DNF at 50%. Where is the plot? Is there a plot? 
 What a disappointment. This book suffers from something that has plagued every single Rae Carson book I've ever read, however good they ended up being: it's slow as molasses. It started off so well, with a strong character and a rare setting in young adult literature. 
 I have a strange life; I know it well. We have a big homestead and not enough working hands, so I'm the girl who hunts and farms and pans for gold because her daddy never had sons. I'm forever weary, my hands roughed and cracked, my skirts worn too thin too soon. The town girls poke fun at me, calling me "Plain Lee" on account of my strong hands and my strong jaw. 
 But there's plenty I love about my life that makes it all just fine: the sunrise on the snowy mountain slopes, a mama and daddy who know my worth, that sweet tingle when a gold nugget sits in the palm of my hand. 
 But it wound up being a huge disappointment to me, because I fully expected to love this book. A long time ago, back in the Paleolithic Era, I was a grade schooler. We had these things called Computer Labs, and once a week, the whole class would get to use it and played (educational) games. My favorite was this game called Oregon Trail. We played as settlers who wandered across the country, fording rivers, hunting wild game, dodging attacks, surviving dysentery. This book was pretty much the same thing, it was fun at first, but it got really boring. 
 This is essentially the plot: 
 Girl has magical gold-finding powers. Girl is unpopular but happy with her life and her parents. 
 Make that WAS HAPPY with her life. Parents got murdered right off. Boo. 
 Girl is assigned a (sinister) guardian. Is there any other kind? 
 Girl runs away! Disguises herself as a guy (not that original, but admittedly, not too many other options) 
 She gets supplies 
 She travels 
 She gets in trouble 
 She travels some more 
 She gets in more trouble 
 She travels some more 
 Oh crap! Trouble! 
 Whew, let's travel on! 
 Rinse, repeat until I got sick of all this because it feels like I've gone through all this before while playing a grade-school game. I would give this book the benefit of the doubt, since I did end up enjoying Carson's previous series, but my time is a lot more precious to me these days, and I'm a lot more impatient.