Their appearance solidified my decision on the book reminding me (painfully) of everything Donati's characters weren't: interesting, compelling, complicated, and imperfect. It was confirmation to what I had suspected the whole time: someone trying to imitate Gabaldon and falling way short of the mark. The only genuinely shocking bit was when Gabaldon's characters briefly popped up in a bit of back story. There was one part of about 3 hours where they were actually in the wilderness that was interesting, but on a whole that wasn't enough to save it. This book is a rather juvenile attempt at being real historical fiction that gets tangled up in its Mary Sue's ripped bodice. I kept getting recommendations for this book saying 'if you liked the Outlander series, you'll like this!' No. 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. 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.Īs 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.Įlizabeth'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. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter - betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father as well. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives.ĭetermined 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. 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. It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced. When Elizabeth Middleton, 29 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. Here is an epic of romance and history that will captivate listeners from the start.

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.

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