When Dawn Breaks

By: Melissa Toppen

Narrated by: Alexa Crema

Life is hard.

There’s no secret in that statement.

Life. Is. Hard.

Simple enough.

But my life hasn’t just been hard…

I’ve gotten used to it over the years - come to expect it really. So when fate hands me yet another big f--k you, I’m not even a little bit surprised. Why should I be? I mean, after everything I’ve been through, why not throw my best friend’s ex-boyfriend into the mix and see how royally I can screw this up too.

It doesn’t matter that he loved her first.

It doesn’t matter that he’s wrong for me in every way possible.

It doesn’t matter that being with him could ruin everything.

One touch and I already know it’s too late.

When Dawn Breaks is a standalone contemporary romance.

This audiobook contains content pertaining to sexual and physical abuse. Not recommended for listerners who are sensitive to this subject matter.

©2017 Melissa Toppen (P)2018 Melissa Toppen

wow, the narrator...terrible

I cannot stress enough how terrible this narrator performs. She reads like the book is one big run-on sentence. Slightly more than monotone, she is flat.

Great story

I have now read everything by this author and I really really enjoyed it. This book is about that forbidden love that you aren’t supposed to ever see come to light...that’s girl code but what if there were special circumstances?!? This book was full of ups and downs and emotional moments that made me f el like I couldn’t breathe. Well written and easy to get lost in!

Deep Character Work

I loved this story because I was able to get into the head of the main character, Bree. In fact, the author did a wonderful job of bringing all the main characters to life. But to really understand why Bree acts the way she does in this story toward Ant, the reader has got to know her back story, how she thinks, and what things are important in her life. Otherwise, it's easy to finish the book thinking the main character was kind of weak. Anyone who thinks of Bree as weak has truly missed some major points of this story.

Bree and Ant are soulful perfection. They're not just a couple of lightning bolts, they're the entire storm. They fit. They belong. They're beautiful together. They're the reason we read these kinds of books.

Beautiful story, beautifully written.

All the Lovely Feels

Completely adored the story and even made me emotion towards the end when Bree shares her darkest secrets with Anthony. I thought Anthony was what Bree needed after all she'd been through and I really hated that she had to feel guilty for having any feelings for Anthony. I know the girl code, but Anthony was in love with Bree since high school. I didn't really care that her best friend was upset. Alexa Crema had a great voice that I really loved I just didn't like her voicing Anthony's chapters. I would forget that I'm actually listening to his pov and really wish there was a male narrator to do his chapters.

Good audio, writing is fine, character annoyed me

First, I listened to the audio and the narrator does a good job.

I’m not a huge fan of this premise, but I enjoyed the first book, so I thought I’d give this a try. The writing is fine, but there was just too much that I didn’t enjoy about the book. I was going to do 3 stars, but after thinking about it; I was really just annoyed most of the time, so I’m going with 2.

There will probably be spoilers! Warning! Spoilers!

Bree had a bad upbringing with a horrible mom, she was abused sexually since she was a young child by multiple guys her mom dated. Her mom had her at 15, Bree got pregnant at 16 by an abusive boyfriend; she has low self worth and lets guys treat her like crud. She thinks she deserves it, and ends up thinking she likes it and needs it. That’s all in the past, she’s a single mom now and has had therapy, but she still has issues. She probably should’ve kept up with therapy because her self worth is still really low. She had a crush on her friend’s bf in high school, Anthony (Ant), who also liked her, but girl code and all that. Now it’s 5 years later and they meet again. Then it starts the whole when will they finally be truthful and tell the other one how they really feel and what will they do about the best friend.

I didn’t like the scenes in the past; it just shows all the bad things that happened to Bree and how Ant wanted Bree but she was in a complete mess of a situation. We already knew these things and really didn’t need more detail into it. I don’t like the whole friends to lovers thing; it just makes the characters seem stupid and weak for resisting and not knowing their own minds. The book is mostly from Bree’s POV, but there are a couple random chapters from Ant’s POV. I would’ve liked more from him. I did like their chemistry, but the romance was lacking and there was too much time dealing with all their issues. I would’ve liked more time with them as a happy couple.

Bree just kept getting on my nerves, so I had a hard time rooting for her. She’s a really bad friend; not because she wants her friend’s ex, but because she lies multiple times to her and makes her friend look like an idiot. She has the perfect opportunity to let her friend know about her feelings before anything has gone too far between Bree and Ant, but Bree is just too weak and scared to tell her. Then the relationship goes past innocent and still she doesn’t tell her, and of course it comes out in a horrible way. Then Bree’s actions after that just made me cringe. You’ve already slept with him, breaking up with him isn’t going to help much. She’s trying to not be selfish, but that’s exactly what she is being and when people call her out on it, she’s rude. I know she’s scared and feels unworthy, but this book had so much of her making idiot choices. I wanted more growth from her. Her personality and attitude began to grate on me throughout the story until I finally ended up with a 2 star rating.

Like I said, the writing is good and I suppose the story kept me interested, so other readers may not mind Bree so much and enjoy the story more than I did. I’ve enjoyed a few of Melissa Toppen’s other books, so not liking this one has more to do with the subject matter. I’ll keep reading Toppen’s books.