Dawn at Emberwilde by Sarah E Ladd

Dawn at Emberwilde

For whatever reason, I seem to have a hit-and-miss relationship with Sarah Ladd and her books. While I enjoyed The Curiosity Keeper immensely, her latest offering, Dawn at Emberwilde had me struggling through the first third. It wasn’t until about midway through the book where the story started to captivate me. With that said, I am glad I kept on reading.

Probably the thing that had me most aggravated about this book was the lack of interaction between the two main characters. Their conversations were brief, the two barely got to know each other beyond polite, formal interactions (some while in groups of people). Even the mystery of the Emberwilde Forest took a while to delve into. There could have been quite a bit more done with this to keep the action moving along.

Isabel Creston is a bit naïve and she doesn’t explore her gut feeling about a certain gentleman when she becomes uneasy around him Thankfully, she is smart enough to not give in to the urgings and expectations of her aunt. Colin Galloway is a good man but he should speak up for himself more often.

I’m sure a lot of this cunning and betrayal within families occurred during this time when land was passed through bloodlines. And again, this could have been explored more. It was almost as if the author had a lot of ideas she wanted to put in the book which led to a general pass over instead of deep exploration—and I would have preferred deep exploration of the relationships between Isabel and Collin as well as Isabel’s aunt and cousin or aunt and uncle.

Not a horrible story by any means, it was entertaining and just intriguing enough for me to keep pushing through the slow beginning. And of course, I had to make sure our heroine got her HEA in the end.

***Thomas Nelson Publishers provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest and fair review. All opinions expressed are my own.