Dawn's Prelude

Dawn's Prelude - Mary Bartholomew, The Good Bookstall

This is not Tracie Peterson’s first Alaskan trilogy: readers of the Alaskan Quest series and others of her books, will already know that she is meticulous in telling the history of any area accurately, setting her stories into their backgrounds in a way that gently teaches us historical facts of which we may be unaware. I love this form of storytelling and have learnt far more history this way than I ever did at school. With that in mind, I settled down for a good read and was not disappointed. Lydia Gray is released from an intolerable marriage by the carriage accident that kills both her abusive older husband and the father who had forced her into this marriage. She has lost all faith in God. How could he exist, if he let her be beaten and downtrodden so ruthlessly? With the help of her loyal solicitor, she travels to the safety of her aunt’s home on Sitka Island in the newly purchased American territory of Alaska. Here she finds peace and serenity, regaining her trust in a loving God and falling in love with a neighbour..... but her evil step family are still plotting her downfall.