Customer Reviews

Queen of Swords

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Queen of Swords is the fifth book of the Into the Wilderness series, where Sara Donati continues her historical fiction account of the Bonner family. Fans of the series will not be disappointed. However, you do not have to read the first four novels to get the most from this sequel. It is fresh with new setting and new characters and the author brings up what is important to know for you to understand and enjoy the novel.

Luke and Hannah's search for their beloved Jennet, who has been abducted, takes them to New Orleans during the war of 1812. Through their adventure you will have your emotions stirred up by the situations created by war, racism, prejudice, dominating power and slavery.

The setting is so well described, that you can just close your eyes to picture it. The characters are good, convincing, strong and likable. The author is very skillful in keeping the story intriguing, suspenseful and interesting. Very well written and leaves space for readers to imagine the details.

It is a great book. I highly recommended it.

The fifth book in Sara Donati's excellent series is a departure from the main characters of Nathaniel and Elizabeth, focusing instead on Hannah Bonner, Luke Bonner, and his wife Jennet and their trials after the abduction of Jennet at the end of Book 4. Picking up with the party finding Jennet, we are thrown into the world of New Orleans as the group attempts to discover the whereabouts of the infant son of Luke and Jennet. The British are plotting to take the city but that is only one small part of the separate world the Bonners face far from home and the ones they love.

While this is a good entry in the series, I found myself frustrated at times with the feeling that Donati wanted to write about the Battle of New Orleans and let the situation take precedence over the characters. At times the action was fast and furious and I found myself enveloped with new characters, both real and fictitious, but at other times I felt the spark that Donati brings to her writing was secondary to getting through the siege and showing the lives of the citizens. While circumstances demanded that Jennet be shrill at times, and that Hannah be stoic and strong, there were moments when I missed their interactions with more familiar surroundings.

Overall this is an excellent book, still head and shoulders above most of the historical fiction out there. While I look forward to my beloved characters returning to Paradise and taking up their lives, this one is a worthy installment, if at times a bit frustrating in that I wanted these characters home! Still, it's written in Donati's usual compelling style, and can be recommended to all lovers of good historical fiction.

Book 5 (this book) is a bit different from the earlier 4 books in that the entire book focuses on Hannah, Luke, and Jennet in New Orleans. You hear nothing of Paradise or Lake in the Clouds until more than half way through the book, and then it is only through a letter. Elizabeth, Simon, Lily, Curiousity, and all the others at Lake in the Clouds are only discussed in letters in this book. Nathaniel shows up in the final chapters of the book to rescue the crew in New Orleans.

The book is very descriptive - both with New Orleans scenery and battles. So if you like description, you'll love this book. If you were more looking for finding out what happens next with many of the characters you love from books 1-4, you really only find out details on Hannah, Luke, and Jennet. I had a bit of a hard time connecting with the characters in this book - Jennet was distant and hard to understand at the start (due to her ordeal), and Hannah was in a relationship that didn't seem true to her character.

I do look forward to book 6 to find out what's happening back in Paradise...

The title of this book, Queen of Swords, denotes a Tarot card which depicts a strong woman who is a very capable leader and this is exactly what two of the Bonner women are..born leaders who are emotionally strong beyond the expectations of the day. The scene shifts from Lake in the Clouds in New York State to New Orleans where the infant son of Luke Bonner and Lady Jennett has been kidnapped and secreted away. Luke joins forces with his sister Hannah, a half Mohawk doctor and together they battle incredible forces to wrest Jennett and the baby from the clutches of the evil Creole family who are holding them prisoner, before the city is under seige from the British. Hannah meets the man who seems to be her soul mate, Jean-Benoit Savard, a man of mixed Indian, African and French races who aids Luke and his family to escape the city with the women and children and who obviously will play a large part in the next, and possiblt final, book.It's another big, beautiful and exciting read.

