Minutes Before Sunset (The Timely Death Trilogy, #1) by Shannon A. Thompson - Review

Minutes Before Sunset (The Timely Death Trilogy, #1) by Shannon A. Thompson

Summery:

She was undoubtedly a shade, but I didn’t know her.

Eric Welborn isn’t completely human, but he isn’t the only shade in the small Midwest town of Hayworth. With one year left before his eighteenth birthday, Eric is destined to win a long-raging war for his kind. But then she happens. In the middle of the night, Eric meets a nameless shade, and she’s powerful—too powerful—and his beliefs are altered. The Dark has lied to him, and he’s determined to figure out exactly what lies were told, even if the secrets protect his survival.

He had gotten so close to me—and I couldn’t move—I couldn’t get away.

Jessica Taylor moves to Hayworth, and her only goal is to find more information on her deceased biological family. Her adoptive parents agree to help on one condition: perfect grades. And Jessica is distraught when she’s assigned as Eric’s class partner. He won’t help, let alone talk to her, but she’s determined to change him—even if it means revealing everything he’s strive to hide.

My Review:

Minutes Before Sunset is the first installment of what I'm pretty sure is going to be an awesome trilogy. It's about a "Prophecy" which talks about the Ultimate Battle between the Light and Dark, only this time, the Dark is actually the good side and the Light is the one that's evil. I loved how this book made me see the big bad dark in a whole new light, and I'm hoping to learn more about the light in the sequel. As we read we learn about the dark and the light very quickly from Eric explanations about their history as far as he knows it. We find why they the Shade’s and the Lights no longer work together and why they are out to kill each other.

I can always appreciate a female character whose purpose is not only to look cute and pretty in the arms of her leading man but to actually show some attitude and who knows how to fight back. Jessica "Jess" Taylor is typically the mysterious new girl in  Hayworth Kansas school. She is moving back to town after her parents died and she find she was adopted. She  wants to know more about what really happened to her real parents.

Throughout the plot we follow Jessica's struggle to handle school work, search for her parents, adjusting to a new school, handling her run ins and school projects with Eric, and discovering who she really is.  

We have brooding Eric (Welborn) 17-year-old that by night, Eric transforms into Shoman the  "Prince" of Shades. I have not read many stories of Shades but I love I read very much. Eric is the First Descendant - from the Dark community and destined to battle the Second Descendant (Darthon),  from the Light, on his 18th birthday.

But those prophecy can result his death. Eric’s intelligent, and powerful Shade but he’s damaged from losing some of the most important people to him then you add the big battle he has to fight in – if he lives that long. In his human form, Eric Welborn is the son of a prominent family in Hayworth - a family touched by repeated tragedy. The deaths of his mother and girlfriend - although years ago - continue to haunt Eric's every step. So Eric stays away from everyone. He doesn't get involved with school, and simply has become a loner.

What Shoman/Eric never expected was to meet a mysterious Shade who doesn't know what she is, who her parents are, and what she is capable of. He knows that he needs to report her to the Elders but doesn't want to because outside Shades have to be killed. He breaks the rules by not reporting her to his Elders and trains her to develop and control her powers, but cannot reveal all his secrets to her.

Eric finds himself in a annoying situation with the new girl town - Jessica. Jessica in purpose to find about her real parents from her adoptive parents, they require her to obtain perfect grades. This task appears impossible as she is paired with the taciturn Eric Welborn on a key science project. Eric is distant and preoccupied, often skipping class and is disinterested in completing the project with her. However, not only will Jessica not fail her science project, but she also wants to find out more about his secrets and at the same time feels drawn to him.

Because they their human forms is so different from their shade form and the prohibition revel it to others it make the relationship between Eric and Jessica interesting - Jessica can hardly get Eric to speak to her let alone be around her. While in their Shade forms these two spent so much time together.

I loved the character development. There’s the relationship Eric shares with his step-mother and step-brother, which I find very human considering Eric isn’t. I think a lot of people whose families have come to have step’s feel the same way Eric does . We get to see clearly how he feels, how he deals with it and Shannon even touches on how they feel or at least the adorably-annoying step brother. Then there’s the relationship Eric with his guardian, Camille. I like how she cares so much for him like his older sister, but  she too struggles with her own past and future as interbreed of light and dark.

Shannon joggles cleverly with the first-person view between her two main characters, making it impossible not to become intimately involved with them.

Overall - I think young adult readers will be able to identify with them. I'm looking forward to reading the the other books in the series.

At sixteen, Shannon A Thompson became the young-adult author of "November Snow." In 2012, Shannon became a published poet. Both of her published works are dedicated to lost loved ones, her mother and her roommate. Her latest novel, "Minutes Before Sunset," released May 1st by AEC Stellar Publishing. The award-winning, young-adult, paranormal romance is the first novel in A Timely Death series, and the second book is expected to release in March of 2014. Her first short story, Sean's Bullet, was published in an anthology in October of 2013.
She recently graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor’s degree in English. She also works as a Social Media Marketing Manager.
Shannon spends her free time writing, but she loves spending time with her father and brother. She also has one black cat named after her favorite actor, Humphrey Bogart.