INSPIRED BY JAMES FENIMORE COOPER

Last year I read all six of Sara Donati's Wilderness series books. The first was 'Into The Wilderness'. You'll find my review of it here. This, and the books that followed it are my all time favourites. So, having fished around on various blogs and seeing what Google would spit out at me, I thought I knew all there was to know about them.

Until last week.

I came across a review that mentioned Sara Donati had taken some characters from 'The Last of the Mohicans' and written a sequel. Dumbfounded, I trotted off to the library and asked one of the friendly staff to fossic in the bowels of the building for a copy of James Fenimore Cooper's novel.

Inside the rather dusty and tattered pages I found theses characters:  Cora, Nathaniel (aka Hawkeye) and Chingachgook.

Now in 'Into the Wilderness' Hawkeye and Cora's son is one of the main characters - Nathaniel Bonner. Cora has passed away and Chingachgook meets his demise early on in the book.

Fascinated by this discovery, I found a copy of the movie - The Last of the Mohicans. I remember watching it when it came out almost 20 years ago. Daniel Day Lewis made his name and I was shocked at the blood shed. This time around I was stunned by the beautiful forests. And the more I watched the more intoxicated I became at the scenery, the depiction of the town of Albany, and the scene where they hid behind a waterfall.

Although I noted that it was shot in North Carolina, not up state New York, Sara Donati's books came alive. And it got me wondering if it was Cooper's book that had inspired her or the wonderful cinematography of the movie. Either way, she wrote awesome books.

If you haven't read her books, I urge you to try them. Maybe you might like to revisit an old movie too.
And James Fenimore Cooper? Well, I had to return the book before I'd finished it. Written in 1826  it was hard going, but one day I aim to give it justice.

James Fenimore Cooper - the man who started it all.

THE ENDLESS FOREST by Sara Donati

Having reached the NaNo word count for today, I sat on our swing seat under a giant macracarpa tree and devoured the rest of this book. The sixth in the series, it is also the last and I have to confess to shedding a tear or two as I read the final pages. Not only was it farewell to a gripping, heart warming series, it was a farewell to some of the best characters I've ever read.

The opening prologue caught my heart strings. Curiosity, freed slave and great friend of the family central to the story, calls the reader to sit with her awhile on her porch. She fills in a few events from the last 10 years, then gently prods us to read on and find out more. This was beautifully written and very moving.

At first I struggled a little with all the 'little people' who had sprung up, but before long I'd fallen for them, slotted them into the correct families and the story took off.  Daniel Bonner, son of Elizabeth and Nathaniel, still struggles with a shoulder injury from the 1812 war. Then Martha, Nathaniel's ward and daughter to Jemima, returns to Paradise and puts a smile back on his face.

Jemima, bane to everyone for years, creates mayhem at every turn. She returns one last time, determined to create more havoc, but this is the last book and finally she gets her just reward.

Sara Donati wrapped the series up very cleverly with extracts from the village newspaper, highlighting both the tragic and exciting events of the Bonner family from 1828 to 1844. The final exert being the announcement of Elizabeth's death. For me it posed as many questions as it answered. Yet that is the nature of a family saga. The main characters have children, then grand-children and on it goes. Each generation have their own stories.

With a sense of loss, I return this book to nestle alongside its companion volumes. I wonder how long it will be before I pick up the first volume and begin the journey again.  

QUEEN OF SWORDS BY SARA DONATI

Book number five completed, and what a read. Taken up almost a year after the last book, we find ourselves in a completely different setting. Hannah and her half brother Luke have finally found Jennet on an isolated Caribbean island. They embark on a daring mission to free her, only to find that Jennet and Luke's baby son has been kidnapped by a powerful and evil family.

The baby's trail leads them first to Florida then on to New Orleans, where the three of them become separated. Added to this complication is the 1812 war. The English are converging on the Louisiana coast while Andrew Jackson and his men have poured in from the north, to protect New Orleans.

Amidst the war torn city the three must find each other, save the baby and make their way home. Help is sent to them in the form of Jean-Benoit Savard - a man of French, African, Choctaw and Seminole extraction. Can he work a miracle?

Add in a love story, or two, and a pinch of voodoo and you have a gripping story.

There is now only one more book to read in this series. I'm looking forward to reading it, yet I know I'll miss these people and their stories.
 