A year has past since the abduction, but by the summer of 1814, Canadian merchant Luke Scott and his Mohawk half-sister Dr. Hannah Bonner mount the successful rescue of his wife Jennet held in the French Antilles. Jennet informs her spouse and sister in law that their child was born while she was in interned, but that she got Creole merchant Honor Poiterin to smuggle their Nathaniel out of the Caribbean.

The trio heads to New Orleans to retrieve their offspring and bring him to Montreal to live with them. However, the city is under siege as the British and American armies prepare for battle. Neither Hannah nor the Scotts realize how deadly the Poiterin clan can be when someone crosses them. Taking the infant is a major affront to the family matriarch, who calls for a family feud and sends her descendents to kill the "kidnappers" and bring home the baby.

Though the ending is expected, readers will appreciate this fine historical tale that provides a deep look at the city on the verge of the Battle of New Orleans, the bloodiest engagement of the War of 1812 (ironically after the peace was signed in Paris). The story line is driven by personalities from the Scots and their half Mohawk sibling, the Poiterin kin, and city political leaders preparing for the worst. QUEEN OF SWORDS is a fine entry in the Bonner-Scotts early nineteenth century saga.

Harriet Klausner

Queen of Swords, the 5th installment in Donati's "Into the Wilderness" Series, continues the cliffhanger from the 4th. It stays focused on Hannah, Luke and Jennet and their struggle to first regain Luke and Jennet's baby and then to get out of New Orleans during the middle of the Battle for New Orleans in 1814.

I enjoyed this book. In fact, I've enjoyed all of the books in the series. Revisiting the characters is like going to a family reunion, only one in which I control the time (that I read!), if not the events. I did miss Elizabeth and wanted more of her story--especially since she has the baby "predicted" in book 4. However, I do understand Donati's need to focus on these three characters as they grow up and develop into adults. I enjoyed getting to know them better, especially the friendship that develops between Jennet and Hannah.

I highly recommend Queen of Swords to anyone who enjoys Donati's or Lippi's work, or a good historical romance that isn't afraid to challenge your suppositions and make you think about the issues of the day while weaving a good story on top of it. She is a very good writer who manages to get the details right. You love her characters and want to get to know them better. When I'm reading one of her books, I think about it when I'm not reading, which really encourages me to get back to it, and I'm always rewarded when I do!

This fifth book in Donati's excellent "Wilderness" series takes us to a new setting in the Caribbean and New Orleans and focuses almost exclusively on Hannah's development and story. Donati has created a complex and courageous heroine in Hannah, as she struggles to serve both her family and personal needs in her journey with best friend Jennet and brother Luke. Donati is a great story-teller, combining just as much passion as realism in her imaginative series based in a young America. More stark and heartbreaking, this edition perhaps represents a maturing in Donati's writing which is exciting in and of itself...to consider the direction she takes with such beloved characters. I highly recommend the entire series which is originally based on the offspring of Hawkeye and Cora from "Last of the Mohicans". You will get lost in their world and fall in love with this family.

Who ever wrote that editorial description has not read the book. Hannah does not give birth to her half brother's child, she does not give birth at all. Who is responsible for such nonsense? This is an excellent continuation of the Into the Wilderness series and concentrates on the relationship between Hannah and Jean-Benoit Savard as well as the rebuilding of the relationship between Jenet and Luke, Hannah's half brother.It's set in New Orleans at the time of the War of 1812. An excellent depiction of a little know period of history through the vibrant relationships of the protagonists.

I loved the first four books, but this one flies by without even simple characterization. Their thoughts and feelings are glanced over, and motivations are neglected. It just doesn't make sense.

If I didn't already love these characters, I wouldn't even bother.

If you are a fan of Diana Gabaldon and her Outlander series, you will really enjoy Sara Donati's series that begins with Dawn on the Distant Shore. Queen of Swords is the fifth book in the series, detailing the lives of the Bonner family in 1814, in the midst of the British/American war of 1812 and it's complications to their family. Highly enjoyable and very hard to put down!