Dawn's Promise

Silent Wings Series, Book 1

By: A. W. Exley

Narrated by: Mary Sarah

A heart prepared to die that has never lived or loved...

Born with fragile health, Dawn Uxbridge has lived a sheltered existence. Her lonely days are filled by drawing fanciful landscapes and nurturing plants. When tragedy strikes, she finds herself alone and penniless with only one talent - a green thumb.

Jasper, the Earl of Seton, is in need of a gardener to reclaim his derelict estate in the remote west of England. He expected a robust commoner, not a fragile young woman.

With the next train a week away, Dawn has one chance to change the earl's mind and earn her place. But all is not as it seems at the ancestral manor. The estate is full of secrets. Ravens cluster on the parapets, and a ghostly young woman cries out at night. This garden conceals a rotten heart, and it plans to squeeze the last beat from Dawn's....

Contains mature themes.

©2017 A. W. Exley (P)2018 Tantor

Enjoyable and recommended

If you are like me and not a big fan of characters with magical powers, you may be as pleasantly surprised as I was by Dawn’s Promise. The story is well written and beautifully read. As a gardener, I loved that the garden was essential to Dawn’s own ordeal and growth. I look forward to listening to the next book in the series very soon.

Gardening or nature lovers dream story.

Great story wonderful reader, relaxing yet exciting. Not the best character development though if I had to critique.

It Was Promising...Just Didn't Deliver

What I liked about this book:

1. The atmosphere was wonderful. It was dark and creepy with a minor mystery shrouding the middle of its plot. I liked how I was reminded of a genuine gothic novel. Even the way architecture was described gave me pleasant chills.
2. I liked that Dawn was super into plants. You don’t get many plant heroines out there.

What I did not like about the book:

1. The beginning of the novel started off very slow. I was hoping that getting through the first third of the book would be rewarding (after the non-stop talk of death) but right when events began to pick up…things got, er…weird. And not the good type of weird (which there are those types, I promise.)
2. Speaking of that not-so-good-weird, I won’t go into it, but that weird got very uncomfortable very fast with Dawn reacting to said weird in a manner that just didn’t sit well with me.
3. Dawn took waaaay too long in realizing what the heck was going on. There can only be so many times where someone can say “Hmn, must have been my imagination” right after something very tangible occurs in plain sight. Is Dawn perhaps a Skyrim NPC?
4. Dawn and, shoot…what was the love interest’s name? …anyway, Dawn and Love Interest shared very little chemistry. I could tell that Dawn liked him (oh boy could I) but I never got the sense from Love Interest. It was like he only “fell in love with her” because he was told to by the author.
5. Dawn gave into the idea that her father left her penniless way too quickly. She didn’t ask for proof or investigate. I understand that she was under duress (and she was ready to give into death for about a third of the book) but she seems inquisitive enough to have at least tried.

Verdict:

I really think that this book could have benefitted from removing the *super* supernatural from the plot. It could have been a brilliant gothic novel where the atmosphere plays tricks on Dawn to the point where she doesn’t know if it’s just her and her condition playing tricks on her, or if there are really paranormal creatures roaming around. As is, I got bored with the book dancing around the idea of elementals and other worldly beings. Bored and a little freaked out from that “weird” bit. Anyway, I don’t see myself listening or reading anymore from this author. It was just okay.

Different

Not what I expected… the problem is the narration made it very hard to just enjoy the story… the sing song, haughty , narration really took away from the story… I made myself complete the book … I think I would have better enjoyed the story with a better narration…🙁

The fantastic y element used

Darkly enchanting. The fantasy element was wonderful. Loved it. Can’t wait to start the next one.

Non English Narrator is gearing

As an English person, the narrator’s attempt at an upper class English accent is extremely grating. She almost has it, but just not quite. I find myself not being able to follow the story, because the errors in her pronunciation are driving me insane!!

Mary Sarah is my favorite narrator!

Wonderful thoughtful story! Please keep using Mary Sarah as your narrator!!! She has the BEST male voices! I look for all her books!!!!

Inconsistent and odd accent by narrator

I tried this series out since I enjoyed some of the other books by this author. The narrator made it somewhat difficult to finish as her accent was odd and somewhat inconsistent. The accent was so odd that it was distracting from the story itself. I might read the subsequent books in this series, but I won’t be listening to this narrator again.