Queen of Swords

This series is on my lifetime top ten. This is the 5th book in Donati's Wilderness series and I have loved every minute.

This is the saga of the Bonner family which started in 1792 with book 1 and Elizabeth Middleton coming to America from Britain. She arrives in the mountains of New York and takes over the schooling of the children and attracts the attention of Nathanial Bonner. Through the next 4 books we watch as their love story grows and they face the good and bad of what is put before them, all the while building a family.

Book 5 has us on adventure as two of the children of Elizabeth and Nathaniel search for their wife and cousin, Jennet, who has been abducted. Their search takes them from the New York mountains to Hati, to New show more Orleans. In the Big Easy, The Battle of New Orleans is gearing up and they find themselves caught, unable to return home.

Donati's writing and research are pitch perfect.

I have the last book [b:The Endless Forest|5292764|The Endless Forest (Wilderness, #6)|Sara Donati|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1262375790l/5292764._SX50_.jpg|6450953] ready to go. However, I hesitate as I know I will be sad to leave this family. show less

From the Back Cover:

It is the summer of 1814, and Hannah Bonner and her half brother Luke have spent more than a year searching the Caribbean islands for Luke's wife and the man who abducted her. But Jennet's rescue is not the resolution they'd hoped for. While captive, she gave birth to Luke's son but was compelled to surrender him to a stranger in the hope of keeping him safe.

To recover the infant, the trio must begin a journey that will lead them to New Orleans and to a powerful, corrupt family who now claim him as their own. But in a city on the brink of war, the Bonners' plans go awry, isolating them from one another. And when Hannah falls ill, only an old friend can save her - and only an influential stranger can engineer a show more miracle that will reunite her family.

My Review:

This is the fifth installment in Donati's Wilderness series, chronicling the lives of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Bonner and their children, and after spending some time on the backburner in the previous book, my girl Hannah is front and center again. She is, in fact, the Queen of Swords, according to her cousin Jennet's tarot cards: A woman possessed of keen logic and intuition. Forthright is she in manner, and well-armed.

And the Queen of Swords is dealt the Ace of Wands:
A new adventure that must be met with a bold spirit. A primal force released.

This chapter of the Bonner family saga finds our friends in New Orleans. Sultry, sexy, steamy New Orleans. A city teeming with people of all races, of mixed races, of slaves and free persons of color. Hannah is herself half-Indian, but in her hometown of Paradise, a little village on the edge of the New York wilderness, whites, blacks and Indians have learned to co-exist somewhat peacefully. This is not the case in New Orleans, and Hannah is faced with bigotry, disrespect and danger as she works to aid both her family and the ailing Indian community.

But she also finds solace and love. Hannah finally opens up about what happened to her husband and though she still feels a strong connection to Strikes-the-Sky's spirit, she can't help but be drawn to a sexy and mysterious man who challenges her to own her identity and encourages her to open her heart again.

This is yet another good adventure in a series I really enjoy, in fact, it's one of the better ones. I miss Paradise, but I've always been fascinated by New Orleans, and Ms. Donati does a terrific job of bringing the many facets of it to life. I do have a couple of minor quibbles: I found the scenario that brings them to New Orleans to be a little far-fetched and I'm still not a big fan of Jennet. I think she's reckless and selfish, but her actions do make for good story. And since this is the only book in the series that does not take place, at least in part, in Paradise, a lot of characters are missing from this story and we have to settle for just a few glimpses of them in letters. But when our "trio" find themselves trapped in the city by the American and British armies with their enemies closing in on them, guess who shows up to save the day? (I think I actually stood up and cheered at this point :)

The Endless Forest, which is the final book in the Wilderness series, came out late last year and has gotten very good reviews. But I'm not going to read it yet. I'm not quite ready for this story to end.

Rating: 4.5 Stars out of 5 show less

After finishing the fourth book in Sara Donati's Wilderness series, which ended with a cliffhanger, I couldn't wait to start the next book.

Fire Along the Sky ended with Jennet Scott Huntar, the Bonners' distant cousin from Scotland, being kidnapped near a British prison for Americans captured in the War of 1812 - just as Jennet's love, Luke Bonner, helps his younger half-brother Daniel Bonner escape the prison, with the help of his half-sister Hannah Bonner.  All Jennet is able to leave behind as clues are a couple of tarot cards, one of which is the Queen of Swords.  (It's never explained what message Jennet was trying to send, but it is pretty clear to me that Hannah is the Queen, and she is the major character in this book.)

Queen show more of Swords begins nearly a year later, with Jennet's rescue in the French Antilles in August 1814.  Jennet gave birth to Luke's son, Nathaniel, while in captivity, but sent him away, supposedly to safety, with a man called Honoré Poiterin.  Stopping first in Haiti and then in Pensacola, Florida, the Bonners learn Poiterin and his formidable grandmother are claiming Nathaniel as his own, and have taken him to New Orleans.  So of course the Bonners go there, setting up the story to intersect with the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815.

Other than a few letters, and an appearance by a couple at the end, the Bonner family back in Paradise, New York, and in Montreal play little part in this book.  Jennet and Hannah both endure assaults, and Hannah reunites with an old friend from her New York days, Dr. Paul Savard, and meets his half-brother Ben, of mixed race like herself.  You can probably predict where that goes.

Nevertheless, it's an exciting book, and I learned a little about the Battle of New Orleans and some of the real people connected with it, who appear as characters in this book:  Andrew Jackson, Edward Livingston and his wife Louise, and Jacques Villeré and his son Gabriel.

I'm looking forward to the final book in the series, and finding out what happens to the rest of the Bonner clan and their friends.

© Amanda Pape - 2017

[The book was borrowed from and returned to my local public library.] show less

This is in the running for my favorite of this series. I enjoy how Sara Donati does not make fictional characters too perfect or the events around them muted. Sometimes they are brutal and in your face but that rings a bit truer for me.

I really really enjoyed this book. I've liked the others in the series (the first being my favorite), but this one I would put right up there with the first in the series. I love how Hannah awoke from her stupor. I enjoyed learning about the war of 1812, which I knew virtually nothing about. And I enjoyed the addition of Ben to the tales. Lots of fun! Ready for the next!

Book 5 in the Into the Wilderness Series - In this installment of the series, we get to know all of the 2nd generation of the Bonner's more intimately. Hannah's unwavering courage. Luke's unwavering love for Jeanette with her own survival story. Nathaniel and Run from Bears voyage to help bring them all home again. Love Love Love this series!!

A good read. I was not familiar the series prior to reading this book. It was well written, recommending it a pleasure to anyone who like historical fiction. Bone to pick: the characters were too good to be entirely believable--a kind of Guess Who's Coming to Dinner syndrome. My edition has an author's note where she claims that when history is contrary to story, it's the history that has to give. The War of 1812 is not well know enough for most people to make an issue (and, she doesn't say exactly where in the book this happens), but I totally disagree if you claim historical fiction as your genre. Based on that, I probably won't read further in the series.