FIRE ALONG THE SKY

This weekend a huge storm the size of Australia swallowed our little country of New Zealand. High winds and rain assaulted the north and deep snow brought down a stadium in the deep south. In Dunedin, where I live, we had cold grey days with passing flurries of snow. Not that I really noticed, I was lost in the world of Sara Donati's, Fire Along The Sky.


The fourth in The Wilderness series, I found I couldn't put it down. Another ten years has passed since the last volume. Nathaniel's Mohawk daughter arrives home without her husband or son and a tale of horror, Elizabeth and Nathaniel's daughter Lily struggles with love and life, her twin Daniel rushes off to fight in the 1812 war and their cousin Jennet, newly widowed, arrives from Scotland.


Add to that the reappearance of a man from Hannah's past, a woman bent on hateful revenge, a plot to free prisoner's of war and a mysterious and dangerous priest and you have a rip roaring yarn.


What I especially liked was the way the story now revolves around the children of Elizabeth and Nathaniel, yet they are still at the heart of things. Also, Sara Donati manages to tie this incredible multi layered story in an authentic historical setting.


A new twist with this book is the cliff hanger ending. There were many resolutions, but a main character's whereabouts and safety are left in the balance. I'm looking at the cover of the next book - Queen of Swords - and wondering if I can put off reading it while I attack one or two others from my TBR pile. I think not.

LAKE IN THE CLOUDS

I have just finished reading the third book in Sara Donati's  Wilderness Series.

The book opens eight years after the last and Nathaniel's half Mohawk daughter Hannah is eighteen and a doctor in training.

Determined to help an escaped slave she plunges her family into danger. Her old childhood friend, Liam Kirby shows up, only to declare himself a bounty hunter, seeking the slave.

Elizabeth and Nathaniel take to the endless forests to deliver the slave to safety, while Hannah is sent to the Kine-Pox Institution in New York in order to learn how to vaccinate the village from small-pox.

A wonderful blend of historical detail and rollicking adventure ensue, coming to a wonderful ending that involves the appearance of a strong, persuasive Mohawk, by the name of Strikes-the Sky.

It took me a few chapters to really get into this book. I think because so much time had passed and many things had changed. The biggest was Hannah being grown up and a greater emphasis on her character. However it didn't take long to be swept in to the adventure and I found it a hard book to put down. I especially enjoyed the historical detail of Hannah's training as a doctor.

Book four is waiting on the shelf, but I'll try to read two or three smaller books from my tottering To Be Read Pile first.

DAWN ON A DISTANT SHORE

I have just finished the second book in Sara Donati's Wilderness Series - Dawn on a Distant Shore. What an exciting read. I'd have to say I enjoyed it better than the first book. 


Shortly after the birth of twins, Elizabeth sets off to Montreal with her babies, her nine year old step-daughter and father's housekeeper - 60 year old Curiosity Freeman, a freed slave. Her husband, her father-in-law, and an old friend are in gaol there and somehow she is going to break them out!


After much adventure, the family is finally reunited. Then distant Scottish relatives interfere and Elizabeth rushes to a Quebec dock to find her children and Curiosity have been whisked away, on a ship bound for Scotland.


What follows are a string of adventures on the high seas. There are pirates, including the real life Anne Bonney, and skirmishes between the French and British navy. When they finally get to Scotland there are family secrets, intrigue and more threats to their lives, that all build to a satisfying end.


Sara Donati is skilled at flavouring her dialogue with different dialects and has a real handle on Scots. I find I'm now thinking in Scots, ye ken? 


If you enjoy a good historical read, then I highly recommend this series.  

Into The Wilderness

                                                                                                                                                                   For the last week I have been reading Sara Donati's huge book, Into The Wilderness. I first read it about 10 years ago and I'm enjoying revisiting the characters. The story begins in 1792 when Elizabeth Middleton, an English lady who is proud to call herself a spinster, travels to her fathers home in America. He lives in Paradise, a small mountain village, set in the wilderness of New York territory.

Before she even reaches her father's house she meets Nathaniel Bonner. A mountain man, who is more comfortable amongst the Mohawk than the white settlers. Elizabeth's father wishes her to marry the doctor, but she elopes with Nathaniel, and the adventure begins.

From land tussles over Wolf Mountain, the home of Nathaniel and his extended Mohawk  family, to dangerous escapades through the wilderness, this is a real page turner.

There is a large cast of intriguing characters, including a brief appearance by Jamie and Claire Fraser, from Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. The Mohawk people are especially well written; their culture and language expertly woven into the story.

I'm hoping to finish it this weekend. Then it's on to the next book in my large pile of 'to be read'.