Customer Reviews

Early Dawn

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In 1887 the Sebastian Gang assaulted Matthew Coulter Junior and his wife, Olivia. When Matthew regained consciousness, he learned that the gang had left him for dead. To Olivia, they had not only physically assaulted her, but also tortured her before finally killing her. In the aftermath, Matthew honed his weaponry skill, locked up all his emotions somewhere deep within, and vowed to track and kill all six Sebastian brothers.

In 1890, Eden Paxton and her mother, Dory, left San Francisco after Eden's fiancé broke off their engagement (in a letter) and spread rumors about her. As Eden and Dory travel toward Colorado, to live near her brothers, their train is held up by the Sebastian Gang. They kidnap Eden, intending to sell her across the Mexican border. Matthew comes upon the train shortly afterward. When Dory informs him of her daughter's abduction, he realizes he must delay his vengeance in order to rescue Eden, should she still live, and get her to safety.

During Matthew's three years of tracking the Sebastian Gang, Matthew managed to kill one of them, bringing the gang's number down to five. Eden is with the ruffians five days before Matthew locates them. Yet even after all the brutes' mauling and abuse, Eden is able to recognize the kind heart beneath Matthew's rugged exterior.


**** FOUR STARS! Catherine Anderson's mellifluous stories will capture your heart and imagination. This western overflows with believable characters, suspense, drama, and a slow-blooming romance. You will not find any faint-of-heart heroine here! Eden's brothers taught her some self-defense moves and forced her to practice with weapons. Highly recommended reading! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

As I read the first 3 reviews, I kindof was surprised...Maybe the readers should go back and re read the book?
For me, this book is a real winner! Catherine's writing style is amazing for one thing...and Early Dawn just got better and better with each page. Historicals are my fav type of book, and I have to say that this is at the top of my all time favorite historicals. Catherine writes a book for her fans and this one is GREAT! If I don't care for a book, I would be the first to let you know, trust me! This book is worth buying! 5 star read! Best historical romance I have read in a long time!

In 1887 the vicious Sebastian gang killed his wife of five years Olivia after gang raping her. For the next three years Matthew Coulter has lived for one thing only: vengeance.

In 1890 her engagement to John Parrish ends when his high society parents rejected her lineage and spread gossip about her illegitimate birth. Selling their house, Eden Paxton accompanied by her mom Dory leaves San Francisco by train to spend time with her brother Ace Keegan (see Keegan's Lady) and his wife in Colorado. She never makes her destination as the Pacific Express heading to Denver is robbed and she is taken for pleasure and to be sold in Mexico.

Matthew tracks down the gang of robbers and rescues Eden. Instead of begging him to escort her to Ace, she joins him on his vendetta. As they fall in love, each looks back at what motivated them to go after the Sebastian gang.

This exciting sequel is fast-paced from the moment the heroine is abducted and never slows down until the final confrontation. The cast is solid especially the lead couple and the vile gang whose nastiness is evident from witnesses like Matthew's family and by readers when they debate taking Eden in their camp or keeping her pure for sale south of the border. Although the cast is somewhat stereotyped, Catherine Anderson provides a strong American romance as life in the Old West can prove dangerous but also can foster love.

Harriet Klausner

This was probably one of the most boring books I have ever read by Catherine Anderson. It could have been finished in 100 pages. All they did was ride around and around and around... you get my drift. Don't waste your money read one of her old ones instead.

Eden and her mother are moving to Colorado to live with her half brother when the train they're on is robbed at gun point. Murderous outlaws take her hostage and intend to sell her across the border.

Matthew is the young man who has been tracking the outlaws for a couple of years, in order to take revenge for the horrendous murder of his young, pregnant wife.

It's a story that's been told- I've read this plot at least four other times. This version is particularly gruesome- details of rape and molestation will leave you cold.

Matthew is not particularly good at his revenge. He's been following the outlaws for years and has only managed to kill one of them. The problem is that he's just a simple farmer boy who is basically trying to be a big bad gunslinger. But he's really just a sweetie. I felt a little bad for him.

