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Summary: This book is a must read!!!
Review: If you like to read books to escape, this book is better than a calgon bath. Elizabeth and Nathaniel take us exploring around Paradise, Albany, Johnstown, and my personal favorite, into the bush. Ms. Donati's descriptions makes you feel as if you are there and can smell the fresh cooked venison. Her characters have so much substance to them, you wish you were sitting around a campfire, or at the trading post, swapping stories.The only negative is that I have to wait until fall of 1999 for the sequel.
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Summary: Wonderful wilderness tale with a great cast of characters!
Review: Anyone who loves Diana Gabaldon's "Outlandish" series will love this book. The main character, Elizabeth Middleton, is a strong, independent single woman who falls in love with Nathaniel Bonner - a backwoodsman who was raised in the Mohawk nation. This book covers their fascinating life together and their struggle to save their mountain from the white settlers who want to claim it for the silver mine it contains. It's a wonderful, fast-paced read - I couldn't put it down and found myself counting the hours at work until I could get home and read it! Now that I've finished it, I can't wait for Donati's next installment. Since that's not out until Fall of 1999, I may just have to be content to re-read this great book! Enjoy!
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Summary: It takes you back in time with it's first words!
Review: Into the Wilderness, is the best book that I have read since Diane Gabaldon's Outlander. The setting in colonial America is intriguing, especially because of the native Mahikan influences. I especially love her use of James Fennimore Cooper's famous characters. The romance of Nathaniel and Elizabeth tugged at my heart, I got lost in this book. I have already read it for the second time. Her style of writing is very captivating. Five Stars!
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Summary: definitely not "Outlander" quality
Review: I really really wanted to like this book, since I love historical novels and the setting should be fascinating. But I couldn't get past the first few chapters due to the author's pedestrian writing style and ho-hum characterizations. I was also constantly put off by anachronistic speech patterns. The publisher wants you to think this is "Outlander in America" but it's simply not. I've read many a paperback genre romance with more flare and dramatic tension than found in this book.
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Summary: wonderful characters
Review: This was a terrific read -- a fast moving and exciting story with characters I cared about. I'm not sure about the comparison to Gabaldon -- those are time travel novels and this is real historical fiction. I think this book and author stand tall on their own. Even the minor characters are great. I want to know what happens to Elizabeth and Nathaniel and Hawkeye and Hannah, Curiosity (one of my favorites!) and Galileo, Richard Todd and Kitty. And I'm really hoping for more of Aunt Merriweather and Runs-from-Bears and Many-Doves. It's historical fiction, adventure and a love story rolled into one -- what more could you want? I'd give this ten stars if I could.
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Summary: enthralling, moving, amusing and instructive
Review: I picked up this book because of the recommendation of Diana Gabaldon on its dust jacket. For the first time in many years, I found myself up late at night, virtually unable stop reading because I "had to know" what happened next. The characters are fresh, original, and memorable, and clearly and humanly drawn, even the many and varied supporting roles. As a happy "side efffect", I learned a great deal about the early history of our country, and of day to day life for the brave souls carving a new society out of the wilderness. However, I loved this book for its gripping story, its fascinating characters and the outstanding quality of writing. I can't wait for the sequel!!
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Summary: As satisfy as anything I have ever read
Review: In the Winter of 1792, Elizabeth Middleton arrives from England to reside with her father, a renowned New York judge. Elizabeth hopes to become the teacher to the children of the wilderness town of Paradise, an area that the English lady finds intoxicating despite the bitter cold and the newness (to her) of Indians. However, it is a white man, wearing Mohawk garb, that most of shakes Elizabeth out of her complacency. Nathaniel Bonner has feet in both worlds. He finds the feisty independence of Elizabeth an exciting brew. They work together as he constructs her schoolhouse, ultimately leading to her falling in love with him. However, prejudice and conflict between the whites and the Indians yank Nathaniel in two different directions and leave him as an undesirable as far as her esteemed father is concerned. Though she is her own person, will Elizabeth have the courage to defy tradition and her sire to go after the one person who can provide her a lifetime of love? Sara Donati belongs in "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" because it is such a rarity to see a first time novel come together in near perfect harmony. The turmoil of the second decade following American Independence is so real, readers will believe they have been whisked there for first hand observations. The characters are all genuine and the action-packed story line is filled with the color of the period without losing its fast pace. Fans of historical romance, especially Americana, have found a strong author who, with more novels like INTO THE WILDERNESS, will raise the level of quality to unforeseen heights. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Get this BOOK!
