The late Bernard Bailyn's The Barbarous Years is a pretty good introduction to the first North Atlantic colonies, a useful correction to the common notion that they were idyllic places to live ( or secure, or well-planned , or wisely-governed). His student Fred Anderson has written a quite good book on the French and Indian War, Crucible of War, which has both a good amount of details about the actual campaigns as well as the social and political background to the conflict. After reading it, you'll never look at Bejamin West's The Death of General Wolfe without feeling less sorrow for the dying Wolfe than for his subordinate commanders looking on, who had to spend the following winter averting starvation in Quebec because Wolfe had previously decided to lay waste to the surrounding farms and countryside.