Good Reads: Into the Wilderness, by Sara Donati

It’s been a while since my last book review, hasn’t it?  That’s partly because the last few novels I checked out from the library were duds, and I try to share only books that I truly enjoyed.

This book was one of my Christmas presents from The Picky Apple.  He picked this one out all by himself based on my love of Outlander, and I’d say he made an excellent choice!  Into the Wilderness, by Sara Donati is the first book in another great historical fiction series.  There are many similarities to Outlander (and there is even a mention of Claire Fraser, the main character from Outlander), but this one is just straight historical ficition: no time travel.  I guess you could say I’ve been on a bit of a historical fiction kick lately.  My mom borrowed my book while I was reading the aforementioned dud novels from the library, and based on her glowing review, I couldn’t wait to read it!!

Into the Wilderness is the story of Elizabeth (Lizzie) Middleton, a strong-willed 28 year old Englishwoman who moves to upstate to New York (to a little town called Paradise) in 1792 to live with her father (the Judge of the town) and her brother Julian.  Lizzie intends to open a school and teach the children of the town, but her father has other plans, including an arranged marriage to Richard Todd, a young and prosperous doctor in the town.  Soon after her arrival in Paradise, Lizzie meets Nathaniel Bonner, a mysterious man of Scottish descent who lived among the Mohicans and now lives on nearby Wolf Mountain.  Nathaniel and Richard (who was kidnapped by the Mohicans as a child) are longstanding enemies, and Lizzie’s choice of Nathaniel over Richard only fuels the fire.  Lizzie quickly becomes immersed (whether she wants to be or not) in small town politics, learns how to brave the wilderness, and becomes acquainted firsthand with the Mohican way of life.

I found this book a little slower to get going than Outlander (which has ruined me for all other fiction, I’m sure), but once the action commenced, it was nearly nonstop until the end of the book and hard to put down!  The end of the book definitely lacks some closure, but I suppose that was done on purpose so that a sequel (a whole series, in fact) could be written later.

If you love historical fiction (or even if you don’t…if you love fiction, period) then you should check out Into The Wilderness.

Do you enjoy historical fiction?  What great books have you read lately?

Disclosure:  The links above are Amazon affiliate links, which means I MIGHT receive a tiny compensation from Amazon if a whole bunch of people click on those links and order books. (Hasn’t happened yet, doesn’t appear to be happening any time soon.)  I have not been asked to review this book.  This was just a Good Read I wanted to share!