My rating: 3 of 5 stars
The Dawning by Judy Griffith Gill is an Open Road Integrated Media publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
"The Talents who escaped detection were discovered by the other Talents, were slipped to safety in one of the many Folds where they were nurtured and trained in the development, control, and concealment of their extra sensory abilities. While the Free Talents' numbers were increasing, they were still, in this year of 2129, a feared, hated, hunted minority race of "Mutants" whom the SAPPS deliberately and untruthfully accused of carrying infections to the pure-of-blood Normals."
After the bio wars, Serena loses her grandparents and her brother is taken by the SAPPS. Bitter for many years, she blames Andrew, an orphan her grandparents took in and with whom Serena had been deeply in love. Now she believes him to be a traitor and his betrayal of her is unforgiveable.
While taking a walk, Serena discovers a woman with a small child at the edge of the woods. The woman claims to be terminally ill, (the baby is an obvious "Talent") and gives Serena her daughter to protect.
From that moment on, Serena's life takes on a new path and puts her face to face with Andrew. Although she refused to forgive him, she finds he is someone she needs right now to help her with the baby and keep them from the SAPPS. She and Andrew are on the run and along the way will uncover the truth about their past, and uncover disturbing secrets that will lead to a heartbreaking showdown.
I didn't know how to rate this one. I gave it 3 stars here on GR, but really it was about a 3.5 rating.
For some reason the whole time I was reading this book, I couldn't get it out of my mind that the book was written a long time ago. The original copyright is 2012. The style though reminded me of contemporary romances written in the early 1990's.
The other issue I had was my own difficulty in reviewing a book that was really not the type of book I usually read. I don't even have a science fiction shelf on GR. So, as far as that part of the story went , I can say that the author has a vivid imagination. As to the romance it was really like a contemporary romance in that Andrew made a choice Serena didn't understand and her brother was taken from her as a result. She is in a life or death situation and doesn't think she can trust him despite the explanations he offered for his actions in the past. The steam level was low and the language was very mild. Overall I would give this one a C+