Elusive Dawn is the second book of the Muskoka trilogy and it picks up where The Summer Before the Storm left off - Ria had just received some devastating news about her beloved Chas and WWI was disrupting the privileged lives that the Wyndhams and Thortons had come to cherish.

Most of this book takes place away from the lake the families love so much. Most of the action occurs either in England or in France and it is the War and its horrors that are the focus of this piece of the series. And horrors there are. Ms. Wills does not spare her reader from the battles and the wounded but she does not write anything that is unnecessary or exploitative. War is hell and to write a novel involving soldiers, doctors and ambulance drivers there is no getting around the violence that it engenders.

Ria has left her family in Canada and is now a member of the WATS ambulance corps. She is unable to forgive Chas his indiscretion and is running away from her life. She does find a strong group of friends in the corp and finds she has much to contribute the war effort. She refuses to write or talk to Chas and this drove me crazy - until I remembered how YOUNG she was. I kept viewing her actions through my very much older self and once I remembered what it was like to be 20 it made sense again. I won't spoil the story but to say that War is a great healer as well as a great divider.

The book mostly focuses on Ria and Chas's story but does take time for the many, many, many other characters in the Muskoka family. In fact my one complaint is that they all seemed to be reintroduced within the first chapter and I had a hard time remembering who was who and who was related to who how. It had been a while since I had read the first book and throwing them all at me at once was a bit daunting. I finally sorted them all out, along with the new ones and was able to stop turning back to figure out who belonged where. Barring that confusion the book would have gotten a 5.

Ms. Wills has a remarkable way of dropping her characters into the history of the time seamlessly. The book is historically accurate but the reader never feels as if they are reading a boring history textbook. She truly brings history alive through her descriptions and her characters. I didn't want the story to end and this was not a short, easy read. I am very much looking forward to the finale of this exciting trilogy. ( )

The second in Wills' Muskoka trilogy, Elusive Dawn is the continuation of the gripping tale that started in The Summer Before the Storm. World War I has been raging for a couple of years now and much of the action of the novel has moved from the beautiful wealthy summer playground of the Canadian lake over to a Britain and Europe sunk deep into the horrors of hell. Centering around Ria Wyndham Thornton and husband RFC pilot and decorated Ace Chas, the novel also continues the stories, in large or small ways, of many of the large ensemble cast of characters from the first novel.

Ria was devastated by the news that Chas had fathered a child with a French woman, especially after the crushing loss of their own baby and her subsequent inability to have more children. Uncertain if her love for him could withstand this betrayal and unwilling to sit in Britain away from the horrors that drove Chas into this other woman's arms, at the start of Elusive Dawn, Ria has enlisted in the WATS (Women's Ambulance and Transport Services) and is about to leave for France and the indescribable hell of wounded and dying men. She learns to drive an ambulance and gives comfort to the soldiers who find themselves in her presence, racing through bombing raids, dire weather, and the blackest nights to transport the wounded to hospitals. It is dangerous, grinding, and exhausting work but Ria rises to it, growing close to her fellow WATS and to some of the men posted nearby, especially to cavalry Major Lance Chadwick. Chas meanwhile is desperate to repair the damage to their marriage that his infidelity has caused and he writes honestly and openly to Ria of their shared past, his love for her, and his hopes and dreams for the future.

This novel is no superficial look at war. It doesn't spare the appalling and gruesome details and it presents the incongruities of a continued veneer of civilization (soldiers invited to tea, a convalescent hospital with staff in evening gowns) juxtaposed with horrific brutalities and senseless loss. There are marriages, deaths, and maimings and Wills captures very well the desperate gaiety of a period when the very existence of a tomorrow was in question. The devastation and toll of war was not just in the physical but in the emotional as well and the Canadian characters experience the full range of this terrible legacy as they each privately wonder if the war will ever end and if it does, if any of their generation will make it out alive.

There are portions of this epic set back at Muskoka but by and large the majority of it is not, allowing Muskoka to invoke the ideal setting in contrast to the reality of the war. The memories of the last summer before the war acts as a talisman for many of the characters, even ones who have never been there. It is the symbol of a happier, more peaceful time. And although there was roiling and rumbling under the surface of that ideal, it still emits a siren call of innocence and unsullied love. The characters, although much easier to follow in this sequel given the reader's familiarity with them by now, are also getting older and maturing much faster than their years because of what they have all seen and experienced in the war. Life gets much more complicated for many of them and they have to move out of the mindset of being solely concerned with their own lives and join the worry and strife of the adult world. The action is continuous and yet, like the war years for those that lived them, it also feels never ending, as if placid normalcy will never again return. Because the characters feel like old friends, the reader feels their losses and crushing devastations deeply. The whole is well researched and the historical information is not only fascinating in and of itself but it is seamlessly integrated into the plot as well. Book Two of this trilogy is gripping and I can't wait to read the conclusion to this big and ambitious saga. ( )

Elusive Dawn by Gabiele Wills is the second book in The Muskoka Novels. This book once again follows the lives of the Wyndham family and their friends. In the first book, The Summer Before The Storm, the story ended with Ria finding out that her husband had not only had an affair but had also fathered a child with a french woman. Ria is heartbroken. Elusive Dawn picks up with Ria grieving over her husband's unfaithfulness. She's feeling restless and useless and decides to join WATS, which is the Women's Ambulance and Transport System. Ria is close to the front line, but she's not only in mortal danger, she's also in danger of losing her heart to the handsome Major Lance Chadwick.
When the last book ended I was on the edge of my seat. This book picked up where the last left off with only a little lapse in time. The tempo of this book is a little more fast paced than the last book. There is a lot of action going on with the war and such. Wills writes her characters in such a way that you literally feel like you're on this journey with them. There are a plethora of characters, but it is not at all confusing. I must admit though, I have my favorites. I was glad to see them all again, but perhaps I should warn you not to get too attached. Wills does have to kill off a few. After all it is a war.
The second book in this series is fantastic. It's fast paced, full of action, and of course there is no shortage of romance. The more of the Muskoka novels I read, the more enraptured I become. I can't wait to read the next book in the series, Under The Moon.
Read more at http://www.2readornot2read.com/2013/02/review-elusive-dawn.html#ihrOc4iHmIqQyhUx... ( )