Dawn on a Distant Shore (Wilderness Saga 2) [Paperback]

In this sequel, Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner have their idyllic married life in late eighteenth century Upstate New York shattered shortly after Elizabeth gives birth to a set of fraternal twins. Nathaniel, upon learning that his father, Hawkeye, an intrepid backwoodsman with strong ties to the Mohawk nation, has been arrested in Canada, departs to the rescue. When he sets foot over the border, he, too, find himself arrested as a spy and imprisoned in Montreal with his father, victim of a sinister plot.

Elizabeth, never one to sit by idly, packs up the twins, and she, too, goes to the rescue. The Bonner men, however, are released through the intervention of others before Elizabeth and her entourage arrive. The hand of fate deals them yet another blow, however, when they all are spirited away by ship to Scotland, where the Catholic Earl of Carryck awaits their arrival. It seems that the Earl has determined that Hawkeye is his long lost first cousin and, consequently, his heir. The Earl means for Hawkeye or Nathaniel to inherit the Earldom, in order to thwart his Protestant adversaries. Unfortunately for the Earl, the entire Bonner family proves to be uncooperative, leading to many adventures, both on land and on the high seas.

Part of the charm of the author's debut novel lay in its telling of life in Upstate New York in the late eighteenth century, with all of its historical underpinnings.... That is entirely is lost here, as this novel takes a decidedly international turn. Some of the adventures are a little too far-fetched, making the novel seem a bit incongruous at times, though still eminently readable on its own terms. Those who enjoyed the author's debut novel will, undoubtedly, enjoy this sequel, though with an underlying layer of disappointment that the debut novel proved to be just too hard an act to follow. Still, notwithstanding this, I am looking forward to reading the third novel in this series, "Lake in the Clouds", as will all fans of this author. Read more ›

In addition to loving the relationship between these two characters, I was also drawn to the setting of Hidden Wolf Mountain at the edge of the New York wilderness. Sometimes I wonder why an author chooses to change the setting of a book when that locale was obviously so successful in the first place. In Dawn on a Distant Shore, Sare Donati forces the reader to accompany the main characters first to Montreal and then on a ship across the ocean to Scotland. This took away from my enjoyment of the book. If I wanted to be in Scotland, I'd be reading Gabaldon's Outlander series and not this one.

With all that said, the main crux of this story is for Donati to get across to the reader how persecuted Catholics were in Scotland in the late eighteenth century and how important it was for them to keep their lands away from the Protestants. To this end, she has Nathaniel finding out that his father, Hawkeye, is a descendant of the Scott's of Carryckcastle in Scotland and the Earl of Carryck is very eager to have Hawkeye come to Scotland to claim his line in the family tree. In doing so, the lands of Carryck would pass on to Hawkeye's son Nathaniel upon the death of the Earl and would consequently remain in the hands of the family....Catholic hands. Needless to say, Hawkeye and Nathaniel have no desire to reside in Scotland so the Earl has no choice but to kidnap Nathaniel's children forcing him to come to Scotland to be reunited with his family. Have I bored you enough yet???

A major part of this story takes place on various ships getting to and from Scotland.... Ever since I read Moby Dick, there's nothing I like less than reading about ocean voyages. The other major section of this book takes place in Scotland and I like that even less because you have to try to decipher the Scottish accent when reading. Instead of having a cast of characters and some maps at the beginning of the book, I'd much rather have a dictionary explaining what some of the Scottish words mean. It took me forever to figure out that "ken" means know, "na" means not and "tae" means to.

The good news is that the next book in this series, Lake In The Clouds, actually has Nathaniel and Elizabeth back on the land they know and love. It also brings back many of the characters Donati's readers enjoyed in her first book, Into The Wilderness. Based on this, I look forward to this next adventure and only hope that Donati has no plans to return her characters to Scotland...they don't want to go there and neither do I with this series. Read more ›