Rating: 
Summary: This one grew on me!
Review: I like historical romantic fiction, especially when the history recounted is accurate and you can learn as you read. This is true with this novel, which grows in strngth as it goes along. I had a hard time getting into the story for about the first hundred pages, and then this really took on a voice and power of its own. The characters of Elizabeth and Nathaniel are strong and consistent, and their relationship is compelling. There is also lots of scope for the sequal Dawn on a Distant Shore.The one drawback to this book, I think, is that the settlers of Paradise are very unsympathetic characters most of the time. There is a cartoonish quality to the villains and the subplot that isn't up to the quality of the rest of the book and the dignity that is given to most of the other characters. That made the beginning of the novel hard for me. As an aside, it was fun to have Sara Donati link this story with Diana Gabaldon't wonderful characters from Outlander, Dragonfly in Amber, etc. There is a similarity to the chracters and sense of place evoked in these two series of books that is very satisfying.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good read
Review: Not as good as Gabaldon, whom I have often seen Donati compared to. I really enjoyed this book more than the sequel. Great historical fiction, and the romance between the two is tender. I'm not sure I'd spend the money on the hardback, but the paperback is well worth the price.
Rating: 
Summary: A gripping love story for fans of Diana Gabaldon
Review: It was hard for me to imagine any book that would come close to Diana Gabaldon, besides Dorothy Dunnett's Niccolo series, but here it is! Set in the colonial US on the New York frontier, Donati mixes several popular genres (the "sequel to a famous book"--in this case Cooper's Last of the Mohicans--, thriller/mystery, historical fiction, romance)and crafts a gripping and highly enjoyable story of Elizabeth Middleton Bonner and her love for Nathaniel Bonner. The writing is incredibly convincing (I swear you sometimes get a chill from her depictions of upstate NY winters) and Donati succeeds in giving you a heroine and hero you won't forget soon. I found the style and substance of this book very reminiscent of Diana Gabaldon, and encourage other fans of her writing to give Donati a chance.
Rating:
Summary: Into the Wilderness
Review: If you are a fan of Dianna Gabaldon than you will be a fan of Sara Donati. I hated to finish this book and couldn't wait until the sequel was published. I'm hoping there's still more to come. great read!! enjoy!!
Rating:
Summary: What a Gal!
Review: The lead character must be the author's 21st century ideal in period garb. Leaping from a sedate life as a spinster in jolly old England into a headlong romance with the perfect man, albeit a woodsman,in early upper New York state, Elizabeth is liberated all the way into wedlock in a matter of weeks. She is strong and assertive, naive about love yet is an almost immediately accomplished lover. She is also without prejudice, accepting slave and native American children into her school in spite of immense antagonism. All-in-all, Elizabeth was way ahead of her time, a peer of the feedom-marchers of the 1960's.
Still, reading Donati's tale is instructive of the period and of how an ideal heroine might have behaved, given 21st century values in the late 1700's.
Where Donati shines is in her knowledge of the period and her ability to paint vivid scenes that might have ocurred at the time, including Indian village scenes with phrases in Mohawk. I admire that kind of research; it requires a LOT of work and dedication. Professor Donati also paints fascinating characters with authority; they live, breathe and smell...or stink, which was appropriate to the time. And she doesn't shy from the realities, like bodily functions, blood and pain, and yes, sex. The clarity and descriptiveness of her writing override any out-of-time idealisms which some fellow academics such as myself tend to notice.
If you enjoy historical fiction with a jolt of romance tossed in, you'll like this book...A LOT.
Rating:
Summary: Two Thumbs Up!
Review: Definitely in the same league as Diana Gabaldon, Sara Donati captures the imagination, and you find yourself relating to Elizabeth and Nathanial in the same manner as you would with Jamie and Claire. Gabaldon's character's have a better sense of humor, but Donati's books are no less captivating, and before long you find yourself submerged in another time, and another place. The time is 1790's, the place, upstate New York: Mohawk territory. From the time Nathanial stumbles across her path, Elizabeth is smittten with him, although she would not dare admit it. Nathanial breaks all the rules, and to elizabeth he is forbidden territory to a young lady of good breeding. But her resolve and traditional upbringing are no defense against the will and determination of a hunter like Nathanial, and she falls in love with the man known as Wolf Running Fast. I highly reccommend this series to anyone looking for a good story to get lost in.
Rating:
Summary: Great story
Review: If you loved Outlander you'll love this You feel taste smell her writing is that good.I couldn't put it down
Rating:
Summary: loved it again!
Review: I just reread Into the Wilderness and enjoyed it as much as I did the first time I read it, 3 years ago. This time around I could read it slower and savor every word and image while watching the movie play in my mind. I didn't feel the need to race through it like I did the first time I read it. Still a great book!
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Love Story
Review: Before I even opened the book, I watched Last of the Mohicans, one of my favorite movies. Into the Wilderness is the sequel,though written by a different author. Elizabeth Middleton travels from England to New York to be with her father in the 1700's. He has promised her she can be the school teacher for the local children. Since she has never married and has no prospects, this is an opportunity she looks forward to. Unlike most women of her time, being single doesn't bother her. She values her independence and loves the idea of teaching. Once she gets to her father's, she finds there is no school and her father
doesn't seem too interested in supplying one. What he is interested in is marrying her off to the local doctor,Richard Todd. Furious at his deception, it doesn't help matters that she is definitely not attracted to the good doctor. Instead, Nathaniel Bonner, son of the hero of Last of the Mohicans (Daniel Day Lewis), has captured her heart. To further persuade his head strong daughter into marrying the doctor, her father has promised her a mountain, Hidden Wolf, as part of her inheritance. But only if she marries his choice for her. She finds out the Mohicans want to buy the mountain from her father but Richard Todd has his own agenda and is only too willing to marry her to get it. The descriptions of the way they live and the countryside drew me in as well as the romance between Elizabeth and Nathaniel. I love romance in a book if it isn't overdone and this one was great. Even though Nathaniel was
the son of Daniel Day Lewis's character in the movie, in my mind I saw him as Daniel Day Lewis and Elizabeth as the beautiful Madeline Stowe. I really loved this book
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't live up to potential
Review: I thought the beginning few chapters were pretty interesting and thought they would set the tone for the entire book. I didn't come in to this book with the thought of comparing it to any other novel, but I couldn't help but compare it to the Outlander series, due to the fact that after reading the first few chapters, I could tell that this author was a fan of that series as well and the fact that the author even brought up the characters from the Outlander series in her book - that was a little bizarre - why on earth would anyone do that? You're just begging to be compared. I thought this book had a lot of potential but unfortunately didn't live up to it. I am not interested to find out "what happens next" because I'm not interested in the main characters. I thought the ending was a lame attempt to make sure people would read the next book. And I believe it is premature to call this an "epic story".
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