Dawn Over Dayfield

by Karenna Colcroft

After the death of his adoptive mother, Andy Forrest decides to track down his biological family. The search leads him to the struggling central Massachusetts town of Dayfield—and local historian Weston Thibeault, the town’s only other openly gay man. With the help of Weston, Andy uncovers secrets about his birth father, the youngest son of the Chaffees, the family that once owned Dayfield’s largest employer, a furniture factory that closed thirty years earlier.
As Andy and Weston work together, they find a connection to a scandal that rocked the Chaffee family over 125 years ago. But small towns like to bury their secrets, and many of the older residents of Dayfield will do anything to stop Andy and Weston from discovering the truth about the town and its inhabitants.

Genres: M M Romance

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 1, 2016

About the author

Karenna Colcroft is a mother, wife, partner, and former teacher who began writing romance and erotic romance in 2006. After a few years' hiatus, she returned in 2022 to rerelease some previously-published works and bring new stories, primarily paranormal romance, to her readers.

Karenna has previously written both heterosexual romance and male/male. As of January 2023 she is focusing solely on male/male romance.

Karenna is a polyamorous nonbinary human who kinda stinks at writing bios on websites like this but does her best.

Reviews

[Otila · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me awhile to get through. I found the writing very repetitive and mystery slow paced. I also found that some of the characters’ actions made no sense at all.

Andy Forrest is adopted and he goes to the town of Dayfield to find out about his birth parents. He goes to the Historical Society where he meets historian, Weston. This is my first problem. Andy insists that he doesn’t want to meet his parents and that the only reason he’s even looking into his biological family is because his adoptive father convinced him he needed to find out about any genetic medical conditions. I’m not sure why Andy would think that the Historical Society would be a good place to find out about his biological family’s medical history.

Anyway, as Andy starts to dig through his family history, he starts to uncover things that the town’s residents would rather stayed buried. This is when things get hostile…and also repetitive. Whenever Andy or Weston discovered something new they had a recap of everything they’d uncovered before. Soon I was skimming over parts because I was just reading the same facts over and over again.

Weston’s father was another character that I could not make any sense out of his actions. Secrets that he had kept for thirty years are just spilled out over pizza with very little prompting. Things that they probably never would have been able to prove. I don’t understand why he would risk everything just to give Andy closure?

Overall, this was disappointing read.
**Copy provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.**

[CrabbyPatty · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25 stars Dawn Over Dayfield centers on two sets of mysterious deaths in the Massachusetts town of Dayfield – one in 1892 and the second in 1985. Andy Forrest comes to town to learn more about his biological father Vardon Chaffee, and with the help of town historian Weston Thiebault, discovers he died in a suspicious car accident, shortly after Andy was born and placed up for adoption. Why did Jason Thibeault, Weston’s uncle and Vardon’s friend, leave town shortly afterwards? Oliver Chaffee and Larry Thibeault died in the 1892 factory fire, trapped in a room due to a sabotaged fire door. Why were they together in the factory after hours?

The strength of this well-written book is the tight plot that keeps your attention as Andy and Weston learn more about the deaths and the extent to which townsfolk will go to keep their secrets. Their fledgling romantic relationship is secondary to the mystery, with just a few scenes, but their bond is strong. Colcroft keeps all the various subplots – past and present – moving together without feeling too rushed or convoluted (but I would have liked a bit more time spent on the relationship between Weston and his father.) A very enjoyable read with a strong mystery plot!

I received an ARC from DSP Publications, via GayBook Reviews, in exchange for an honest review.
Review also posted at GayBook Reviews.

[Ije the Devourer of Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Andy Forrest travels to the small town of Dayfield to find out about his birth family. He doesn't feel he has missed out in life because he was brought up by loving adoptive parents but the loss of his adoptive mother awakens a curiosity in him and a need to explore his roots.

But the town of Dayfield is not what he thought it would be. He meets hostility and unfriendliness from the townspeople because his birth family owned the local factory and with the closing of the factory many livelihoods were lost. The town has never recovered and the resentment has festered over the years.

