"JoAnn Levy is one marvelous researcher and a fine novelist,
and she has dramatized the total gold rush experience like
no one before her."
- Folio

"compassionate and captivating...written lyrically and from the heart, with an exceptional portrayal of day to day life that allows the reader to enter another world" 
- Placerville Mountain Democrat

"vivid and affecting....commands the reader's awe and deep sympathies... a fine work of historical fiction"
- Dallas Morning News

"a quietly eloquent tale"
- Publishers Weekly

"evokes the landscape of a now-vanished countryside...
fills a crucial gap"
- San Francisco Chronicle

"skillfully weaves historical details of everyday life, the landscape and the politics"
- Denver Post

"Crowded with authentic detail, written with enviable grace and flair,
For California's Gold offers its readers a memorable story of tragedy and courage. In sum, JoAnn Levy has enriched gold rush literature."
- J. S. Holliday, author, Rush for Riches, and director emeritus, California Historical Society

"Heroically assimilating the primary sources of the Gold Rush, JoAnn Levyhas created a novel that speaks with the panoramic force of history and theintimate voice of private experience. Here in fiction based on the recordis the story of how one woman, alongside other women, left home, crossedthe continent, loved, suffered, served, prevailed, embraced life and helped found a commonwealth."
- Dr. Kevin Starr, State Librarian of California

"What a pleasure to read a work of fiction that so effectively captures
the historical authenticity of the gold rush period... a fine piece of work!"
- Malcolm Rohrbough, author, Days of Gold, and professor of history, University of Iowa

"I LOVED the book! Levy is a master at weaving history and humanity into a powerful, haunting, and unforgettable tale of hope, despair, courage, and passion."
- Marlene Smith-Baranzini, editor, The Shirley Letters from the California Mines, 1851-1852

"A remarkable act of historical imagination, this richly detailed novel (based on eyewitness accounts) brings the day-to-day life of the gold rush vibrantly alive. As in her first novel, Daughter of Joy, JoAnn Levy has shown she has a great gift for delving inside historical characters... A compelling read."
- Michael Kowalewski, past president Western Literature Association, and editor, Gold Rush: A Literary Exploration