cover image Before the Scarlet Dawn

Before the Scarlet Dawn

Rita Gerlach. Abingdon, $14.99 trade paper (400p) ISBN 978-1-4267-1414-6

Gerlach (Surrender the Wind) opens the Daughters of the Potomac series with a tale set mostly in Revolutionary War Maryland. The strong-willed and Scarlett O’Hara–like Eliza Bloome, a vicar’s daughter, sets her bonnet for Hayward Morgan, who seeks a wife as part of his dream to prosper in Maryland. Eliza boldly offers herself and, though her social station is below Hayward’s, he is ambitious enough, and finds her attractive enough, to marry her. That is quick prelude to action that unfolds in America during the revolution. Hayward joins the colonial forces and then disappears, and Eliza is left to raise their daughter amid the dangers of life that include hostile Indians and a too-interested male neighbor. A complex plot knot pitches the characters into grief and uncertainty, leaving plenty of loose ends. Gerlach plots well, but her characters’ emotions are not explored very deeply. The prose can be shopworn (“Was it the cry of her soul that had been borne on the wind?”). Still, enough readers of inspirational romance will be reeled in to the next book in the series. Agent: Diana Flegal, Hartline Literary Agency. (Feb.)