It's late summer of 1814. Hannah Bonner and her half brother, Luke, have been searching the islands of the Caribbean for more than a year for Luke's wife, Jennet, and the vile man who abducted her. But Jennet's rescue does not go as smoothly as everyone hopes. During her captivity, Jennet gave birth to Luke's son, Nathaniel, and in a desperate attempt to save his life, she reluctantly turned his care over to a stranger until her rescue.
Now, with one adventure over, another one begins that proves to be more difficult and dangerous than expected. There's a very powerful family doing their best to keep the Bonners from their son. This leads them to the wilds of New Orleans, where prejudice runs thick as swamp water, causing Hannah, being half Mohawk, to tread lightly.
While in New Orleans, they become separated. Jennet is reunited with young Nathaniel, but doing so brings her in contact with Honore Poiterin, the man she entrusted with her son. Hannah becomes ill and must rely on Paul and Julia Savard, old friends from her past, to care for her. While in their care she meets Paul's half brother, Jean-Benoit Savard (Ben), and they immediately are drawn to one another. Ben, part Choctaw, knows the city and the surrounding area well and is the person Hannah comes to trust to help reunite her with Luke and Jennet and get them home to Lake in the Clouds. But with New Orleans on the brink of war, is it too late for them to get out alive?
QUEEN OF SWORDS is the fifth installment in Ms. Donati's epic Bonner family drama and I hope not the last. It's a great story rich in history, adventure and romance. What a wonderful addition to my library.
It is the late summer of 1814, and Hannah Bonner and her
half brother Luke have spent more than a year searching the
islands of the Caribbean for Lukeβs wife and the man who
abducted her. But Jennetβs rescue, so long in coming, is not
the resolution theyβd hoped for. In the spring she had given
birth to Lukeβs son, and in the summer Jennet had found
herself compelled to surrender the infant to a stranger in
the hope of keeping him safe.To claim the child,
Hannah, Luke, and Jennet must journey first to Pensacola.
There they learn a great deal about the family that has the
baby. The Poiterins are a very rich, very powerful Creole
family, totally without scruple. The matriarch of the family
has left Pensacola for New Orleans and taken the child she
now claims as her great-grandson with her.New
Orleans is a city on the brink of war, a city where
prejudice thrives and where Hannah, half Mohawk, must tread
softly. Careful plans are made as the Bonners set out to
find and reclaim young Nathaniel Bonner. Plans that go
terribly awry, isolating them from each other in a dangerous
city at the worst of times.Sure that all is lost,
and sick unto death, Hannah finds herself in the care of a
family and a friend from her past, Dr. Paul de Guise Savard
dit Saint-dβUzet. It is Dr. Savard and his wife who save
Hannahβs life, but Dr. Savardβs half brother who offers her
real hope. Jean-Benoit Savard, the great-grandson of French
settlers, slaves, and Choctaw and Seminole Indians, is the
one man who knows the city well enough to engineer the
miracle that will reunite the Bonners and send them home to
Lake in the Clouds. With Ben Savardβs guidance, allies are
drawn from every segment of New Orleansβs population and
from Andrew Jacksonβs army, now pouring into the city in
preparation for what will be the last major battle of the
War of 1812.
No excerpt available.
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