Andy finds a reliable source of town history in the library and is helped by the librarian who focuses on the local historical society. Weston Thiebault is keen to assist Andy in his search for his roots but Weston is also well aware of the rancour that exists in the town and the hatred towards Andy's birth family.

Andy refuses to allow the hostility to distract him from his task. He just wants to know about his birth father but as he begins to read through reports and articles he realises that there was more to his father's death than has been publicly acknowledged and his father's death may have been murder and not an accident. There is also another murder in the town history which may have been covered up and there are even secrets surrounding the death of his birth mother.

With Weston's help Andy begins to dig further and ask questions in order to uncover the truth but the small town of Dayfield seethes with resentment and this is a resentment that may place both Andy and Weston in Danger.

I thought this story was ok. It wasn't too dramatic and it was a rather easy to solve mystery but it wasn't boring, just rather mild. By that I mean that it isn't a really complex or convoluted plot and it didn't have a real feeling of suspense. I began to guess the reasons for the murders when I was only half way through the story. As Andy and Weston push for the truth there is an expectation that something will happen to them but the expectation didn't set my heart racing. It felt very matter of fact with little tension.

It is a good story for anyone who wants a simple mystery with the beginnings of a romance and a frisson of danger.

But for me it lack the hard edge that I like in my mystery novels. I wasn't particularly enthused by the main characters either. On the one hand Andy wants to know more about his birth parents but he isn't interested in meeting his birth grandmother who is still alive. He is determined to get to the bottom of things but at the same time regrets stirring up trouble for Weston. Weston faces the shocking realisation that his family members may have been involved in murder but he doesn't bother to report this to the authorities even though police do investigate historic crimes. Although it was a nice enough story I was left feeling something was missing.

A nice enough story and mystery but not a real favourite with me .

Copy provided by DSP Publications via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

[Tiina · Rating 3 out of 5]

*I received this novel as a freely accessible e-ARC from Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.*

Dawn Over Dayfield by Karenna Colcroft features Andy Forrest who visits the town of Dayfield to find out more about his birth father. While researching the historical records, he meets the local History Society archivist Weston Thibeault. Together they attempt to unearth secrets the town wants to keep buried. The novel is part mystery, part romance, and the latter part I really did enjoy, despite the fact it developed kind of fast. However, considering the events it is actually sort of believable. Very refreshing.

The writing style was fairly decent and for the majority of the book I was engrossed in the plotline. Unfortunately, there was a lot of repetition about the townsfolk absolutely hating Andy’s family, which is the main premise of the novel. A contributing factor to this hatred was that the factory, which had always been extremely important to the town, had been owned and bankrupted by Andy's birth father's family. Although it is understandable that this would have a huge impact on the town, it just didn't make sense why the residents' hatred of the owners would extend to a son who was adopted and had never even visited the area before. Especially since there was a living member of the family (the protagonist’s biological grandmother), but she was left completely alone and then swiftly forgotten about in the narrative. If a person is really interested in the family history, then visiting the actual grandmother would make the most sense, no? Then again, maybe I missed an explanation about why that wasn’t done.

I also felt that the last third of the book was just too rushed and things didn’t make sense anymore. The mystery aspect was really the biggest weakness, perhaps. Everything seemed to be very predictable and obvious – and I’m not even that seasoned of a mystery reader! The big “showdown” towards the end just felt extremely random and I got the sense that all the build-up didn’t lead anywhere. Some loose ends were then suddenly mentioned and tied up in the last chapter so I was left dazed and confused as to the aim of the aforementioned climactic scene. Having read plenty of Nora Roberts, I know that suspense in romance books can be done extremely well, which is where this novel fell slightly short in my opinion.


All in all, even though I was interested in the events of the novel until the very end, I just felt that this particular mystery left a lot to be desired. I do no regret reading it, but the novel itself was average, hence the three stars. However, I would definitely be interested in trying out the author’s other gay romances.

[The Novel Approach · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 Stars ~ I had passed this book up several times—I don’t know if it was the title or what—but then I decided to take a chance, and Karenna Colcroft has got me hooked. Dawn Over Dayfield is in the Mystery/Suspense category, but it’s also dark and disturbing. The plot has so many twists and turns, it just kept me riveted.

