Book Review: Into the Wilderness
I picked this book up because of a review by another author I greatly admire. Within a couple of chapters I was absolutely hooked!! On finishing it, I immediately went to the bookstore and got the whole series and when I had finished those, waited very impatiently for the next book to come out.
The story begins in December of 1792 when Elizabeth Middleton leaves her comfortable English estate to join her family in a remote village in New York. There she meets people unlike any she’s ever encountered, including a white man dressed as a Native American.
Strong-willed and independent, Elizabeth is a school teacher and a “spinster” by choice; intending never to marry because her money and property would immediately become her husband’s. Her strong moral and political opinions are a source of constant embarrassment and contention in the small community where she settles, quickly putting her in conflict with the local slave owners and her own family.
Set in the wilderness of upstate New York and the Mohawk communities of Eastern Canada, this story masterfully interweaves the destiny of two lovers with the politics of a budding new country and the fate of the Mohawk nation.
If you’ve always thought you’d never fit into the strictures of life as a woman in the late 18th century, you’ll completely identify with the heroine of this novel. I sure did!!
Review written by: Tammi Appelman, Butyoudontlooksick.com ©2006
Title: Into the Wilderness
Author: Sara Donati
Publisher: Bantam Books
ISBN: 0553578529