Review: I lucked into an Advanced Reading Copy. Oh my - this is going to be very big. Luscious sense of period and captivating characters. A must read. I eagerly anticipate the SEQUEL!
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Summary: Great Historical Romance/Drama combined with some adventure.
Review: "Into The Wilderness" is a fine book for those of us who enjoy romance novels set in the past - this being in the 1700's Hudson Valley Region of New York State. The main character, Elizabeth Middleton, a mature woman in her late 20's is a strong, innocent and admirable figure. After coming over to America from England to settle in to her father's home in upstate New York to teach school, she quickly falls in love with a rugged, but gentle and intelligent "wilderness man" Nathaniel Bonner, brought up in the Iroquois Indian tradition. But another man Dr. Richaard Todd,has his eyes set on her - but only to gain her dowry (a mountain with much sentimental meaning for him as well as a fabled silver mine). Elizabeth elopes with Nathaniel to everyone's surprise and to secure the mountain for themselves. When they go into hiding from the pursuing Dr. Todd, the adventure begins in the Adirondack wilderness - which certainly tests Elizabeth's mettle. She faces all her obstacles with courage and bravery - even while alone in the forest and fighting for her life against an evil backwoodsman. This book has many memorable characters, Elizabeth's brother Julian, an insecure, gambling, immature man with no direction in life, Robby MacLaughlan, a Scottsman loner who is the salt of the earth and Curiosity - the black housekeeper/midwife working in Elizabeth's father's home who secretly runs the house and knows much more about the townspeople than she lets on. I liked this book because of the blending of the different cultures, the European settlers, the freed black slaves and the Native Americans all living in a harsh new country together and depending on each other for help when needed. Try "Into The Wilderness" if you like strong female lead characters and lots of romance (and some sexy parts) set in a new awakening country and the brave adventurers who dared to discover its excitement and beauty.
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Summary: The First in a Wonderful New Series
Review: From the opening sentence of the book, which recalls Jane Austen's "Emma," this reader was immediately swept into the world of late 18th century upstate New York. Although the book invites comparisons to Dianah Gabaldon's Outlander series (and indeed Clare Frasier makes a brief appearance as a battlefield doctor), I found it also reminiscent of the works of Anya Seton. There is careful attention to the details of ordinary everyday life, an emphasis on creating memorable characters, and plot twists and turns that are quite suspenseful. Actually, the book can almost be considered a sequel to Cooper's "The Last of the Mohicans," as Hawkeye and Chingachgook are featured characters, the former being the father of Nathaniel Bonner, the hero of this novel. Our heroine is Elizabeth Middleton, who has come to upstate New York from England at the age of 29 years to join her father, who has been living in the remote village for many years. Some reviewers have commented that Elizabeth is too politically correct for her time period, however I disagree, as it is made clear that she is a reader of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and other reformers. She is really a blue stocking in the best sense of that term. Her opening herself to love is a gradual process, although the reader knows from the start that Nathaniel is indeed her soul mate. Elizabeth is no "milk & water miss," as she has physical as well as moral courage. She defies her father, whom she truly loves, in order to follow not only her heart but also her head "into the wilderness" for a fullfilling life among those rejected as savages by the dominant culture. This is a book for anyone who enjoys detailed examinations of everyday life in the past, complex characters who are not sterotypes (Elizabeth's brother Julian and the village doctor, Richard Todd, are fully realized characters in their own right, not cardboard villains), and exciting adventure. There are supposed to be five books in this series: books two and three are in paperback, and number four is due out in hardcover this fall. I already have mine reserved!
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