Ok... this book took me literally forever to read. The pacing was just set way too slow, and I found it hard to keep reading because I would be so bored with it at some points.

I think that the concept of gold and everything was really creative, and I think the author does a good job of describing it and showing how it affects Gentry and her family. Even though this was supposed to be a fantasy novel (at least I think it is) I feel like the book could've been way better if it was just historical fiction.

The whole beginning of the novel was Gentry and her family's struggles, which I think were very historically accurate and well written, but when the author first mentions magic, it just didn't really catch my attention, and the whole concept of gold and magic and the land that seems to be so emphasized in the summary is more like the underlying issue/story for like 80% of the book. The ending was probably the one part I did like, but I still had my issues with it, to be honest.

Gentry and Winn's parents were a 'big' topic in this novel, and when we find out what happened to them, it's only like two pages long for the climax of each of these events which the author seemed to keep talking so much in the beginning/middle of the book.

Adding to this, I feel like we kept seeing one side of Gentry, and I didn't really like her as the main character; she was kind of boring to me, to be honest. She was always trying to be helpful or she was trying to do something related to gold, or she was struggling. We really didn't see any other major emotion (in my opinion) from her until the last like 30 pages.

I liked the ending the best but it still bothered me because it just felt super rushed. Everything that the author didn't tie up in the beginning/middle was just crammed into the last chapter and epilogue and it wasn't a satisfying ending.

Overall, if you want a cute and mainly historical novel that has some magical/fantastical elements in it, this would be a good read for you.