![]() ![]() Then there’s the fact that Claire is a doctor, and Elizabeth a schoolteacher - so in general Claire has more thrilling storylines from her occupation.ĭiana Gabaldon writes more explicit, steamy sex scenes than Donati. ![]() ![]() His being Mohawk makes him thrillingly different, and the little bit of mystery to him makes their romance titillating and scorching.Įlizabeth is likewise no Claire Fraser – but a lot of Claire’s appeal lies in her delivering 19th century humour to the 17th century. Nathaniel Bonner is no Jamie Fraser (that would be a tall order) but he is an exciting hero for our heroine. Elizabeth was a wonderful protagonist she is hot-headed, stubborn and entranced by the Mohawk way of life.ĮLIZABETH MIDDLETON / CLAIRE RANDALL FRASER Nathaniel’s heroine is Elizabeth Middleton – a 29 year old spinster who never thought she would find love in the wilderness, let alone with an adopted Mohawk. I want you as much as I want to breathe, but I need the mountain.” “I wake up wanting you and go to sleep wanting you,” Nathaniel murmured, pulling her shoulders up to him so that her head fell back and the arch of her neck rose to meet him. She could smell him, the oil on his skin. “I want you,” he said.Ī warm rush of breath left Elizabeth. Richard wants the mountain and he’ll take you to get it.”Įlizabeth tried to drop her head but he put a finger under her chin to lift it and looked her directly in the eye. Nathaniel’s hands tightened on her upper arms until she gave in and looked up, and then he held on to her gaze and refused to let her look away. Her series features Nathaniel Bonner, who is Hawkeye (Daniel Day Lewis for those only familiar with the movie adaptation) and Cora’s son. But more than that, the storyline becomes about the frontier life – small, new communities dealing with prejudice, hardships and their own brand of claustrophobia out in the American wilds.ĭonati’s series is a continuation of ‘Last of the Mohicans’, the 1826 story by James Fenimore Cooper. When the series took that trajectory Gabaldon introduced Native American’s to the storyline, and if you’re like me you especially loved the character arc of Young Ian who went on to become an Indian warrior. ‘Into the Wilderness’ is perfect for those ‘Outlander’ fans who really got into the series when Jamie and Claire went to live in the American wilderness. ‘Outlander’ is one of my all-time favourite novels, and like so many of her fans I find myself needing a reading supplement to tide me over between Gabaldon’s four year long writing lapses. This thin relation to ‘Outlander’ would have guaranteed Gabaldon readers would make the trek to Donati’s series, which is the reason I picked up ‘Into the Wilderness’. In ‘Into the Wilderness’ characters make brief mention of a Scot turned Indian called Ian, and his ‘white witch’ aunt Claire, and her big red-haired husband. And the most obvious comparison is the fact that Donati’s books are a sort of fanfiction crossover to Diana Gabaldon’s famous series. Not only does a Gabaldon quote appear on the front-cover of ‘Into the Wilderness’, but Donati thanks Gabaldon in her acknowledgements. Both series are historical romance, on a grand serial scale, and the marketing of Donati’s series is largely reliant on Diana Gabaldon. It’s impossible not to compare Donati’s series to Diana Gabaldon’s epic ‘Outlander’. 'One of those rare stories that lets you breathe the air of another time, and leave your footprints on the snow of a wild, strange place' Diana Gabaldon Such an alliance could save her father from financial ruin, but would call into question the ownership of Hidden Wolf, the mountain where Nathaniel, his father, and a small group of Native Americans live and hunt. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as 'Between-Two-Lives'.ĭetermined to provide schooling for all the village children - white, black and Native American - Elizabeth is soon at odds with the slave owners, as well as her own father, who insists she marry local doctor Richard Todd. It is December 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she has ever experienced and meets a man unlike any she has ever encountered - a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his honesty. When Elizabeth Middleton leaves England to join her father and brother in a remote mountain village on the edge of the New York wilderness, she does so with a strong will and an unwavering to establish a school. The first in Sara Donati's bestselling Wilderness series, this epic novel of love and adventure interweaves the fate of the Mohawk Nation with the destiny of two outsiders from different worlds.
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