The Endless Forest

This is the final book in the Wilderness series, and it is just as great as the rest. But don't worry because there is a 2 book sequel to them The Gilded Hour and Where the Light Enters that is set several years in the future. It's sad though that after those two it is the end of the journey with the Bonner family and their friends. Hopefully, there may be more in the future, to fill in the missing years. I can't say it enough though, these were great!!!

Sara Donati's The Endless Forest, the sixth and final novel in her Wilderness series, is as entertaining as her first, Into the Wilderness. The novel is richly satisfying to a reader of the previous five, and yet will be entertaining to a person not familiar with the series. Donati polled her readers about what they wanted included in the final novel. She's addressed their disparate requests within a fine story that could have been a jumbled mess in the hands of a lesser writer. Donati began the Wilderness series with the question: What would happen if James Fennimore Cooper's Natty Bumpo's son met a character from Jane Austin's novels? Bumpo becomes Hawkeye Bonner, marries Cora, and has a son Nathaniel. The novel begins as Elizabeth Middleton comes from England to the New York wilderness town of Paradise in the winter of 1792. The first scene in Into the Wilderness is a tribute to Cooper's The Pioneers. The Endless Forest action starts thirty-one years later in Paradise, New York, in the late winter of 1823 with the death of an old Bonner dog and with a hundred-years flood that sends ice and debris to devastate Paradise, symbols of great changes coming to Paradise. All of Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner's children and grandchildren are coming together for the summer. Previous books have been about Elizabeth and Nathaniel's stories; daughter Hannah's, daughter Lily's, and son Luke's. This one is told mostly from ten year old daughter Birdie's and twenty-nine year old son Daniel's view. Donati keeps true to both a child's and a man's perceptions. Daniel as a young man fighting in the War of 1812 in Fire Along the Sky, sustained ongoing painful nerve damage in his shoulder. We find him now as he has come to terms with the pain and the inability to use a rifle. He has followed in Elizabeth's footsteps, taking over her teaching duties, rather than as he expected, a frontiersman like Nathaniel. Curiosity Freeman, a friend of the family, appears in all of the novels, serving somewhat as a Greek chorus of one. Curiosity and her husband Galileo were slaves manumitted in Baltimore. They were sent to Paradise in 1761 by Elizabeth's grandfather to help his daughter Maddie cope with life in the wilderness. Through Curiosity's story we read Maddie's heart-rending story as a young wife. We meet Gabriel Oak (his name a nod to another of Donati's favorite authors, Thomas Hardy) as a young man. He was first introduced as an old man in Lake in the Clouds. The mysterious death of Cookie, a manumitted slave, that occurs in Fire Along the Sky is finally explained. Elizabeth and Nathaniel's run from Paradise to marriage and legal security in Into the Wilderness becomes a theme with variations by two other couples in The Endless Forest. Jemima, of the brittle anger, speaks in defense of her mean-spirited actions that have occurred throughout several of the novels. The reader goes through childbirth with two of the Bonner women. Precocious Birdie's game of Chicken

The last installment of the story of the Bonner family was an emotional and satisfying conclusion to this wonderful series. It opens with a prologue narrated by one of my favorite characters and just gets better. It is 1823 and we are brought up to date on what has happened with Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner and their children, spouses and grandchildren since the last book, which ended in 1815. As with any large family, there are joys, problems, challenges and sorrows. Overseeing all this is Elizabeth, Nathaniel, and of course, Curiosity. The youngest Bonner, Birdie, is a delight to read. She reminds me a little of Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird. The only adult Bonner offspring not married is Daniel, who tends to keep to himself because of a painful war wound that has not healed. Martha Wilde has returned to Paradise with problems of her own, but it is not long before Daniel takes a new interest in his surroundings, namely Martha. When Martha's mother, Jemima, comes back to Paradise and wants to see Martha, the Bonners "circle the wagons" for her. Jemima left Paradise under a cloud of suspicion and animosity. She also left her daughter and step-daughter, Callie, behind. Callie is also beset by problems. Problems that effect her relationship with just about everyone, but especially her stepsister. The root of these problems is Jemima, Martha's mother. There were also times of joy and amusement, like the Bonner family Sunday dinners, Birdie's take on events happening to her family and her endurance of the little people. Nicholas. I especially enjoyed the description of the Mohawk dances, first with the men and then with the men and women. I felt this was a book of closure, not only for the series, but for Martha, Callie and Jemima. All of these women were marked by life's circumstances and it was how they handled these circumstances that determined their fate and their legacies. The closure continued with the epilogue, which brought tears to my eyes at certain points. This was a wonderful ending to a wonderful series.

This was such a wonderful book. I love that the entire family was together for this farewell. The setting is Paradise and I would have it no other way. There is a share of adventures in Paradise but life is slower here and this was very comforting to me. I absolutely adored the love story in this book...I think it is my favorite, next to Nathaniel and Elizabeth's. Maybe equal! The feeling throughout the book was that of being surrounded by family and the knowing that there is safety and love, come what may. Its what we all want from life. I have loved every minute I've spent with the Bonners. Sara/Rosina has managed to end this series without leaving any unanswered questions, thank you for that! I was surprised to find tears falling from my eyes as I read the last page. It felt like I was saying goodbye to dear friends and family. Thank you so much Sara/Rosina for this series and for bringing a little bit of Paradise to my life!

Sara Donati brings the story of the Bonners to the most remarkable conclusion in THE ENDLESS FOREST. The timeline has moved to 1824 and it takes place, for the most part, in familiar Paradise, NY. Having loved these books and these characters from the very first word in the very first book, INTO THE WILDERNESS, it's wonderful to find out how they've grown, where life has taken them, and who they've turned out to be. I'm not going to go into too much detail - all the answers will be given in the book. I just wanted to say that there is no disappointment - no lack of adventure or romance. THE ENDLESS FOREST exceeds any expectation and Sara Donati's (Rosina Lippi) voice is as vivid and descriptive as ever. In this book, in particular, though, her talent as a historian and a storyteller shines so brightly. I promise you, when you leave the people of Paradise at the end, you'll feel as though you're letting go of friends, of people you've known and loved for a long time. To turn these fictional characters into such realistic beings is a remarkable talent and I and all the rest of Ms. Donati's readers will be forever grateful. I have just one wish and I'll bet just about everyone joins me in begging for, at least, a short novel or novelette. I would dearly love to know the full, fleshed-out stories of Gabriel and Blue Jay. Just the hope of that would make leaving the Bonners a little easier.

I am Rosina Lippi, aka Sara Donati, author of the Wilderness series. To clarify some points of general confusion: This is the sixth and last book in the Wilderness series. The whole series, in order: Into the Wilderness (Wilderness Saga 1), Dawn on a Distant Shore, Lake in the Clouds, Fire Along the Sky, Queen of Swords, and finally: The Endless Forest: A Novel. Thanks to all of you who have left comments and such generous words about the books.