"Fire Along the Sky" by Sara Donati

Started July 10, 2013 - Ended July 16, 2013


From Amazon:The year is 1812 and Hannah Bonner has returned to her family’s mountain cabin in Paradise. But Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner can see that Hannah is not the same woman as when she left. For their daughter has come home without her husband and without her son…and with a story of loss and tragedy that she can’t bear to tell. Yet as Hannah resumes her duties as a gifted healer among the sick and needy, she finds that she is also slowly healing herself. Little does she realize that she is about to be called away to face her greatest challenge ever.

As autumn approaches, news of the latest conflict with Britain finds the young men of Paradise—including eighteen-year-old Daniel Bonner—eager to take up arms. Against their better judgment, Nathaniel and Elizabeth must let him go, just as they must let his twin sister Lily, a stubborn beauty, pursue her independence in Montreal. But on the eve of the War of 1812, an unexpected guest arrives from Scotland: It is the Bonners’ distant cousin, the newly widowed Jennet Scott of Carryckcastle. Far from home, Lily and Jennet will each learn the price of pursuing their dreams and the possibility of true love.

But it’s Hannah herself who must risk everything once more—this time to save Daniel, who’s been taken prisoner by the British. As the distant thunder of war threatens Paradise, Hannah may learn to live—and maybe love—again in one final act of courage, duty, and sacrifice.


I am sad to say that while I loved this novel, this is where my reading bug fizzled out. I haven't successfully finished a book since completing "Fire Along the Sky". HOWEVER! I did receive a few ARC's that I am so excited to start and review for NetGalley! (www.netgalley.com) So, keep your eyes peeled in the coming weeks for some NEW and exciting material reviews.





#54

"Dawn on a Distant Shore" and "Lake in the Clouds" by Sara Donati

July 2013
It's been awhile since I've posted. My dad had some health issues and with everything going on I was not in the mood to read. Because of this and because I beta'd an awesome story for another author, I honestly can't remember what dates I read the 2 books below. I'm a bad, bad girl.


From Amazon:Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner have settled into their life together at the edge of the New-York wilderness in the winter of 1794 when Elizabeth gives birth to healthy twins. But soon the events in Canada draw Nathaniel far away from his new family. Word has reached them that Nathaniel's father has been arrested by crown officials in British Canada. Nathaniel reluctantly leaves Hidden Wolf Mountain to set out for the distant city, determined to see his father freed. Instead Nathaniel is imprisoned and finds himself in imminent danger of being hanged as an American spy.

In a desperate bid to save her husband, Elizabeth bundles her infants and sets out on the long trek to Montreal. Accompanied by her stepdaughter, Hannah, their wise friend Curiosity Freeman, and Runs-from-Bears, a Mohawk warrior and lifelong friend of Nathaniel's, Elizabeth journeys through the snowy wilderness and across treacherous waterways. But she soon discovers that freeing Nathaniel will take every ounce of her courage and inventiveness. It is a struggle that threatens her with the loss of what she loves most: her children.

Torn apart, the Bonners must embark on yet another perilous voyage...this time all the way across the ocean to the heart of Scotland, where a wealthy earl claims kinship with Nathaniel's father, Hawkeye. In his heart, the Mahican tribe of Hawkeye's youth is the truest kin he will ever know, just as Nathaniel will always remain loyal to the Mohawk nation. But with this journey a whole new world opens up to Nathaniel and Elizabeth--and a destiny they could never have imagined awaits them....



"Into the Wilderness" sucked me in, chewed me up, and left me begging for more. Elizabeth and Nathaniel's love story is on par with Jamie and Claire. Just sayin'. I will be the first to admit, that of the series so far, this has been my least favorite. It's still an epic story that introduces some amazing characters. I give "Dawn on a Distant Shore" a B+.





July 2013


From Amazon:It is the spring of 1802, and the village of Paradise is still reeling from the typhoid epidemic of the previous summer. Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner have lost their two-year-old son, Hannah’s half brother Robbie, but they struggle on as always: the men in the forests, the twins Lily and Daniel in Elizabeth’s school, and Hannah as a doctor in training, apprenticed to Richard Todd. Hannah is descended from healers on both sides—one Scots grandmother and one Mohawk—and her reputation as a skilled healer in her own right is growing.

After a long night spent attending to a birth, Elizabeth and Hannah encounter an escaped slave hiding on the mountain. She calls herself Selah Voyager, and she is looking for Curiosity Freeman—a former slave herself, one of the village’s wisest women and Elizabeth’s closest friend. The Bonners take Selah, desperately ill, to Lake in the Clouds to care for her, and with that simple act they are drawn into the secret life that Curiosity and Galileo Freeman and their grown children have been leading for almost ten years. The Bonners will do what they must to protect the Freemans, just as Hannah will protect her patient, who presents more than one kind of challenge. For a bounty hunter is afoot—Hannah’s childhood friend and first love, Liam Kirby.

