Minutes Before Sunset is an solid and very readable paranormal romance story from veteran novelist Shannon A Thompson that hits all the right spots for the genre in a comfortably deliberative style.
The story features a well-structured dual narrative between Jessica—a newcomer to a small town with dark supernatural secrets, and Eric—wealthy scion to the family that holds the key to those secrets. Jessica stumbles into Eric seeking the truth about her alienating past and her emerging powers. Eric promises to help, but his motivations seem as unclear as his conflicted double-life. Is he attracted to Jessica because she offers a distraction from his tragic past and grim destiny, or is he looking for a soulmate who understands him? As expected, the tensions between balancing their seemingly mundane everyday lives and their far less mundane life as supernatural beings makes for a rather rocky time understanding each other. So much so, that they still wrestling with trust right as the bad guys crash their evening encounters.
Minutes Before Sunset can be described as a solid, earnest effort in the best way. Shannon A Thompson takes time and care building the world as well as Jessica and Eric’s relationship. Minutes upsides are engaging and well-developed characters with realistic and compelling emotions navigating their way through a much larger story. The downside is that the story barely has space to deal with the bad guys arrival through a somewhat rushed final act all-too-ready to move to the next installment. Despite the clipped ending, the slow, steady, melancholic charm of Minutes Before Sunset leaves me wanting to read the next chapter in Jessica and Eric’s story. I’ll be looking forward to the next in Timely Death Trilogy series.
Who will stay up after dark:
Readers who value solid character development and realistic motivations in their supernatural romance series.
Who will sleep soundly:
Readers who want to rush into battle or need smoldering romance from the start.
Rating: ****
Return: A Light Novel Series 