Beautiful story of a young woman's journey in pursuit of her love to 1849 San Fransisco.

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Allende is a great writer. I couldn't put this book down. A great story and great adventure.

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This is a wonderful historical fiction story of a young, independent woman who runs away from her home in Chile to follow her "true" love to California during the Gold Rush. Along the way she endures many hardships and learns a lot about who she is and what she wants out of life. This is a great book for a book club because there are many topics to discuss - the role of women in society, nature vs. nuture, racism, the Gold Rush to name a few. You learn a lot about the Gold Rush, which is a facinating subject unto itself.

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This was a very engaging book and I felt interested throughout. I hope you like it as much as I did!

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I have read every one of Isabel Allende's book and this one was just as engaging as all of the others. Full of interesting characters, a hint of the paranormal, fascinating looks at other cultures,a bit of adventure and uncensored peeks into the trials faced by some immigrants. Highly recommended.

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One of my favorite authors has created yet another masterpiece. This story takes you back in time and elevates your consciousness to feel the compassion for the trials and tribulations that the characters endure. If you loved the other Chilean author Isabelle Allende tales of passion like I did, "Of Love and Shadows", "Stories of Eva Luna", "House of Spirits", etc., you'll also love "Daughter of Fortune". As is typical of Allende stories, she builds a magical journey for her characters and you feel like you are along for the ride.

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Loved this book. A great tale.

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Having never read Isabel Allende and having gotten away from ficion nearly completely, I was surprised at how well she was able to draw me into this multi-cultural, continent-hopping story. Allende was able to give a very realistic account of all of the places in this book I've actually been. From the rambling, over-designed Victorian home where the main character Eliza Sommers was brought up to the proliferous fragrances in an Oriental market where Tao Chi'en began his quest for a healer's knowledge in earnest to the lovely shores of the chilly, mirror-clear American River I felt I was truly there - again. There's something unreal about the sunlight coming through the leaves in autumn in Northern California and reading this book transported me. I could hear the water tumbling over those rocks and even smell the eucalyptus over on those hills overlooking the Bay.

The plot was believable while not quite ever predictable. The characters grew and got more interesting all the way till the final chapter. The feminist element got to be a teensie-weensie bit preachy at times but I couldn't help but empathize with the struggles these women faced. The main characters were real - never exaggerated. Here and there a minor character might have been slightly exaggerated - particularly the men.

Historical fiction should first and foremost be entertainment but I'm always pleased when I get to the first page that actually teaches me something. I had not known of the economical and geographical importance of the Chilean port city of Valparaiso in the 19th century and was fascinated to go research it.

This was a fun read. It almost gives me gold fever and I haven't wanted to go back to California for years. And who wouldn't want to visit Valparaiso & Canton? If I believed in reincarnation I would want to come back as a modern version of Paulina Rodriguez de Santa Cruz... but first I'm going to have to go find another Isabel Allende novel to read.

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LOVED this book, awesome read!!

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This book was excellent. A good story as well as educational, I learned some about Chile in the 19th century, the California gold rush, and how they transported tropical fruit to the USA while keeping it fresh without modern-day refrigeration.

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Very interesting - especially how the story comes full circle. Would definately try another one of this author's books.

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I loved this book. The author makes the characters come alive and you feel you know them personally. She goes into each characters background so you know where they are coming from.

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The Gold Rush Days as I had not seen them, A learning experience for me!

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If you haven't read this great book....you should!! What a wonderful author to spin the stories that suck you right in! Make it yours!

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Great story line, very interesting and a great summer read. If you enjoy historical fiction with a touch of romance this will be a good choice for you.

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This is another one of my top ten all-time favorite books. I just bought it for the third time because I keep giving them away to my friends.

Allende's stories are riveting and her characters are brilliantly drawn. The heroine in this one travels halfway around the globe to find her true love and when circumstances change, she adjusts to her new reality and finds a way to succeed. I love this book. I'm saving the sequel, Portrait in Sepia, as a reward for myself later, when I need rewarding.

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This was the first book that I read by Isabel Allende and I LOVED it. She is a master story teller and this book just pulled me right in. Highly recommended. The House of the Spirits is great too!

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I DO enjoy Isabel Allende!

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Loved the book until the very end. I do not like abrupt endings!

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Allende expands her geographical boundaries in this sprawling, engrossing historical novel flavored by four cultures English, Chilean, Chinese and American And set during the 1849 California Gold Rush. The alluring tale begins in Valpara!so, Chile, with young Eliza Sommers, who was left as a baby on the doorstep of wealthy British importers Miss Rose Sommers and her prim brother, Jeremy. Now a 16-year-old, and newly pregnant, Eliza decides to follow her lover, fiery clerk Joaqu!n Andieta, when he leaves for California to make his fortune in the gold rush. Enlisting the unlikely aid of Tao Chi'en, a Chinese shipboard cook, she stows away on a ship bound for San Francisco. Tao Chi'en's own story A richly textured and expansively told A begins when he is born into a peasant family and sold into slavery, where it is his good fortune to be trained as a master of acupuncture. Years later, while tending to a sailor in colonial Hong Kong, he is shanghaied and forced into service at sea. During the voyage with Eliza, Tao nurses her through a miscarriage. When they disembark, Eliza is disguised as a boy, and she spends the next four years in male attire so she may travel freely and safely. Eliza's search for Joaqu!n (rumored to have become an outlaw) is disappointing, but through an eye-opening stint as a pianist in a traveling brothel and through her charged friendship with Tao, now a sought-after healer and champion of enslaved Chinese prostitutes, Eliza finds freedom, fulfillment and maturity. Effortlessly weaving in historical background, Allende (House of the Spirits; Paula) evokes in pungent prose the great melting pot of early California and the colorful societies of Valpara!so and Canton. A gallery of secondary characters, developed early on, prove pivotal to the plot. In a book of this scope, the narrative is inevitably top-heavy in spots, and the plot wears thin toward the end, but this is storytelling at its most seductive, a brash historical adventure.

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