Search - The Bride of the Wilderness: A Novel

Fairly long book that has well developed characters that you love, hate or like right away. Set in early Britian and American (pre 1700's) where descriptions of cities, towns, ships, land and customs appear to be fairly historical. The author is however, a little long winded in my opinion, adding a lot of details or descriptions that I found to be unnecessary (jmo). All in all it is an enjoyable book.

Although this is an historical, with plenty of attention to detail, the story line is fast paced and keeps you going to the end.

McCarry was able to bring actual events of late 17th century English and American history to vivid life and his research into the time period is thorough. For example, I believe that he used actual events like the cold and snowy February 1690 night attack by French and Indians on present day Schenectady and the extraordinary escape of Mrs Hannah Dustin from her Abenaki captors, for the fictional attack on Alamoth and the manner of Rose Barebones escape from the Abenakis. His dreamy writing style lends itself to the way Fanny, his main character, sleep-walks through life, as if she and the virgin forests of America are waiting to be awoken to reality. This book is something which one seldom sees on the shelves of bookstores these days: it is exciting, thrilling, romantic in the grand manner of true romance (the worth of true patient love), as well as giving the average reader a taste of what life in America once was, a land filled with enormous trees, wild strawberries so abundant that walking through them was like walking through strawberry preserves, filled with danger and Indians who lived by a code of morals that only the French tried to understand. Highly recommended book!