Her daring bid for freedom could be her greatest undoing.
Amid the Great War in 1918 England, munitions worker Rosalind Graham is desperate to escape the arranged marriage being forced on her by her ruthless guardian and instead follow her own course. When the Chilwell factory explodes, killing hundreds of unidentified workers, Rose realizes the world believes she perished in the disaster. Seizing the chance to escape, she risks all and assumes a new identity, taking a supervisory position in Gretna, Scotland, as Miss Tilly Lockhart.
RAF Captain Alex Baird is returning home to Gretna on a secret mission to uncover the saboteur suspected in the Chilwell explosion, as Gretna’s factory is likely next. Fearing for his family’s safety, he’s also haunted by guilt after failing to protect his brother. Alex is surprised to discover a young woman, Miss Lockhart, renting his boyhood room, but the two eventually bond over their mutual affection for his family–until Alex receives orders to surveil her.
Rose squirms beneath Alex’s scrutiny while she struggles to gain her workers’ respect. But when her deception turns to danger, she and Alex must find a way to put their painful pasts behind them and together try to safeguard the future. [back cover copy]
Kate Breslin’s story AS DAWN BREAKS is at times as tender as the gentle sunrise painted on the cover, at others as stark as a post-tornado landscape. But above all, it’s BRILLIANT!
2017 Silvertown, London
Against the backdrop of World War I, the drama of Rose Graham’s personal life unfolds. She faces a bleak future imprisoned in an arranged marriage to a wicked bully. A shaft of light pierces her misery when an explosion levels the building she works in at a munitions factory, leaving the world to believe she was killed. If she can act fast enough and boldly enough, she just might begin a new life posing as another. She gathers a dead woman’s few belongings and papers and flees.
As her new life in Gretna, Scotland intersects with others, Rose creates a tolerable existence—if she can just keep her story straight. Especially when Alex Baird, the RAF captain son of her landlords, unexpectedly returns home and seems very interested in Rose’s past. She must discern if he’s friend or foe. But before she can, the threads of their lives begin to tangle and the knots just grow bigger, right along with the risks both to her and those she loves.
Breslin’s story is an intricate weave like a detailed jacquard fabric. She gives us a charming love story amid an adventure and mystery, sprinkled with humor. She layers danger, risks from every direction, and plants clues and misdirection as well as Agatha Christie. And when Rose’s road seems to become a cramped, hopeless dead-end, a door is suddenly flung open streaming light and hope.
AS DAWN BREAKS is populated with well-drawn, believable characters, including a well-developed secondary cast that make us feel right at home in the Baird household. Breslin’s characters leap from the page. Their struggles made me ache; their successes, cheer.
And I must say a word about setting. Breslin is masterful in drawing her story world and characters, which clearly emerge from the historical time and place. Every detail rings true, and the story is perfectly balanced, never overloaded with historical details.
I highly recommend AS DAWN BREAKS for those who enjoy historical mysteries, intrigue, and tender love stories.
I received a copy of this book from Bethany House Publishers, but was not required to write a positive review. Opinions expressed here are mine.