While Elizabeth and Nathaniel undertake a treacherous journey through the endless forests to bring Selah to safety in the north, Hannah embarks on a very different journey to New-York City, with two goals: to learn the secrets of vaccination against smallpox, a disease that threatens Paradise, and to find out what she can about Liam’s immediate past and what caused him to change so drastically from the boy she once loved. The obstacles she faces as a woman and a Mohawk make her confront questions long avoided about her place in the world.

Those questions follow her back to Paradise, where she finds that the medical miracle she brings with her will not cure prejudice or superstition, nor can it solve the problem of slavery. No sooner have the Bonners begun to rebound from their losses—old and new—than they find themselves confronted by more than one old enemy in a battle that will test the strength of their love for one another. Hannah faces the decision she has always dreaded: will she make a life for herself in a white world, or among her mother’s people?


This is the book that made me love the series again. Ms. Donati does a very nice job of mixing old and new characters and shifting the focus from Elizabeth and Nathaniel to their daughter Hannah without leaving anyone behind. My only complaint is that it seems so much happens in between the books you are forced to catch up on (children being born and dying before you know they exist, pandemics, etc.) it's sometimes confusing at first. In the end at least, the storylines are so intertwined and full bodied they all end up making sense. As soon as I was finished with "Lake in the Clouds" I immediately picked up book #4. Because of this, I give "Lake in the Clouds" an A.








#52 and 53

And then this happened ...

So I may have mentioned a time or two on here how Diana Gabaldon is one of my most favorite authors. Well, a few months ago it was announced that her novel, "Outlander", had been optioned by a studio for production. Hopes were high that Jamie and Claire's story would FINALLY be told on the big screen. We haven't been disappointed. Starz greenlit the project and has been running full steam ahead with the project, casting a Scottish actor by the name of Sam Heughan.

Now, I am a total fangirl when it comes to books. Making a movie and/or series that revolves around my favorites puts me in heaven. So when Sam Heughan favorite one of my tweets last night, I thought my life was complete.

Then this. Oh THIS happened.

Yes that's right. Herself tweeted ME.

I know to some it's nothing, but to me, as someone I've idolized for 18 years ... it's perfection.

"Into the Wilderness" by Sara Donati

Started July 2, 2013 - Ended July 8, 2013


From Amazon: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: Nathaniel Bonner, known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, Elizabeth soon finds herself locked in conflict with the local slave owners as well as with 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 portait of an emerging America

Holy crow. I think I've mentioned a few times that Diana Gabaldon is one of my favorite authors. "Outlander" and it's following novels are my favorite series of. all. time. So, it's rare for me to find anything in the same realm. "Into the Wilderness" is definitely there. It doesn't hurt that Ms. Donati and Ms. Gabaldon are friends. In fact Jamie, Claire, and young Ian make are briefly mentioned. I know some of Gabaldon's fans are put off by Donati's writing style because it does mirror "Outlander's". I think that's what I love about it. "Into the Wilderness" is a sweeping tale full of emotion and vivid wordage that paints a picture of not only the scenery, but also the love story that inevitably unfolds. I quickly picked up book 2 and am seriously debating purchasing the entire series. For me, that's big news. I give "Into the Wilderness" an A.






#51

Currently Reading ...

Currently reading: "Into the Wilderness" by Sara Donati

"Let It Go" by Brooklyn James

Started June 29, 2013 - Ended July 1, 2013


From Amazon:Savannah Bondurant, a marriage and relationship columnist for the Savannah Sun Times, just signed her divorce papers.

Brody McAlister, the elusive and smoking hot gym boy, has finally recovered from his divorce three years ago.

Be it spurred by loneliness or sheer attraction, the two slip into the sheets for a memorable one-night stand.

Savannah's pesky ex-husband continues to try and worm his way back into her life, insisting they remain friends, even though he is living with his jealous new girlfriend.

An up-and-coming woodworker artist, Brody has every socialite cougar in town promising him success and riches, for a price, of course.

With two advice-giving older sisters, one fiercely single and one seemingly happily married, Savannah learns her parents' long and successful relationship does not come without its own secrets. Why should she believe in happily ever after?

Her constant overanalyzing and skepticism bodes well in her profession as a journalist, but proves counterproductive in her personal life. Divorce, guilt, suspicion, holding on to the past—can Savannah trust in Brody to help her Let It Go...

Holy cheese factor. This was something I *think* I picked up as a Kindle Daily Deal, but I'm not really sure. I do know, that it wasn't the book I thought it was when I started reading. "Let It Go" was a whole lot of something else. It was a cute story, until the word honeypot was used twice and 'gawd' was uttered 4 times. Really? At this point I looked up the author to see if she really was 14. She's not. I'm just going to say it. This book sucked. I'm going to go ahead and give "Let It Go" an F.





#50

Currently Reading ...

Currently reading: "Let It Go" by Brooklyn James