My August book club pick was another historical fiction book, this time a romance, but unlike the previous two I've read as part of this project, Veins of Gold did not send me down a rabbit hole of research. There were no prominent historical figures woven into the story, and the event that provided the historical backdrop just isn't one that I'm all that interested in.
Veins of Gold is set during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s when men were leaving their lives behind for California hoping to strike it rich. However, the story itself takes place in Utah, near Salt Lake City. There are a few Mormon characters in the book, but the author did not give much attention to that detail other than in a few almost errant thoughts of the main character, Gentry.
The eldest of three siblings, Gentry takes on the responsibility of caring for her family when their father unexpectedly leaves them to seek gold. All the mining is having severe magical impacts on the land, impacts that can be felt all the way in Utah and beyond. When a mysterious and handsome stranger saves Gentry and her sister from one of those impacts, a spark blooms, but how can Gentry say yes to the tetherless Winn among all her responsibility, especially when her well-to-do but older neighbor asks her to marry him?
***Spoilers***
Our book begins with Butch Abrams informing his three children - Gentry, Rooster, and Pearl - that he will be leaving for California the next day to work for a gold mining company. He assures them that he will send them money as soon as he's able. The next morning, he sneaks out without a goodbye, leaving the three siblings to fend for themselves. With their finances in dire straights, Gentry's brother takes on more hours working as a farmhand for their neighbor, Hoss, and Gentry decides to sell off their mother's china to the neighboring Mormon community for use in their new temple.
Gentry and her sister set off for American Fork to consult with their friend Hannah about the china. Along the way, they are caught in a magical earthquake and saved by the mysterious Winn. The china does not survive the quake, but Hannah's husband takes the shards to Salt Lake City where he manages to sell them. Gentry and Pearl remain in American Fork until he returns, and it's there that Gentry discovers she can now see magic. Winn once again comes to her rescue and explains that her gold locket was spelled during the quake, giving her the ability to see what others cannot.
The sisters return home and life returns to normal until a magical swarm of locusts descends on their garden. Winn convinces his magical seagulls to intervene and save some of their crop, but the Abrams' magical mishaps are not over. One night, they suffer a magical earthquake which destroys part of their home, though Winn is able to magically repair it.
In the moments in between these magical disasters, Winn is slowly teaching Gentry about the magic. He explains to her that the magic feeds on the veins of gold running through the earth and that all the mining, especially that happening in California, is causing the magic to act out in self-defense. Winn uses his seagulls, which can transform into a flying house, to travel around the continent chasing these events and calming the magic. He even takes her to meet the Hagree, the Native American tribe where he spent his childhood and learned about the magic.
Gentry falls for Winn, as is expected, but she cannot escape the responsibilities of her family. She's managed to confirm that her father made it to California, but he still has not written or sent money. Winn and his birds fly Gentry to California to find him, and they confirm what Gentry has expected all along: Butch Abrams didn't go west to pan for gold to provide a better life for his family. He abandoned them.
The family is in danger of losing their home, and Gentry sees no other option but to accept the marriage proposal of their neighbor, Hoss. He's twice her age but can offer her and her siblings stability. Winn confronts Hoss, then Gentry and Winn have a fight that ends with him leaving. Hoss, though still serious about wanting to marry Gentry, recognizes that she loves Winn and urges her to take time to think about her decision.
Meanwhile, Rooster has been secretly looking for a better job, and his efforts finally pay off. Their friend Hannah's husband is starting a printing press and has agreed to hire him. The pay is much better than that of a farmhand and includes room and board. Rooster's job saves Gentry from a marriage she only said yes to out of a misguided sense of responsibility. The siblings allow the bank to reclaim their home and move to Salt Lake City where Rooster's new wages are enough to support them.
Gentry, though, can't stop thinking about Winn. With no other way of finding him, she opens herself up to the magic, sacrificing her mother's gold locket in the process. After causing a major setback at a California mining camp, she finds Winn at what I assume is the Grand Canyon (it wouldn't have been named yet), they reunite, and make a plan for their future. They even come up with a way to settle the wild magic that's wreaking havoc on the land. That's how the book ends -- using raw gold provided by the Hagree, they travel to different locations to put the magic to sleep.
***End Spoilers***
This was a really quick read for me -- it's only 312 pages. The audiobook version is a little more than nine hours long, but I don't think it took me that long to get through this one.
To be honest, this book was a bit underwhelming for me. I was probably subconsciously and unfairly comparing it to The Paper Magician, which is one of my favorite series. I think that was a big part of my underwhelm. Veins of Gold is a standalone, while the other has three books over which the story develops.
The magic was very surface level, probably because we only get Gentry's point of view, and she truly did not understand the magic until the very end of the book. Maybe if the author had included Winn's point of view, that could have been fleshed out some and felt more robust.
Speaking of Winn, in my opinion, there wasn't enough of him in the story. He was such a great character and an integral part of the story, but I didn't feel like I knew enough about him. On the flip side, there was a lot of focus on Gentry's stomach. I mean, I get it. She was stressed and anxious and crumbling under the weight of responsibility, but it felt like every other page was talking about Gentry's stomach cramping without a real explanation.
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the story. I just wish there was more. More character development, more magic, more family, more everything.
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