Dawn at Last

Donna is a relationship therapist questioning the direction her life is going. Ben is one of her clients. Their friends and business associates unknowingly overlap, causing friction and misunderstandings on the way to both of them writing, re-writing, and reviewing their own beliefs about love. It is a journey of friends and colleagues with hidden pasts that implode the present relationships, but allow for their rebuilding.

Mr. Grodecki easily delves deeply into the psyche and complicated behaviors of artistic minds and logical minds, seeming to know both intimately. The sex scenes, which are few, use descriptions aiming to take the physical act beyond the base action. Unfortunately for this story, the depth of the psyche often leaves the actual story in the background and the ease of flow in the plotline is missing. In trying to reach so far into the mind, the writing style becomes too complex, close to pretentious at times, necessitating re-reading often. The conversations between the characters are not always smooth, and their actions and words sometimes don’t match their personalities. The verb tense choice, unneeded and misplaced flashbacks, and no chapter breaks make the story difficult to follow and hinder the reading, taking away from what could have been a very psychologically compelling story about attaining higher emotions beyond lust and sex in relationships. Still, the characters are strong and complicated, more true to life than most romance, with well thought out personalities and endearing individual quirks.

Julie L. York