1st Light - Dawn Reads and Reviews

Every Secret Thing by Susanna Kearsley My rating: 4 of 5 stars I love Susanna Kearsley's books and have read just about everything she has published, her entire oeuvre of published work. Although this is a reprint, originally published under a different name (Kearsley's pen name Emma Cole), this was still a wonderful read, and I'm happy others will be able to enjoy this story. Canadian journalist Kate Murray is in London covering a murder trial when an elderly gentleman named Andrew Deacon approaches her, claiming to know something about her grandmother and a murder connected to World War II. Before he can tell her everything, he is killed in a suspicious hit-and-run. What follows takes Kate from London to Toronto, Lisbon, and Washington as she uncovers a complicated trail of wartime espionage, betrayals, and secrets that someone is still willing to kill to protect. What worked best for me was how naturally the story moved between the pas...

We Go Way Back: The most anticipated, heartbreaking love story of 2027 by Niamh Connolly My rating: 4 of 5 stars This was a hard one to read. Probably because the early release version I have hasn't been fully formatted yet, and the chapters jump around a lot, shifting from the past to the present. It covers very painful emotions and trauma. It's tough, and I almost put it down a few times. What kept me going? It covered that unique timeframe of the pandemic and lockdown and reminded me about what I was doing then and my own trauma. It was set in Ireland. I loved all the references and culture. And, by the middle of the story, I was invested in the characters and wanted to see how things would resolve. There really is something uniquely painful about realizing the person you have loved for years may inadvertently end up belonging to someone else because of a mistake you made. This is the story of Frances and Callum. Frances returns to Ireland...

Grim Tidings by B.K. Borison My rating: 4 of 5 stars The story about a Grim Reaper and a Guardian Angel falling in love sounds campy and trite. It sounds like it's going to be full of stereotypes. But it couldn't be farther from this. What really sold this for me was an interview I read about regarding where B.K. Borison came up with the idea. She mentioned it was an idea that had been floating around in her own life. Her husband works in palliative care dealing with terminally ill patients. She wrote about watching him grieve people he barely had time to meet. What if death got tired of dealing with their job, just like her husband? Darcy, a Grim Reaper, has spent a century collecting souls and is exhausted by the constant presence of death. Gabriel has devoted his existence to protecting human lives as a Guardian Angel. When Darcy's newest assignment brings her into Gabriel's orbit, he immediately sees her as the exact opposite of e...

The Enigmas by Emilia Hart My rating: 5 of 5 stars I love speculative fiction with philosophical questions at its core. Questions like: If you were given the chance to go back and undo the worst moment of your life, how far would you go before changing the past became more dangerous than living with it? The plot: The Enigmas follows Beatrice, a woman living in wartime England whose life has been shaped by family expectations, loss, and the sense that her sister Clemmie has always been freer and braver than she. When tragedy changes everything, Beatrice finds herself drawn into the possibility that time may not be as fixed as she once believed. Running alongside her story are sections from her mother Alice’s past, revealing her experiences as a young woman and doctor during the First World War and slowly uncovering how the women in this family are connected across generations. I loved learning about the Endell Street Military Hospital, a pioneering Fi...

Child of Ashes by Elizabeth Hunter My rating: 5 of 5 stars I own and read each Elizabeth Hunter's books as soon as I hear that another one is coming out. Am I biased? Yes. Is she a favorite author? Yes. Would I read an Ikea instruction manual she wrote? You better believe I would. They need someone to make them fun and interesting. So whether it's about romance, contemporary fantasy, paranormal mystery, or time travel, I'm there for it. Whether we have vampires, shape shifters, mages, or fairies, count me in. I love the way she handles speculative fiction. She makes it easy to jump in and understand, and that is especially true for her latest, Child of Ashes. Time travel is complicated enough. In this second book in the Seba Segel series, someone kidnaps the most powerful child anyone has seen in generations and takes him into the past. The continuation of "The Thirteenth Month" finds Narine building her life around protecting...

Threshing Day by Rebecca Yarros My rating: 4 of 5 stars I did not realize how badly I needed to return to Basgiath until thirteen different Threshing Days reminded me exactly why I love this world. Threshing Day revisits one of the most important moments in a rider’s life through multiple familiar perspectives, giving us the chance to experience the day cadets enter the Vale and either bond with a dragon or fail trying. Rather than centering one character, the novella moves among thirteen different cadets and dragon pairings, revealing pieces of the relationships, fears, motivations, loyalties, and grief that eventually shape the characters we know from the main series. I loved this. Some chapters are funny (Ridoc & Aotrom), some are heartbreaking (Sloane & Thoirt), and several quietly add new meaning to moments or relationships from Fourth Wing , Iron Flame, and Onyx Storm. Ridoc’s perspective was exactly as entertaining as I expected, while...