by

Follow the Dawn by Rachelle Rea Cobb: My Long-Anticipated Return to My Favorite Historical Romance!!!

Hey, all, it’s Alexa! A while back, I reviewed the first two books in the Steadfast Love trilogy by Rachelle Rea Cobb (you can find those reviews here and here). They were absolutely delightful, beautiful, faith-based stories with the perfect balance of action and romance. Today, we get to return to that wonderful world with the most recent release, Follow the Dawn.

Description:

Anna Emory grew up the invisible younger sister, shy and quiet, and she prefers it that way. But her father’s attempts to arrange an unsavory marriage teach her that courage is sometimes found in adversity.

Then she meets a boy and his father who tip her quiet world upside down.

Captain Mathieu Tudder has run from responsibility, entrusting his young son’s care to another and devoting his Sea Beggar ship to the cause of the Dutch Revolution. After the cause fails, Tudder returns to England for the son he left behind, all he has left of the wife he lost. But Titus prefers a mysteriously quiet nursemaid to his estranged father.

Tudder wants his son back, yet Anna stands in his way. Will these two hearts—the battle-scarred and the broken—ever find true freedom?

Plot:

Follow the Dawn is different from the Steadfast Love books in that there’s a lot less outside plot going on. Steadfast Love occurs with a backdrop of war, fire, murder mysteries, very deadly legal accusations, and very, very narrow escapes (not necessarily of the legal variety). Follow the Dawn, on the other hand, happens after all that is over. So, certainly, were still dealing with the aftermath, but overall, this story is much more character-centric, with more internal and interpersonal conflict than external conflict (which isn’t a bad thing at all. It’s just different if you’ve read the previous books).

Still, the beginning was exciting to me, especially since I got to see my old favorites again! I literally squealed when Gwyn came on the scene and I almost fell out of my chair when Dirk popped up. Not that anything particularly crazy was going on or that I was necessarily surprised to see them, I was just so happy they were there (so I guess that tells you the kind of characters this woman can write: powerful, memorable, real-feeling people who stick with you for literal years). Once I started the story, I kind of just wanted to devour it, I was so sucked in by the characters’ inner conflicts and the outer conflicts these could spark.

I did think that the middle dragged a bit, but as the ending came together and the climax rose into view, there were some wonderful twists that set my fangirl heart a-flurry! I was glued to the book for the last several chapters, just speedreading as fast as my eyes could soak in the letters, because I NEEDED TO KNOW how this all ended!

It ended good. No spoilers here, but it was super sweet, super satisfying, and I would love to see more with these characters.

Plot: 4 stars out of 5.

Characters:

Like I said, the characters are really the main draw for this book. Tudder and Anna have this unique, slow sort of romance: they’re neither enemies nor friends first. They’re… just… acquaintances, who both care a lot about Tudder’s son, and they’re actually pretty wary around each other. Their awkwardness prior to actually being together did almost kill me several times (I have severe Second-Hand Embarrassment Disorder), but I’m pretty sure that’s standard for romance, and anyway, once they clicked, they were 100% worth it! A perfectly balanced and adorable couple.

Individually:

  • Tudder: he’s such a complex guy, and there are just so many big things he’s battling. I actually feel like I’d need to read it again in order to fully understand him. What I noticed with this read is that, with the POV switches, I got to see not only his battles from the inside, but how he looked on the outside to Anna. So, you have this intimidating yet caring, kind of mysterious, powerful ship-captain figure that Anna sees, and then we go back to to his POV, and there’s this desperate, tooth-and-nail fight against the guilt that’s ready to eat him alive. It wasn’t one of those stories where I just wanted to cuddle him and give him cookies, but I was intrigued by his character and I so wanted him to find peace in the end.
  • Anna: she’s such a sweet girl, which I feel is really unique for YA female protagonists. She’s soft and cute, on the inside and the outside, and honestly, she’s not all that “strong” to start out with. Still, I liked her from her very first chapter and there’s a certain scene in Chapter 3 that almost had me in tears; it was emotionally gorgeous and it gave such powerful insight into the kind of character she was by showing how dear she was to those closest to her. There were times I struggled to understand what was going on in her head and some of her issues definitely aggravated my Second-Hand Embarrassment problem. But overall, she was super sweet and getting to see her grow, recognize her strengths, and come into courage while battling her weaknesses—that was worth it.

Characters: 4 stars out of 5.

Writing Style/Setting:

Lovely as always! From what I recall, there was more of a focus on describing emotions than on describing places, but regardless, the writing was always strong. I didn’t always agree with what the characters did, but I could always hear the cry of their hearts.

And of course, like I said in the above posts, whenever we got a view of the surrounding area, it was so poetic. It wasn’t like someone was just telling you what you were looking at; it was like you were there, looking at it as the character themselves.

One of my favorite quotes:

Each night the blackness wrested the sky from the light. Each morning the light came to claim it once again.

Writing Style/Setting: 5 stars out of 5.

And so, we come in at about 4 stars out of 5. This is a very sweet story with some struggles and some scenes that will stick with you for ages. If you’d like to pick up a copy for yourself, it is your lucky week! It’s available for free on Kindle now through this Friday! 😊

What was the last romance you read? If you’ve been getting some extra reading done lately, what was on your list? Can’t wait to hear from you and I’ll see you in the comment section!

~ Love, Alexa

Note: I voluntarily and honestly reviewed a free ecopy of this book.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *