Into the Wilderness - Sara Donati

Elizabeth Middleton is a spinster. She is 29, unmarried, with no prospects or interest in changing her fate in England. She lives with her father's sister and is rather well off. She is also strong minded and rather opinionated. She decides to move to America and live with her father in a little town in upstate NY called Paradise.

It is a move that will change her life.

When she first arrives along with her brother, Julian, she is surprised by the lack of comfort but soon learns that the people who live in Paradise prefer their way of living. They are helping to forge the new country as England's rule is no longer. The older folk don't forget it and the youngsters never have to deal with it.

She meets several eligible bachelors for, as fathers of the time tend to do, Judge Middleton wants to see her married to someone of his choosing. Elizabeth has other ideas and eventually runs off with a backwoodsman named Nathaniel Bonner who has grown up among the remaining Mohawk in the area. And that's just the first portion of the book.

It's a well written story. I like all the detail that Ms. Donati has included. I also am somewhat familiar with the area in which the story takes place so it's fun to see places I've been described as they used to be. It's the first in a series as well. I think I'm going to look for the rest of them.