Sara Donati

Elizabeth Bonner travels across Canadian wilderness and waterways with her two small children to rescue her husband Nathaniel from the crown officials who have imprisoned him as an American spy.

Dawn on a distant shore

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Since I enjoyed the first book in this series, Into the Wilderness, I'm not sure why it took me so long to pick up the second book. However, now that I've read it, I don't think I missed much by waiting. This novel just misses some vital spark for me. I also felt a lack of connection to the characters. The fact that I plowed my way through most of this book and then decided to bring other reading material with me on my vacation says it all. I didn't dislike the book, but it was just OK and I wanted something more captivating in my suitcase.

Dawn is slow to get started and full of so many characters introduced in rapid succession that I had a hard time remembering who they all were. Although frequently compared to Diana Gabaldon, Ms. Donati lacks Ms. Gabaldon's skill with character development. Many of the characters in this book never really come alive, with a few exceptions such as Jennet. A bit of a nitpicky point, but I found the overuse of the phrase "to take one's measure" to be a small source of irritation, as was the babies' frequent squeaking. Mice squeak, rusty door hinges squeak, but babies usually squeal, gurgle, or coo.

I also found the plot to be rather contrived. The Earl of Carryk has disowned his daughter and is desperate to find a male heir so that a rival clan doesn't inherit his estate after he dies. Hawkeye and his descendents are the Earl's heirs. Carryk sends his agent, Moncrief, to America to bring the Bonners to Scotland. Moncrief goes to rather ridiculous lengths dependent on luck to manipulate the Bonner family into coming to Scotland, only to resort to kidnapping when all else fails. Such a man would more likely just have kidnapped his victims and dispensed with all of the other silliness, including his own jail stay with the Bonners. 

On a positive note, I enjoyed the Bonners's stay in Scotland and I thought the author did a nice job capturing the dialect. The scenes on board the ships were also well-written in that the settings came across as very realistic and gave me a sense of actually being on board.

The ending was tied up conveniently, complete with a red bow, with everyone getting pretty much what he or she deserved.

Anyaconda

Emily Ross

Shay Henrion

Kathy Rodger 

Andrea Fritz

Claudia Millar

Thea MacDonald

Settler Elizabeth Bonner must cross the frozen wilderness of New York State in the winter of 1794 in a desperate bid to save her husband from being hanged as an American spy, in the exciting sequel to Into the Wilderness.

Dawn on a Distant Shore

Judy McClure

Meagan N Reece

The sequel to the bestselling Into the Wilderness is an epic tale of romance and adventure, from the savage beauty of the New World to the wilds of Scotland. It is February 1794, and while fiercely independent Elizabeth Bonner gives birth to twins, her husband, the frontiersman Nathaniel, learns that his father has been arrested in British Canada. Forced to leave Hidden Wolf Mountain to help his father, Nathaniel - known by the Mohawk as 'Between-Two-Lives' - is himself imprisoned and in danger of being hanged as an American spy. In a desperate bid to save her husband, Elizabeth bundles up her infants and sets out on the dangerous trek to Canada. Once there, she discovers that freeing Nathaniel will take every ounce of her courage and inventiveness - and will even threaten her with the loss of what she loves most: her children. Torn apart, the Bonners must embark on another perilous voyage, this time to the heart of Scotland, where a destiny they could never have imagined awaits them . . . 'A story of epic proportions, akin to those wonderful wilderness classics by James Fenimore Cooper, but with the modern twist of Diana Gabaldon' Romantic Times

Dawn on a distant shore

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