Dawn on a Distant Shore (Mass Market Paperback)

Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner are still the focus of the story, which moves along at a fairly brisk clip, although it does falter toward the end when the action moves from Canada to Scotland. Elizabeth still exhibits the same moral and physical courage as she did in the first book of the series. When her husband Nathaniel follows his father Daniel to Montreal, the younger man is also arrested and is likely to be hanged as a spy. Elizabeth, having given birth to twins, takes her babies to Canada in the dead of winter to try to save him. As in the previous book, no one is ever quite who or what they seem, and the Bonners encounter many shady characters in trying to determine Daniel Bonner's heritage....the secret of which lies in Scotland.

Sara Donati is a gifted storyteller. She has a good ear for natural sounding dialogue, her plotting is refreshingly original, and her characters are appealing -- even the "bad guys" have shades of gray in their character. My main criticism of this book had to do with the slowing of the action once the story moved to Scotland, and the fact that Nathaniel's daughter (Hannah or Squirrel) from his first marriage has started to take center stage. For some reason authors seem to feel compelled to make children in historical novels into little adults, and Hannah is no exception to that "rule." Her emotions are simply too adult-like to be appealing to this reader. However, I still highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for something a little different in an historical family saga. The fourth book in the series will be out in hardcover this fall.

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.