Dawn of the Morning Star — Sarina Dorie

Seventeen-year-old Sarah, who lives in Massachusetts during the 1600's, would rather become a mid-wife like her late mother rather than marry one of the knavish boys in the settlement and darn his socks for the rest of her days. Sarah's life changes forever when a young man is found naked out in the snow, with no tracks leading up to him and no signs of struggle on the body. Villagers in the small Puritan community gossip over how he came to be there. Though seventeen-year-old Sarah jokes he must have fallen from the sky, it would be impossible for him to have done so. When it's discovered the stranger is alive and thought to be a simpleton, he's taken in by Sarah's father. Sarah discovers this man who fell from the heavens is anything but simple. The mystery of the stranger deepens when he calls himself the Bearer of the Morning Star. In a time of religion and witchcraft, these words offer one possibility; he must be the devil. Still grieving for the death of family members, and searching for her own sense of self in a world of religious rules, Sarah struggles with the blossoming feelings she has for this stranger. Can this man who heals the sick, talks to animals, and claims not to believe in the devil survive in the strict environment of the Puritans? And can Sarah let herself love him, despite knowing he will soon need to leave her?