1 ratings • 1 reviews
1 ratings • 1 reviews
Weaving a tapestry of fact and fiction, Sara Donati's epic novel sweeps us into another time and place...and into the heart of a forbidden affair between an unconventional Englishwoman and an American frontiersman. 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, Nathanial Booner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, she soons finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as 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 portrait of an emerging America.
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Progress report 2: abandoned around 75%
I kept checking this book out on audio and plodding along. But it was feeling more and more like an assignment, like a chore. I finally gave up--I just wasn't interested in the characters. Perhaps, in some parallel universe, I read this series first, and loved it, then discovered Outlander and loved it even more. But this is not that world, and this series is paling in comparison. May try again some day.
Progress report 1: ~60% progress
I started reading this book because it has a 4.1 rating and because it was recommended for fans of Outlander. I hadn't realized it was Outlander fanfiction--I was not expecting the blatant reference of Jamie, Claire, and Ian when it came up!
This is set 1790s in the New York wilderness, I think some parts go up into Canadian territory too. Elizabeth is sort of a weird character for me: she is both naive and feisty, prim and passionate. This makes me oscillate between annoyance and admiration. But she can't hold up to Claire, so overall I'm not overly impressed.
This book also has a bit of a Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman feel to it, in that there is a country setting with a variety of "classed" and educated citizens. Plus Nathaniel is totally the Sully character, even if Elizabeth isn't a Michaela.
Elizabeth's family is annoying and many characters feel a bit stock.
There is lust pretty immediately, but it felt like the romance developed just a little too quickly. I was describing this book to my husband, and I said that the two main characters are plotting the elopement and it's only about 25% of the way through, where this same point in most average romance books is about 75%. I was wondering what the rest of the 600+ pages were going to be about.
Additionally, the main tension seems to be all litigation so far? So that's not very fun.