He does manage to rescue poor Eden in a semi-ingenious plot (though you wonder why he's able to find them this one time, though he apparently hasn't been able to for years). After that, the entire novel centers around them making circles in the wilderness to stay one step ahead of or behind the outlaws. It was this portion of the novel that kept making me doze off.

Things do pick up though! Not a bad addition to a Western romance library.

I love Catherine Anderson books, in fact Keegan's Lady is one of my favorites. I was so excited when this book came out and I was disappointed. I still don't understand where she was coming from with the characters. The male hero was avenging his pregnant wife's horrible rape and murder but then decides to send the outlaws to the sheriff? It was a letdown.

I have had this book for a month now and I still haven't worked up the energy to finish it. Usually, I finish Catherine Anderson books in one day, but this one is formulatic and just plain boring. The characters and plot are not believable and the emotion and heart that is in Catherine Anderson's other books seems to be missing. Catherine Anderson needs to come up with some new metaphors and descriptions of feelings because many of them are being repeated over and over in her books so that they have lost the effect that they originally had. I felt like I was reading another one of her books only with different character names and it wasn't as good.

Okay, so maybe it's a 4-1/2 star or maybe even 4 star book, but I wanted to counterbalance some of the (in my opinion) overly critical ratings of this book! It was perfectly readable and enjoyable.

I'm a big Catherine Anderson fan, and have read "Keegan's Lady" and many of her other historical novels. I looked forward to this one as the next in the Coulter/Paxton/Keegan line, and it did not disappoint.

I know that sometimes even a favorite author can have an "off" book that just misses the mark. I have experienced that with other authors and after a while you just have to admit it to yourself and hope that they do better next time. However, this book (in my opinion) does NOT fall into that category.

Okay, so maybe I had somewhat lowered expectations after seeing some of the ratings here, but still--I stayed up late to finish the book, it did not drag for me, and I enjoyed it all the way through. I wouldn't say it was quite up there with "Simply Love" or "Keegan's Lady," but it was perfectly adequate, solid romance novel!

Matthew Coulter has given up three years of his life to tracking down the maniacs who murdered his wife and left him for dead. When he finally catches up with them, he finds he must save the maniacs' current hostage, lovely Eden Paxton, instead. After whisking her away, Eden and Matthew spend a lot of time "on the road" trying to evade the killers. During this time they get to know each other better and find a bond growing between them. Eden must learn to deal with the trauma of her kidnap and abuse, while Matthew starts to finally confront his own suppressed emotions and personal demons.

I enjoyed the "on the road" part (Eden and Matthew surviving in the wilderness). Anderson creates a lot of atmosphere as you follow along as the two criss-cross through beautiful wilderness and find ways to survive. Ample descriptions of the countryside, the things they found to eat, and their growing attraction to each other made for an enjoyable romance novel, which held my attention from beginning to end.

I was hoping Catherine Anderson got her groove back for this book. Unfortunately, not the case here. It started off great with a little bit of background, but the middle just seemed way too dragged out. Enough of running around the forest. There must have been 300 pages devoted to them making circles to get away from the gang. !SPOILER! Not to mention the ending, completely out of character for Eden to 'call off the wedding,' even if it was only for a few pages. I am taking this book back to the store. Its too awful to sit on my shelf.

I was disappointed with this book because it really wasn't all that special. It was rather predictable and at one point, I wondered if I was reading a reprint of an earlier book by Catherine Anderson. It was very much formulaic in my opinion and I get frustrated with that. The characters are likeable, but as I said, not really that special and could easily have been swapped with another similar story by CA(can't recall exactly which one) where the H/H are running from criminals, fending for themselves in a hazardous environment, and don't start out on the best of terms but eventually fall in love.

It was a good story, and probably if I had not read almost all of CA's books I would not have been disappointed. But as that isn't the case, and I have read almost all of them, this just comes off as a recycled story unfortunately.