Tracy’s review of Daybreak (Dark Age Dawning #3) by Ellen Connor
It’s been twelve years since the Change, and Penelope Sheehan is one of the few still practicing magic for the good of humanity in this dark, dangerous world. But she needs the help of a shapeshifter named Tru, whom she knew when he was a troubled boy. But Tru is a creature of instinct and impulse, living only to satisfy his senses- ignoring the scarred heart nobody has ever reached. Fighting alongside the last holdouts of humanity, they will unleash a passion that tempts them to risk everything for love. But if they succeed, Tru and Pen hold the power to brighten the Dark Age for all time.
Penelope Sheehan has been helping those in need for so long she’s not quite sure if she can stop. Until she meets up with Tru, the boy she met after the Change, she’s not even thinking of stopping. She is a healer and has some powerful magic that frankly scares her to use – or even think about. When she meets Tru again she’s been (purposefully) captured by O’Malley who is a man who has made himself uber powerful in his own right – but in an evil way. He traffics human as well as many other unsavory things and Pen wants to stop him. Tru isn’t interested in helping Pen but gets drawn into her life despite his misgivings. Along with a boy that was saved from O’Malley’s men they travel to find Arturi – a man it is said that is the one person who has a chance of finally bringing down O’Malley.
Tru, Pen and Adrian manage to find Arturi and he turns out to be someone Pen had met before – but only in her mind. Arturi is open to welcoming True and Pen, but he’s not quite sure about taking down O’Malley until something horrible happens and war becomes inevitable.
Tru, at one, point tries to make a break from Pen but only manages to go so far until he realizes that he’s letting something incredibly special slip through his hands. Both Tru and Pen become better people for being together but they each have to come to terms with who they are, what they want and a past that neither of them want to relive.
This is the third and final book in the Dark Age Dawning series and it was a good one. It was great seeing Tru and Pen again now that they’ve grown. My heart ached for everything that they had lived through – especially Tru because his past had made him an incredible hard-ass, which I knew was all a façade. The trust between the two really had to grow and of course they each had their times of doubt but in the end they were stronger together than they were as separate individuals.
On top of the romance there was a great conclusion to the overall story arc. It left the reader with hope for the people of that world and I loved reading it. If you haven’t started this series I recommend that you do – it’s really great.
Rating: 4.25 out of 5
You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place.
This book is available from Berkley Trade. You can buy it here or here in e-format.
Hmmm I was all ready to love the first book in the series, but it was a mess of good, great, annoying and bad. Plus it had my pet hate of incorrectly calling Ukraine “THE Ukraine”! I decided not to continue because the heroine in book two was one of those pushy megabitch “women rule the world” types. I wonder if I could skip #2 and read #3.