Two authors. One book. Nightfall is written under the name Ellen Connor, but Ellen Connor is really two authors, Ann Aguirre and Carrie Lofty, and the seamlessness of their writing amazed me. Together, these two authors make one hell of a writing team and have created a new series that from page one had me excited to read more. Together they have created a dark world where hope can still exist.
A post apocalyptic romance, Nigthfall brings you into the world of a never ending nightmare where technology is a thing of the past and humans turn into creatures that have joined forces to attack; where a Dark Age is descending and a spiritual/supernatural awakening is just beginning.
The apocalypse was a slow moving event happening first in Europe and bit by bit spreading until it finally reached the eastern shores of the continental United States. For our heroine Jenna it happened over night, one minute she was getting her mail and the next her world changed forever. Like most Americans living west of the Mississippi, Jenna had no idea that the Change was heading her way. It isn’t until Mason kidnaps her, taking her deep into the forest on the night that all hell breaks loose, that she finally accepts that the Change is real and there is no outrunning it. It astounds her that her negligent father was right. He spent all of his life warning and preparing her for the apocalypse and she resented him for abandoning her and her mother to spend time in the woods training and organizing men to face the Dark Age. Now she finds herself being rescued by one of the men he trained, Mason, and banding together with five other survivors.
The author brings us immediately into an unrelenting world where fear and danger permeate the page and unveil a stark world that has become silent. In the dark of the forest all they hear is the sound of their own breath. No birds, no wolves, no rustling of trees. It’s as if every living thing is holding its breath and waiting, waiting and watching for the next bad thing to happen. It’s a terrifying place where life looks like a picture post card but just beneath the surface lie horrible creatures waiting in the night.
In Nightfall, Ellen Connor does a superb job of creating diverse and interesting characters. Initially they are an assorted group of people thrown together due to horrifying circumstances, yet each person represents a faction of society and serves a purpose. Each character is vital and unusual and will need to gather all the inner strength they possess and find hidden resources in order to band together and find a way through the nightmare that is now their lives. I know it sounds dramatic but we’re talking about the end of the world here, and Ellen Connor does this with little sentimentality. We get to know the characters in present time, what drives them now and how they need to work together, and actions and emotions become the driving force that move the characters and story line forward. As Jenna says they’re all here for a reason: “They all contributed complementary aspects, everything interlocking and working toward the survival of the whole. The old paradigms would fall away, giving birth to something new. Change didn’t have to be fatal, not if the organism was healthy and strong.”
As for the romance, well using the apocalypse as a backdrop for a romance is no easy feat. There are many things to contend with. Between fighting off dark monsters, scavenging for food, trying to keep warm, getting to know the stranger next to you, and coping with a world gone mad, romance is going to be at the bottom of the list. It can be an awkward thing to portray in a post-apocalyptic novel, often times it’s just layered over the top. However the authors handled it perfectly here and I found the romantic element to be just as exciting and integral to the story line as all the other moving parts. It’s done so beautifully in this book. In the best of circumstances love is not an easy thing to navigate, and communicating your feelings is often a treacherous road. With Mason, an ex-military man who has spent much of his life training for this day, his mind is on one thing and one thing only, keeping these people safe. He doesn’t count on feeling love for the first time and never having loved he has no way to express his feelings. With his primary focus on making sure they all live to see another day he’s far from adept and letting Jenna know that he loves her. When he thinks he’s lost her and must face a terrifying world without her in it, he comes through and in that moment you know there is hope for the world.
This is the first book in the series of a world suddenly gone mad, and I thought it was very clever that no reason is given for the apocalypse. After all, with no technology there is no worldwide communication. So when the end comes abruptly and you are cut off and left in the dark to fend for yourself in any way you can, reasons are going to be hard to come by. The book leaves you with Jenna and Mason on a very loving and hopeful note. BUT, this is by far from the end. There are other characters that have stories to tell, the world needs to rebuild itself and there are still monsters in the night. Nightfall left me filled with many questions answered, but so many left to ask. I know the next two books, Midnight (Dark Age Dawning Series #2) and Daybreak (September and December releases), will answer some of these questions. I’m waiting with bated breath to find out how the other characters I’ve met will fare in this new world that is dawning. Ellen Connor’s Nightfall ignited my imagination by capturing the essence of despair, anger and fear and leaving us with the prospect and spirit of optimism and love.
