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Majj
05-02-2005, 09:12 AM
I HIGHLY RECCOMMEND THIS SERIES...
The Author is Diana Gabaldon...
1..Cross Stitch....
2..Dragon Fly in Amber..
3..Voyager...
4..The Drums of Autumn..
5..Fiery Cross....
.....................I loved every book as much as the first and now have to wait till September for the 6th in the series is released...

..as I couldn`t think of not reading till then I scrounged through the books shops today and found another series of 3 that sound like I will enjoy them just as much ..
BUT I Promised myself not to start to read till next week because .......I need to sleep... These are my next lot....

"Into the Wilderness" BY SARA DONATI
Bantam Books, 1998, HC
Reviewed on 10/17/00

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Hardcover
Paperback
Audio Book When Elizabeth Middleton, twenty-nine years old and unmarried, leaves her Aunt Merriweather's comfortable English estate to join her father and brother in the remote mountain village of Paradise on the edge of the New York wilderness, she does so with a strong will and an unwavering purpose: to teach school. It is December of 1792 when she arrives in a cold climate unlike any she had ever experienced. And she meets a man different from any she has ever encountered - a white man dressed like a Native American, tall and lean and unsettling in his blunt honesty. He is Nathaniel Bonner, also known to the Mohawk people as Between-Two-Lives. Determined to provide schooling for all the children of the village, white, black, and Native American, Elizabeth soon finds herself at odds with local slave owners. Much to her surprise, she clashes with her own father as well. Financially strapped, Judge Middleton has plans for his daughter - betrothal to local doctor Richard Todd. An alliance with Todd could extract her father from 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. As Judge Middleton brings pressure to bear against his daughter, she is faced with a choice between compliance and deception, a flight into the forest, and a desire that will bend her hard will to compromise and transformation. Elizabeth's ultimate destiny, here in the heart of the wilderness, lies in the odyssey to come: trials of faith and flesh, and passion born amid Nathaniel's own secrets and divided soul.

"Dawn on a Distant Shore"
Bantam Books, March 2000, HC
Reviewed on 11/15/00

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Hardcover
Paperback Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner hace settles 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 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.


Lake in the Clouds....

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In this long and melodramatic sequel to Into the Wilderness, Donati continues the saga of the Bonner family as they struggle to survive in the wilderness of New York in 1802. They live on a secluded farmstead, high up on a mountain; the nearest town is named Paradise, a cruel joke for a place full of suspicious, fearful gossipmongers. Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner are solid citizens and loving parents, a kind of Ward and June Cleaver in buckskin. Hannah, a bright, courageous young woman who dreams of becoming a doctor, is Nathaniel's half-Mohawk daughter by his first wife. The plot involves all the Bonners, and their white and Indian relatives and friends, in the dangerous scheme of smuggling escaped slaves north to freedom in Canada. Add spurned lovers, bounty hunters, scheming women, colorful crackpots, racial prejudice, cruelty, murder, robbery, illicit sex, smallpox and an epidemic of scarlet fever, and 600 pages go by pretty quickly. There is little suspense, despite the smuggling plotline, and the reader is left merely to keep track of scores of characters (many of whom die during the epidemic). Hannah is the most compelling figure, as she tries to combine Indian and white man's medicines and be accepted in an insular, male-dominated profession while also dealing with an old flame who's tracking a runaway slave. Donati's descriptions of early 19th-century medical procedures, remedies and primitive vaccination techniques are graphic and authentic. Although the story could have been trimmed by at least 100 pages, it will still please fans of historical fiction.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist
Set in late-eighteenth-century upstate New York on the edge of the frontier, Donati's latest novel continues the story of Elizabeth, Nathaniel, and Hannah (Nathaniel's half-Indian daughter) Bonner, other members of their extended family, and the various cast of quirky, ill-behaved, or good and honorable characters inhabiting the lonely town of Paradise. The Bonners have been through quite a lot in Donati's past two books; the action this time centers on Hannah, a beautiful and independent-minded young woman who also is celebrated in Paradise for her exceptional healing skills. When a dangerously ill and extremely pregnant runaway slave is discovered near the Bonner home, Hannah insists on nursing the woman back to health, despite the fact that hiding and helping the runaway slave puts her and her family at risk. A further plot twist arrives in the form of a bounty hunter looking to capture the runaway slave. He turns out to be Hannah's childhood friend and first love, the handsome but troubled Liam Kirby. Donati's fans have been eagerly awaiting this third installment in the dramatic lives of the Bonner family, and they will be pleased, for this is a sweeping, enjoyable historical adventure-love story. Kathleen Hughes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review
PRAISE FOR SARA DONATI:

