TEST
Reading Dawn on a Distant Shore was an interesting experience. It was a difficult book for me to get into, but once I finally did, I couldn’t put it down.
The book opens with Elizabeth Bonner delivering twins while her husband, Nathaniel, walks through a snowstorm to get to her. Shortly after the birth, Nathaniel receives word that his father and a friend are in prison in Montreal. He leaves Elizabeth and their newborns to help his father. Events occur in Montreal which result in Nathaniel’s imprisonment as well. So Elizabeth, along with their babies, her stepdaughter Hannah, and family friend Curiosity Freeman, travel to Montreal.
The events in Montreal concern a man in Scotland who believes that Nathaniel and his father are his long-lost family and will do anything to find them. This man embroils Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner in a complex family feud and Donati takes the reader along a very winding road. Giving away more of the plot than that could spoil the twists and turns, so I will leave the description at that. The theme of family and family ties are at the heart of this novel. Elizabeth and Nathaniel take their journey and endure many hardships in order to keep their family together.
Elizabeth is clearly a strong woman. She moved from city life in England to live in the American wilderness with her husband, Nathaniel. She tells her husband to go and see his father right after she has just given birth (and probably desperately wants him to stay), and she travels after her husband with two new babies. Elizabeth also endures a short separation from her babies.
Nathaniel is as strong a character as Elizabeth. He grew up with an Indian tribe and considers himself more Indian than anything else. He is devoted to his family and does anything to keep them safe.
Dawn On A Distant Shore is a sequel to Donati’s first book Into the Wilderness. It doesn’t suffer from sequelitis at all – I never felt lost or that I had to read the first book to appreciate this one. But because I have not read Into The Wilderness, I had trouble feeling the connection between Elizabeth and Nathaniel. I felt like I missed the passionate, getting-to-know-you part of their relationship and came in instead on the “good friends” part. It made connecting with Elizabeth and Nathaniel a bit difficult. I’m also curious about the story behind the Tory Gold that is referred to several times.
Reading this book makes for an interesting experience. While I didn’t ever fully connect with the main characters, once their journey started, I could hardly put the book down. Donati obviously put a lot of research into her work, and her writing style is quite nice. The reviewer who read Into the Wilderness for this site thought it was a book suited to being read aloud, and this one struck me the same way.
Donati’s writing has been compared to Diana Gabaldon’s, and I can see similarities. Both write epic, adventurous historical novels. While nobody will ever equal Gabaldon in my mind, I am interested in reading more of Donati’s work.
Grade: B-
Book Type: Historical Fiction
Sensuality: Subtle
Review Date: 05/04/00
Publication Date: 2001
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.