Andrews, Virginia C.
New York: (1991) Secrets of the Morning


This book takes off where the previous book, Dawn, left off. Dawn's grandmother sent Dawn to the Sara Bernhardt school for the performing arts in New York City. While Dawn is at the school, she meets Trisha, who is staying in the same boarding house as her, and quickly becomes her best friend. Dawn uses up most of her time studying singing and piano, and then she gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to study music with a famous singer, Michael Sutton, so she goes for it. Her talent for singing was so remarkable; she and five other students have a chance to study music with Michael. Dawn starts spending her weekends and holidays at Michael's apartment, because her neglecting family wont even take the time to call her on the phone. After Christmas, Dawn learns that she is pregnant, with Michaels baby, but soon after she told him, he disappears and nobody knows where he went. Nobody knew about the baby, except Dawn, Michael, and Trisha, but shortly after Michael's disappearance, Dawn went to hid apartment, and was hit by a car in the snowy weather. She was rushed to the hospital, but her baby was okay, but her grandmother was outraged. Grandmother Cutler sent Dawn to stay with her sisters, Charlotte and Emily. Emily believed that almost everything was sinning, so she tortured Dawn and made her do almost all the chores in their house, and she boiled and buried all of her belongings. Charlotte, however, was in her own little world and did nothing but needlework. When Dawn was about ready to give birth to her child, she fell down the stairs and her labor started two weeks too soon, but she still had her child. Just minutes after her baby daughter, Chrissie, was born, Emily took Chrissie away and told Dawn that she was too small, so Dawn was determined to get her back. Jimmy, Dawn's previous brother, came to free her from Emily, and brought her back to the Cutler's Cove hotel. The day before they arrived, Grandma Cutler had a stroke and was sent to the hospital and dies before Dawn could get her to tell her who had her child. A few days later Dawn receives the address where Chrissie is living, so Dawn and Jimmy set out to find her.


Michael Sutton was a singer who had traveled across Europe and Asia, singing in front of millions of people, and then he came to the Sara Bernhardt School of the Performing Arts to tutor kids on singing. At this time he would be the protagonist in the story, because the main character, Dawn, was in his class and they were truly in love. Nobody knew what made Michael leave New York, but it could have been that he found out he was going to be the father of Dawn's child, so Michael could also be the Antagonist. According to all the girls in the art school, Michael was incredibly handsome, had a charming English accent, and had perfect hair.


I recommend this book to any young adults or adults. If you haven't read the first book in this series, then you should read that book first or you would be confused. This book I also recommend to you if you like to read for a long time.

Genre: Fiction

Rating: 9/10