Into the Wilderness

A Novel

De: Sara Donati

Narrado por: Kate Reading

Weaving a vibrant tapestry of fact and fiction, Into the Wilderness sweeps us into another time and place . . . and into the heart of a forbidden, incandescent affair between a spinster Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate readers from the very first page.

When Elizabeth Middleton, twenty-nine years old and unmarried, leaves her Aunt Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the remote mountain village of Paradise on the edge of the New York wilderness, she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose: to teach school.

It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered—a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives.

Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village—white, black, and Native American—Elizabeth soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter—betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. An alliance with Todd could extract her father from ruin but would call into question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his father, and a small group of Native Americans live and hunt.

As Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with a choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest, and a desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation. Elizabeth's ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to come: trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets and divided soul.

Interweaving the fate of the remnants of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati's compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portrait of an emerging America.©2009 Sara Donati; (P)2009 Random House

Reseñas de la Crítica

"My favorite kind of book is the sort you live in, rather than read. Into the Wilderness is one of those rare stories that let you breathe the air of another time, and leave your footprints on the snow of a wild, strange place. I can think of no better adventure than to explore the wilderness in the company of such engaging and independent lovers as Elizabeth and her Nathaniel."—Diana Gabaldon

"Each time you open a book you hope to discover a story that will make your spirit of adventure and romance sing. This book delivers on that promise."—Amanda Quick

Only Worth Reading for Background on Future Books

I tried to read this book a few years ago. I quit because it seemed to be so unoriginal and blatantly commercial. The author borrowed one of her primary characters from James Fenimore Cooper's "Last of the Mohicans" and also brought in characters from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, all of which said to me that the author was so unsure of her own ability to write a book people would like on its own merits, that she resorted to gimmicks to attract an audience. And as I read a little about the author, including her own words from her own website, I read nothing that convinced me her book was nothing more than an attempt to capitalize on others success. She seemed to have a real chip on her shoulder about other's success.

However, several months ago I purchased "The Gilded Hour" because the time period attracted me and I failed to note the author until I'd already purchased. I read it anyway and was pleasantly surprised. This made me decide to give her earlier series another chance. Especially because "The Gilded Hour" follows a later generation of the characters in "Into the Wilderness."

This time I made it through. "Into the Wilderness" is not a great book. There are moments when it is good. Much of the storyline makes little sense or is implausible at best, and her historical research is weak. Donati tries too hard in this book. And she fails to follow the one rule that is critical when you are at the beginning of a long book that is part of a longer series following the same characters. You have to take the time for the reader to get to know the characters as themselves. And you can't do this when they are thrown from crisis to crisis and constantly in danger from somewhere. There needs to be some downtime, where they lead normal lives without catastrophe hovering about. My guess is it is hard to write that kind of scene into a book and make it interesting to the reader, but good writers of sagas do it well. Donati did not.

Nevertheless, there was something appealing about the book and I not only finished it, I moved on and read the rest of the series. I was very happy that I did.

Hoped it would be more like outlander

It wasn't bad, just had higher expectations after the outlander series. I never really cared about the characters and the narration was flat.

What just happened?

So, I downloaded this book- thinking it would be similar to Outlander, as I'm a fan of the works of Diana Gabaldon. This was NOT LIKE OUTLANDER. That being said...I don't want to be overly negative--I will just say that I really didn't enjoy this book, it frustrated the heck out of me. It just stopped!!!
I will stick with Diana Gabaldon, Kate Morton and Susanna Kearsley...

Great story, well narrated, action romance

Great story, well narrated, action romance. Enjoyable read, it has well developed characters, recommended highly

I can't take it all in!

The story and characters are wonderful, well rounded and developed. I enjoyed listening to about the first half or a little more. I just feel as if it is really drawn out especially as there are, heaven knows, how many sequels/books in the series that follow it. I know the others are about the offspring but still...