Into the Prairie: The Pioneers

By Rosanne Bittner

With her Westward America! novels, beloved novelist Rosanne Bittner tells the personal stories of some of the brave pioneers who settled this country's early wilderness at great personal risk. Deftly combining soul-stirring romance with true American history, Bittner creates a world in which brave men and women make the greatest sacrifices possible to see their dreams made reality---and with them, the dreams of a young nation.

Jonah Wilde has always had an untamed spirit, and he will stop at nothing to achieve his dream of building a farming empire in the wild prairies of Indiana. But in 1810, the Shawnee Indians still call these prairies home, and a disastrous and violent encounter with the Shawnee changes everything for the Wilde family.

Jonah's young wife, Sadie, and his three-year-old son, Paul, are left to fend for themselves at Tippecanoe. Her dreams in tatters, Sadie doesn't know whether she'll have the strength to go on. Sadie and Paul's fate lies in the hands of the Powatomi leader, Windigo, and his Shawnee counterpart, the notorious Tecumseh. Will their lives be spared? And if they live, will they ever return to the life Sadie dreamt of with Jonah?

Bestselling and beloved author Rosanne Bittner will break your heart as she brings to life the stories of the brave pioneers who settled, shaped, and died for the young nation of America.



At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Mar 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781429985239

Rosanne Bittner

Published since 1983, Rosanne Bittner is known nationally and internationally, with 58 titles and several million books in print. Rosanne writes historical romance and sagas involving real American history, especially stories about America’s Old West and its Native Americans. Rosanne has won numerous writing awards and has been inducted into romance magazine Affaire de Couer’s Hall of Fame for longevity and endurance in the market and for overall appeal to readers. She has received numerous favorable reviews in Publishers Weekly, and was a finalist for Women Writing the West’s prestigious WILLA award for her novel Where Heaven Begins, set in the Yukon during the gold rush. In 2012 romance magazine Romantic Times named Rosanne a "Legend of Historical Romance." Rosanne is a member of the Nebraska and Montana State Historical Societies, Women Writing the West, Western Writers of America and Romance Writers of America (Mid-Michigan Chapter). Rosanne and her husband Larry live in southwest Michigan and have two sons and three grandsons. Locally Rosanne is a Board member of the Coloma Lioness Club, a charity organization. You can learn more about Rosanne and her latest publications through her web site, her blog, and by visiting her on Facebook and Twitter. Rosanne also contributes to numerous writers’ sites, such as Goodreads, and a number of blog sites.

Reviews for Into the Prairie

[mariesansone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This historical romance takes place between 1810 and 1812, with Jonah Wilde, his wife, Sadie, and toddler, Paul, heading out from Ohio into Indiana, to settle on the plains. They manage to construct a sod home, begin to till the soil, and survive their first plains winter when two Potawatomi warriors living amongst the Shawnee kidnap Sadie and Paul, leaving Jonah and another family for dead.The novel alternates, in chronological order, between the pioneer and Native American points of view, weaving in historical material concerning the great Shawnee chief, Tecumseh; his brother and spiritual leader, Tenskwatawa; Territorial Governor William Henry Harrison; Tecumseh's efforts to rescind the Fort Wayne Treaty and unify southern tribes against the Americans; the 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe; and the New Madrid earthquake, a series of incredibly strong earthquakes taking place in the midwest from December 1811 through February 1812. There are a few glaring editorial errors (the chapter heading for the New Madrid earthquake material is dated December 11, 1812, with the immediately following chapter dated January 4, 1812), and a few anachronisms, but overall, Into the Prairie is a pleasant review of early American history and a fine romance.