Right away, as Andy Forrest drives into Dayfield, he already has a bad feeling about things. All he wants to do is find one simple answer about his biological parents’ health issues, just to ease his adopted father’s mind. He has no interest in meeting his birth parents, though, because he was given up thirty years ago and is comfortable with who he is.

He meets Weston Thibeault, who works at the library as the historian, and they start to uncover some horrific facts about the Chaffee and Thibeault family connection, which stems back to the 1800s. The more secrets that are uncovered, the more Weston and Andy find themselves in danger.

Weston’s character was the one that I really felt bad for. He put his life and education on hold to stay and help his mother take care of his ailing father. I think the secrets and lies that his father harbored were part of his illness, and they eventually destroyed what family relationship existed.

Andy and Weston’s relationship is not exactly a HEA. Both have to struggle with what happened in Dayfield, but they both are willing to try and work out things with the support and love of each other.

Dawn Over Dayfield is a good story about a small town and the people who were destroying themselves because of fear, desperation, bigotry and secrets. It is well written, with suspense and tension filled moments, and there were quite a few characters that made the story creepy. The only thing I found that got a little repetitive were the clues, but it still was a page turner for me.

Reviewed by Maryann for The Novel Approach Reviews

[Daniel Mitton · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Originally reviewed for Love Bytes Reviews with a copy provided by the author / publisher for an honest review.)

I picked this book up because of the Massachusetts angle. As a native New Englander, I’m always a sucker for a book set in the region where I’m from. I’m glad I got to read and review this one. It was a nice change from some of the heavier fantasy type books that I’ve been reading lately. I’m not saying it was fluff though, so don’t get me wrong. Dawn Over Dayfield is in my opinion a mystery, with an m/m story line added in as an aside, not the whole subject of the book. If you’re looking for a straight on romance, this one isn’t it. But if you’re like me, and like a story outside the romance, you’ll enjoy it.

Andy Forrest was adopted days after his birth, nearly 30 years ago. His adopted mother has just died of a genetically passed issue that no one knew she had, so Andy’s adopted Dad has encouraged Andy to find out about his biological Father and birth Mother. All he has is their names and where they were from at the time of his birth.

When Andy arrives in Dayfield, Massachusetts he is greeted warmly by Weston Thibeault, the town’s only openly gay man, who also happens to be the one in charge of the local Historical Society.

Through Weston’s help, he will discover more than he expected to about his family history. Along the way he will run into stiff opposition from the rest of the small town. He is the spitting image of his father, and small towns have long memories…and they protect their own.

Weston will also learn things he never knew about his own family and how they’ve helped keep secrets for the last 125 years…

I highly recommend this book. I enjoyed it. The pieces fit together as the story went along, though I will say I guessed a good portion of the mystery pieces before they were reached in the story. I think the story is well written, the characters were well fleshed out, and it was an interesting read. The only negative…I really think the total recluse Grandmother would have added a lot to the story, but she was never visited. Regardless, pick up the book if you’re into a small town mystery type story, I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book. I like that there wasn't a lot of overtly sexual behavior between the lead characters. Their actions were almost innocent in nature. Their relationship centered around how they were feeling toward each other and not because they were sexually frustrated...although they probably were. I like how the author created three generations of intermingling between Andy and Weston's family. I liked the story overall. I wish there would have been more details about the previous generations, their interactions, and explanations for their behavior. I'd like to imagine that Weston and Andy stayed together. I'd love to read a second book, a prequel so to speak from the POV of the previous generations because there has to be more to the story and I really want someone to beat up old man Chaffee. He's a jerk!

[Theodora IK · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unrelated but worth mentioning, I loved the cover and that's why I bought this book. Unfortunately, the cover does not show in my kindle. In fact, a lot of the books I send to kindle do not show cover. Weird.

I liked the mystery element and the creepy town. But there was a sense of dissatisfaction at the ending because, sure the MCs knew the who, how, and why, but there was nothing to be done and no one to punish. It doesn't seem fair. It just feels a little too much like real life.