Sunrise has two things going for it – a wonderfully evocative Early American setting on Nantucket Island, and a commoner hero whose gruff demeanor and warm heart reminded me of New Englanders that I know in this century. Sunrise is a familiar story, but these two things made it very enjoyable to me.

The story opens with the hero, Daniel Fairbourne, finding heroine, Juliette, unconscious on a Nantucket beach. Daniel takes the young woman, who is clearly the survivor of a shipwreck, back to his modest cabin and nurses her for the next few days while she is ill with fever. When Juliette awakens, she can remember nothing. Daniel, who is the local blacksmith, is a taciturn man obsessed with the loss of his first wife Catherine. His grouchy exterior is pierced by Juliette’s sheer helplessness, as well as her sweetness. After a few days the villagers discover Juliette’s presence and she is invited to stay with a local Quaker family. Juliette, however, refuses to stay with anyone but Daniel, a decision that makes her something of a marked woman. Slowly, over time, Juliette remembers who she is and must deal with her old life and meld it with her new one. Daniel, who falls in love with Juliette almost from the first, must overcome the barriers that he has put up to isolate him from his family and his own past.

Daniel was one of my favorite things about Sunrise. As the local blacksmith he is an extraordinary craftsman, but one of the reasons he has taken to the work is the independence it gives him. The loss of Catherine in a shipwreck has made him obsessed with saving the many casualties of the sea who are washed up on Nantucket’s perilous coast. It’s too bad that Daniel’s memories of Catherine are marred by her having been a stereotypical romance novel first wife – grasping and selfish.

Juliette was a more difficult character for me to understand. At first she seemed so timid and physically weak that she appeared to be the classic heroine-who-needed-saving. Later as her story unfolded, it became clear that Juliette was an extraordinary young woman, but she was almost too perfect and remained a kind of feminine ideal. I liked Juliette well enough by the end of the book, but she needed a few flaws. I just doubt she would ever be a close friend of mine.

One of the things I liked about Sunrise was the way that the author explained the local opposition to Juliette’s living with Daniel. Ms. Jarrett’s writing is clearly inspired by an in-depth knowledge of American history. We have the local gossip, but, more importantly, we have people who care deeply about both Juliette and Daniel who try to resolve the situation. The impropriety is seen as a moral issue, as I believe it would have been in the colonies at that time.

There are a few flaws in the book, primary among them is that once they get together, there is never a lot of internal tension between Daniel and Juliette. Juliette’s commitment to Daniel waivers, but to this reader, the rifts didn’t seem as serious as they might have been. The second problem is that the story itself is not terribly original. This is my fourth amnesia book this year. All of them were good stories by talented writers, but the device is overused considering how repetitive the details of the stories become.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed Sunrise. This is my first Miranda Jarrett book and I’m delighted to have found her. I’m picky and cranky about my American historicals, few of which use American history to advantage in my opinion. Sunrise, with its detailed descriptions of Nantucket and Cape Cod, was the best I’ve read in quite a while. If you’ve spent any time on the New England coast, you’ll recognize the smell of salt air from the first page.