Having escaped the clutches of her abusive and controlling husband Cheryl Prescott flees the city she grew up in to live a new life under a false name. Years later when her car breaks down in the small town of Mount Kiernon, Cheryl – who is now better known as Sarah Walker – is forced to spend the night waiting for it to be repaired.Discovering a town that is hurting as much as she is, Sarah … Sarah decides to settle down and call the town her new home, opening a cafe along with her heart to the
people of Mount Kiernon. As relationships with her customers grow, so do the feelings she has for the local mechanic, Jamie.
Will Sarah open her heart to let Jamie in, or will the new life she has built on lies crumble when her past threatens to return?
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All the Right Ingredients!
The reader is introduced to Cheryl Prescott under the assumed identity of Sarah Walker, on the move to relocate and establish a new life in the aftermath of a sensational court trial whose guilty verdict sentences her wealthy ex-husband to prison for domestic violence. En route to Franklin, her car breaks down in the abandoned mining town of Mount Kiernon. During an overnight stay, Sarah feels an affinity for the locale, and decides to open a café there. In due time, she finds herself attracted to Jamie, the local mechanic.
At first sight, the author drew me into the story and held my unwavering attention until the end: Detailed descriptions of the surroundings abound. The title fits the story like a glove, as does the name Sarah chooses for her café. The protagonists and secondary characters are distinctly portrayed, driven by realistic circumstances and plausible dialog. Because the novel focuses on Sarah overcoming the psychological trauma associated with spousal abuse, the progression of a romantic relationship seemed logical. The author even succeeded in having me look over Sarah’s shoulder on practically every page!
Why I’ve rated ‘At First Light,’ 4-Stars rather than 5, is based on my own preference for a novel told in first-person narrative rather than third. If Sarah had told the story, it may have mandated backstories so the reader could be an eye witness to her marriage and the man she grew to loathe. Not forthcoming, I would have liked the third party storyteller to have been an integral part of the plot—justification for narrating.
The story is not gritty enough for my taste. Sure, we see how traumatized Sarah is, but I want scenes of brutality so I can be shaken to the core and shoved out of my comfort zone to better identify with the victim.
Overall, I highly recommend this book. I found the novel has the right number of pages, and the author is justified in resuming where she left off by writing a sequel to ‘At First Light.’ The first novel has all the right ingredients to satisfy most reading palettes without biting into more than one can chew.
What a beautiful story. When Cheryl has to change her name to Sarah and find herself a new life because of an abusive ex-husband she think that she might have a little bit of normal. But while she is gone her beloved Nana dies and leaves her with an inheritance and was going to start her life in a new town when her cars breaks down in a little town that has hit on hard times due to the mine closing. She is helped by a wonderful family and decides who open the cafe in the town that she felt finally like home. She is afraid to fall in love or even date because of the abuse she had to put up with. She is finally feeling a little normal and find out that her ex-husband is out of jail she was suppose to be for 3 years and only was in one and is found out about her money and is suing for it. I can’t wait to find out what happens in the next novel. I know Jamie will stand by her but she has to tell him everything and that will be scary.