back to how she found her father and her mother’s words, Leah suspects that Hiram killed her parents.

After everyone leaves, Leah is left alone with Hiram. He treats her as if he is the man of house, wanting her to pull off his boots and cook his meals. The situation darkens when he informs her that he is her guardian now and that her father’s will left everything to him. Hiram is moving into the house. Leah knows that he cheated his own brother. He has big plans for her, including sending her to finishing school and making a proper lady out of her. When Hiram tells Leah that her father has told him about her abilities, she realizes that he killed his own brother to get to her. Heading out to the barn seeking comfort from her horse, Leah formulates a plan to meet up with Jefferson in Independence. She knows that she will have to disguise herself as a boy and wait for the right time.

How does Leah escape Hiram and Dahlongea? What obstacles does she encounter along the way? Who does she meet up within Independence? What happens when Jefferson discovers Leah’s ability? Is Jefferson really in love with her or just after her abilities? Will Hiram be able to catch up with Leah? Did he kill his brother?

A mix of fantasy and historical fiction, Dahlongea, Georgia is the sight of the first major gold rush in the United States, Walk on Earth a Stranger, is the first book in a trilogy.

Visit Rae Carson’s website

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman

“Revenge is worth its weight in gold.”

June 6, 1877

Kate Thompson is left with a heart full of vengeance after a group of men kill her father. Two days after her eighteenth birthday, she hears hooping and hollering while she is down by the creek. She arrives back home to find her father hanging from the mesquite tree that her mother is buried under. She sees a group of men fleeing on horseback and the house on fire. Kate is able to get one shot off and a man falls. After burying her father next to her mother, she is surprised to find the man she shot is gone. He isn’t dead but she is able to follow his blood trail into Prescott and finds him sitting in a saloon. She has disguised herself as a man so as not to draw as much notice. Kate follows him to the outhouse where she finds him checking on his wound. She is able to catch him off guard. He laughs at her when he realizes that she doesn’t know about the secrets her father kept. She wants to know how they found him and he reveals that the clerk at Goldwaters’ was very informative. He informs her that she will never catch up to the others. Kate shoots him in the skull before heading to Goldwaters’

At Goldwaters’, it doesn't take Morris the clerk long to recognize Kate. Her father was trying to play matchmaker between the two of them, much to Kate’s chagrin. She inquires if anyone has come in asking about her father. He describes the group of men she saw leaving and asks her if everything is alright. She knows there is no one in a position of authority to help her. Kate loads up on some supplies and leaves before she can shoot Morris for inadvertently revealing her father. Back at home, Kate begins shifting through the remains of their cabin. She notices that her father’s journal is missing from its place by the bed. She assumes that it was destroyed in the fire. Kate does find the remaining bits of gold dust that her father had from his prospecting days. She is dismayed to find a note that her father had left for her. It reads that if anything were to happen to him, Kate is to go see his friend Abe in Wickenberg. She spends the night in the barn before going to find Abe. He may know what secrets her father was keeping from her.

Stopping at a saloon in Walnut Grove, Kate decides to try and find out some information about Abe before arriving in the bustling mining town of Wickenberg. Coy at first, an overweight barmaid/prostitute tells her where she can find him. Kate also asks the bartender if any of her friends came through. Describing the man and stating that he was riding with a group, the bartender pulls a gun on her. He asks her to leave, saying that her kind aren’t welcome. Not really understanding, Kate asks what her kind might be. The Rose Riders, he answers. Kate backs out and mounts her horse. Even with a gun trained on her back, she is thrilled to have discovered some new information on her father’s killers. Making camp for the night, Kate thinks that the Riders might be Waylon Rose’s gang. They were notorious for robbing stagecoaches in New Mexico and came west to Arizona when the gold rush began. Kate falls asleep wondering what brought Rose out of his normal territory to look for her father.

Kate is awoken the next morning by a wild hog but soon hears voices. The men from the saloon are looking to collect the bounty on the Riders since Kate stated that she was a friend. One man goes to stand guard over their horses while the other unties one of Kate’s. He shoves it away before she is able to stop him. Kate pulls her gun on him and tells him to stop. The man says that he cannot let her go and slaughter Abe’s family. With no choice, Kate shoots the man before he can kill her. She scares off the remaining man before packing her horse to leave. Down a horse, she has to leave most of her stuff behind. Kate hopes that Abe will be the effort.

Arriving at Abe’s the next morning after riding all day and night, Kate is surprised by the size of his place and wonders if he runs a ranch now instead of working in the mines. Two boys close to her age are standing outside. After talking it over, the older one comes over and directs Kate to Wickenberg. She lets him know that she is actually looking for Abe. He tells her that her got kicked in the head by a horse two years earlier and died the same day. Kate is desperate until she sees the look of grief flash over the boy’s face and offers her condolences. The boy introduces himself as Jesse Colton, Abe’s son and asks Kate for hers. She blurts out the first thing that comes to her mind, Nate Thompson. Jesse asks what her father’s name was and gets excited to find out that it was Henry. He calls his younger brother Will over and the three of them head towards the farmhouse.Turns out that Abe had something of Henry’s that he was keeping in case his child ever showed up on their doorstep.

In the farmhouse, Nate meets the boys’ sister, Sarah. After breakfast, Jesse gives Nate the letter from her father. In it, he details for Kate how he and her mother came across a dead man with a cache of gold and a leather journal detailing where the mine could be found. Kate realizes that her father’s journal wasn’t burned, but stolen. He details how he changed his name, became friends with Abe and eventually moved to Prescott. Her father writes that not even Abe knows the whole truth. In order for her to be safe, he asks her to stay with Abe. Folding up the letter, Kate hears Sarah and Jesse arguing over Nate. She decides to leave and find her father’s killers before they can find the gold.

Jesse and Will catch up to Kate/Nate as she is leaving Wickenberg. The two boys are on their way to pick up some cattle in Tucson. The three of them traveling together will be safer than splitting up. Kate/Nate reluctantly agrees if the boys will quit constantly talking. She is heading to Phoenix and will spilt from them there. Along the way, the three of them come across a burned out carriage. The driver has been shot, the passengers burned and any money is gone. The dead driver carries the same mark that the Riders left on Kate’s father. She wants to at least burn the man’s body rather than leave it for the vultures. She is touched when Jesse helps her.

As the three travel along, Jesse tries to talk Nate out of his need for vengeance but his advice falls on deaf ears. Kate also knows that it won’t be too long before the Colton brothers figure out that Nate is a girl. After Jesse goes to sleep one night, Will fills Kate/Nate in on why Jesse is the type of person that he is. He has been responsible for the family for a long time and has experienced loss too many times. The next morning, Kate/Nate apologizes to Jesse and attempts to make amends. The three head out looking for a river to water their horses. They first notice the low water level and then Jesse sees that they are not alone. He spies two men through his binoculars and passes them off to Nate. She sees two men along the ridge above and the two of them know something isn’t right. It looks like an ambush. Kate/Nate looks through the binoculars again and notices the symbols carved on the horses’ saddles. It’s the Rose Riders and they are aiming for them.

What happens when Jesse and Will discover that Nate Thompson is actually Kate Thompson? Will she reveal the truth about why her father was killed? Will she uncover her father's secrets? Can she find the Rose Riders and exact her revenge or will Kate learn that vengeance is a road best left untraveled? And will love find it’s way into Kate’s heart?

Visit Erin Bowman’s website.