Post by Charlynn on Feb 9, 2013 9:39:17 GMT -5
Lake in the Clouds by Sara Donati
A decade has passed since this series last left off after Dawn on a Distant Shore and much has changed, not so much for the Bonners… though life has certainly continued for the family in that they have loved, lost, and aged… but in how Donati explores the Bonners’ story. Nathaniel and Elizabeth are now supporting characters. Consequently, much of the book’s action is presented from different perspectives – familiar in characterization but strangers in voice.
Primarily, the novel is split into three distinct sections. The first focuses upon a runaway slave and what her presence in Paradise means for the Bonners and the Freemans. Nathaniel and Elizabeth go into the wilderness once more to guide the woman and her unborn child to safety, knowingly bringing danger into their own family’s life. Next, Hannah leaves Paradise for New York City, traveling with an ill Kitty and Ethan, to gain smallpox vaccination training. Finally, these two portions of the novel culminate in the third when both parties return home only to be thrust into a simmering racial battle fraught with revenge, secrets, and new relationships. To coincide with these three distinct portions of Lake in the Clouds, there are three main narrators: Hannah, Lily, and Jemima Southern – a recently blossomed woman, a child looking for her direction in life, and a bitter servant with an ax to grind, respectively.
With this introduction to the novel given, it is rather impossible to present a review without bringing the personal into my remarks. It has been nearly three months since I last posted, not because I wasn’t reading during that time but because I wasn’t reading (and finishing) this novel. Instead, I found myself constantly distracted (sometimes willingly and sometimes almost unwillingly) by other reading options. (Hello Downton Abbey fanfic, I’m looking at you.) And this wasn’t because Lake in the Clouds is a horrible or uninteresting book… persay. While I realize this is certainly NOT a stellar recommendation, the truth of the matter is that, for a series which has been, up to this point, quite stellar, Lake in the Clouds was a disappointment, and, because it did not live up to its predecessors, the novel hurt itself by comparison. A separate entity, and I believe I would have finished the work much sooner, but I was disgruntled by the lack of Nathaniel and Elizabeth in Lake in the Clouds, and that disgruntlement just became a lack of interest in regards to new characters not related back to the Bonners’ story, Hannah’s medical endeavors, Lily’s adolescent insights, and Jemima’s interloping presence. One hopes that, next, when there is Fire Along the Sky, Donati will return to what made her series memorable and enjoyable in the first place – that she’ll take her readers back into the wilderness (figuratively) again.
Three out of Five Stars
A decade has passed since this series last left off after Dawn on a Distant Shore and much has changed, not so much for the Bonners… though life has certainly continued for the family in that they have loved, lost, and aged… but in how Donati explores the Bonners’ story. Nathaniel and Elizabeth are now supporting characters. Consequently, much of the book’s action is presented from different perspectives – familiar in characterization but strangers in voice.
Primarily, the novel is split into three distinct sections. The first focuses upon a runaway slave and what her presence in Paradise means for the Bonners and the Freemans. Nathaniel and Elizabeth go into the wilderness once more to guide the woman and her unborn child to safety, knowingly bringing danger into their own family’s life. Next, Hannah leaves Paradise for New York City, traveling with an ill Kitty and Ethan, to gain smallpox vaccination training. Finally, these two portions of the novel culminate in the third when both parties return home only to be thrust into a simmering racial battle fraught with revenge, secrets, and new relationships. To coincide with these three distinct portions of Lake in the Clouds, there are three main narrators: Hannah, Lily, and Jemima Southern – a recently blossomed woman, a child looking for her direction in life, and a bitter servant with an ax to grind, respectively.
With this introduction to the novel given, it is rather impossible to present a review without bringing the personal into my remarks. It has been nearly three months since I last posted, not because I wasn’t reading during that time but because I wasn’t reading (and finishing) this novel. Instead, I found myself constantly distracted (sometimes willingly and sometimes almost unwillingly) by other reading options. (Hello Downton Abbey fanfic, I’m looking at you.) And this wasn’t because Lake in the Clouds is a horrible or uninteresting book… persay. While I realize this is certainly NOT a stellar recommendation, the truth of the matter is that, for a series which has been, up to this point, quite stellar, Lake in the Clouds was a disappointment, and, because it did not live up to its predecessors, the novel hurt itself by comparison. A separate entity, and I believe I would have finished the work much sooner, but I was disgruntled by the lack of Nathaniel and Elizabeth in Lake in the Clouds, and that disgruntlement just became a lack of interest in regards to new characters not related back to the Bonners’ story, Hannah’s medical endeavors, Lily’s adolescent insights, and Jemima’s interloping presence. One hopes that, next, when there is Fire Along the Sky, Donati will return to what made her series memorable and enjoyable in the first place – that she’ll take her readers back into the wilderness (figuratively) again.
Three out of Five Stars