INTO THE WILDERNESS (The Wilderness Series Book 1)

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Most of the main characters had long but defined story arcs that wove a consistent thread through the series, as several of the books focused on characters from different generations. But Kenneth Swanson’s Into the Wilderness is an inviting treatment of sin because this discussion is grounded in the notion that there is a possibility for healing and new life to be found when sin is honestly named and courageously explored in the light and love of God. I loved how compelling their complex connection was; how they were drawn to each other despite all the odds, and everything they endured, fought against, and fought for.

Diana Gabaldon’s popular Outlander series, and the TV adaptations, are full of danger, steamy passion, and Scottish history. Going into the book I thought that it could be fun, especially as I knew Diana Gabaldon had had some influence on Donati's writing (as Donati herself acknowledges in her Notes). I'm in the minority here, obviously, but I thought the love story between Elizabeth Middleton and Nathaniel Bonner was awfully forced. I'm perplexed as to why this series, and this book in particular, are compared to Diana Gabaldon's Outlander.

But teaching isn't something she wants to give up, and with the help of Nathaniel, who's given her the hilarious nickname of Boots, she gets her school. Whereas in ‘Outlander’ Black Jack Randall is a truly masochistic villain – he is a very clear bad guy to Jamie Fraser’s good guy. For their daughter has come home without her husband and without her son…and with a story of loss and tragedy that she can’t bear to tell.

I for one don't want to read about the end of characters like Diana's who I have become very attached to. I'm willing to allow that; her mother was said to be a Quaker, so a reader can allow Elizabeth some nonconformity, but I could never settle in comfortably into a belief in the tale, which quickly shaped up to be a rather formulaic romance riffing off Last of the Mohicans with guest starring appearances from Jamie and Clare of Outlander and cameo roles from Jane Austen's novels. Even when the second-half of the book turns more inward and sets up the racist townsfolk as the new threat to the Bonner clan, I never really found that to be a substantial plot. Glancing up at the cloud that billowed above us, I saw glowing embers being fanned into flame by a fierce wind stirring in the heavens.I appreciate the attention to detail but without the characters engaging me it became an almost tedious read. Fans of earlier titles will not be disappointed, as [Fire Along the Sky] contains the same combination of romance and adventure, not to mention the most intriguing mystery in the series yet.