Lake in the Clouds - Sara Donati

The third novel in the Wilderness series finds the Bonner family back home in the North American frontier.A sparkling, absorbing historical novel, set in America at a time when the growing population in the towns clashed with the frontiersmen, the adventurers and the original settlers, in their attempts to regulate society, as they saw it.The Bonner family easily straddle both worlds. But Hannah, the oldest daughter, a gifted healer, training in medical studies in New York, finds herself in real difficulties when she nurses and saves a runaway slave. Her actions lead her and the family into new danger as the bounty hunters are led by her childhood friend and first love, and the runaway slave's escape is facilitated by one of her foster brothers.Sara Donati captures brilliantly the vigorous spirit of those willing to leave their homelands for new adventures and the conflicts between their different cultures, all set in the magnificent sweep of the teeming cities and the wild countryside.