“Donati’s engaging characters, her strong sense of place and the lively escapades pull readers along.”
--Rocky Mountain News

“The author [has] a gift for capturing the history and the lives of the people of that time and place.”
--The Tampa Tribune

PRAISE FOR INTO THE WILDERNESS:

“Exemplary historical fiction, boasting a heroine with a real and tangible presence.”
--Kirkus Reviews

“My favorite kind of book.”
--Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of The Fiery Cross






PRAISE FOR SARA DONATI:

?Donati?s engaging characters, her strong sense of place and the lively escapades pull readers along.?
--Rocky Mountain News

?The author [has] a gift for capturing the history and the lives of the people of that time and place.?
--The Tampa Tribune

PRAISE FOR INTO THE WILDERNESS:

?Exemplary historical fiction, boasting a heroine with a real and tangible presence.?
--Kirkus Reviews

?My favorite kind of book.?
--Diana Gabaldon, bestselling author of The Fiery Cross


another series ...well just three books but all BIG ones again....

Chat later ..

Majj
05-02-2005, 09:16 AM
Here is a review of the first Book in the Diana Gabaldon series ...

Cross Stitch" Is Simply...The BEST!!, February 28, 2005
Reviewer: ceruleana from Manhattan, NY
Claire Randall is on a second honeymoon with her husband Frank after serving as a combat nurse in World War II. While on a trip to Scotland they visit an ancient stone circle known as Craigh na Dun. Claire touches one of the standing stones and is suddenly sucked back in time to war-torn Scotland in 1743. After almost being captured and raped by hostile British soldiers, she is rescued and taken by a band of Scottish outlaws. An "out of the fire into the frying pan" situation if there ever was one. The Scots are deeply suspicious of Claire's dress, speech and manner. Thinking her to be a British spy they decide to take her with them to their stronghold. She does win the men over, to some extent, when she uses her nursing skills to save the life of one of their comrades, James Fraser, a recent escapee from a British prison.

And so begins one of the most remarkable sagas in modern fiction. To label "Outlander," ("Cross Stitch" in the UK), a romantic historical novel is to do it a terrible injustice. This is an epic romance, yes, and so much more. The relationship between Claire and Jamie is one of the most caring and intimate I have ever encountered in fiction. Claire, having lived in England during the bombings of WWII, and served as a nurse at the front, is a resourceful, strong woman. And Jamie is an educated, philosophic man with a sense of humor...who is also a warrior in a "Braveheart" kind of way! This is a couple who are truly committed to a life together for better or worse. And since Claire's first husband Frank will not be born for another 200 years, she is not committing bigamy.

"Outlander" covers a tumultuous period in Scotland, England, and France when Prince Charles Edward Stuart is attempting to regain the throne. I have read time travel novels before, and this is like no other. The sheer magnitude of material that Diana Gabaldon covers, from the intrigues of the Scottish clans and the politics of the Jacobites to the everyday life of survival in 18th century Scotland, is extraordinary. Her research is impeccable and she tells a tale like no other. This is the kind of book you will want to read slowly and to savor. Ms. Gabaldon knows how to draw the reader into the story with her deft prose, wonderful humor, unusual characters and awesome adventures. One of the main reasons that I love this book is because Ms. Gabaldon develops her characters, major and minor, so that they become almost real. It is difficult not to form strong attachments to them and to care what happens to them all.

Obviously, I highly recommend "Outlander" and the other books in the series. Don't be intimidated by the number of pages...once you begin to read, you'll soon wish there were more.