Our club which consists of various ages and backgrounds found this book to be quite stimulating. Our discussion was excellent. We felt the character became her own person by the end of the story. For the year that the book took place, being an independent woman is not the norm. We also discussed the difference in our lives as compared to hers. We all felt we wanted a second book to be written because there were a lot of things we felt we needed to have an ending to. Do they ever find the gold?