Before the Scarlet Dawn by Rita Gerlach ~ Review

My Review: A dramactic tale that left me with mixed feelings.

Eliza and her new husband face the hardships of breaking ties in England and making a new life for themselves in America. But tragedy and heart-break are not far behind them, threatening their marriage.

This wasn't exactily what I was expecting. I was told that this was not a romance, but more of a historical. In my opinion it was alot more like an unending soap opera of emotions, and heartache that would make a good TV mini-series, but not necessarily a gritty historical.

Hayward and Eliza both made their mistakes and suffered the consequences, there were often times when I didn't understand why they did what they did, or rather they took their actions to the extreme or not far enough. I never came to ever really like Eliza, as a character or a person, and Hayward became just horrid! I think he was mentally unstable or something. I did sympathize with their situations, though.

My favorite character was Mr. Brennan, because right from the start I felt that I had a strong sense of who he was and what kind of man he was, and I liked that he'd been through hard times yet came out stronger for it, and he had many admirable qualities to him.

Overall, I did not enjoy this book. And for the most part I think it just frustrated me. I just never felt like I could really connect with the main characters, even though I wanted to. It's not like I expected them to be perfect and honestly I liked that they were deeply flawed, but at times I felt that their reactions were just not realistic. So I guess you could say that this one wasn't for me. I know lots of other people who loved this book, but for me this just wasn't something that I could find enjoyment in reading. Thanks.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.