Into the Wilderness

Author: Sara Donati
Genre: Historical Fiction (US)

Type: Trade Paperback

Pages: 876

Source: Personal copy

Series: #1 in the Into the Wilderness series

Publisher: Delta

First Published: 1998

Opening Lines: "December 1792 - Elizabeth Middleton, twenty-nine years old and unmarried, overly educated and excessively rational, knowing right from wrong and fancy from fact, woke in a nest of marten and fox pelts to the sight of an eagle circling overhead, and saw at once that it could not be far to Paradise."

Book Description from GoodReads: Weaving a tapestry of fact and fiction, Sara Donati’s epic novel sweeps us into another time and place…and into a breathtaking story of love and survival in a land of savage beauty.

It is December of 1792. Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote New York mountain village. It is a place unlike any she has ever experienced. And she meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered—a white man dressed like a Native American: Nathaniel Bonner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, Elizabeth soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as with her own family. Interweaving the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two lovers, Sara Donati’s compelling novel creates a complex, profound, passionate portait of an emerging America. 

My Rating: 5 stars

Into the Wilderness is one of my all-time favourite series so I was happy to make time to re-read this first book of a series that has stayed with me for many years. It's an epic adventure that's a great mix of Historical Fiction and Romance set in the late 18th century in New York state.  

The similarities between this series and Diana Gabaldon's popular Outlander series are inevitable -- they're both exciting sagas with compelling characters, vivid descriptions of the era and a blend of main and sub plots to keep the pacing high … plus Donati and Gabaldon are friends in real life.  Nathaniel and Elizabeth are good competition for Outlander's Claire and Jamie in the 'swoon-worthy' and 'aren't they amazing couples' categories.  Claire and Jamie Fraser (and their nephew Ian) are briefly mentioned in this first book but this series is amazing in its own right.  Personally, I enjoy Donati's series more because it's just as riveting as Outlander but it's more concise and less verbose than Gabaldon's series which often rambles and strays too far from the main story line for me.

Into the Wilderness loosely follows the family of Dan'l Bonner (who you may remember as Hawkeye in The Last of the Mohicans) but the focus is on his son, Nathaniel Bonner.  I enjoyed the strong focus on Indigenous culture and how well the residents of Paradise, big and small, are blended into the large and smaller plots.  Fans, eager for a strong connection between the two main characters, will enjoy that the romance blossoms quickly.  Elizabeth is a wonderful, strong female character and her connection to the other characters is what made this book for me.

I highly recommend this fantastic series which has six books in all.  Readers will be immersed into the lives, loves and struggles of the Bonner clan and will be enthralled by the scandals and hardships of the diverse residents of the village of Paradise.  Once you start this series, you'll look forward to getting back into this world of adventure, romance and an unforgettable cast.