Title: Nightfall
Author: John Inman
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Length: 234 Pages
Category: Sci-Fi
At a Glance: This is a beautiful love story. I urge you to crack open this intensely thrilling novel and discover for yourself just what happens when the lights go out.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Joe Chase and Ned Bowden are damaged men. They each bear scars from surviving the world they were born in. Deep scars, both physical and emotional.
When fate offers its first kind act by bringing the two together, suddenly their scars don’t seem so bad, and their lives don’t feel so empty.
Yet that kindness comes at a price.
Just as Joe and Ned begin to experience true happiness for the very first time, the world turns on them again.
But this time it turns on everyone.
Review: I’m not sure if John Inman has ever created two sweeter characters than Joe and Ned. In his newest novel, Nightfall, he takes two quiet men who have both borne their share of disappointment and brings them together right before the world goes to hell in a handbasket.
Ned not only bears the emotional scars of an incident that forever changed his life when he was only sixteen, but he carries a physical manifestation of that painful incident as well. To say that episode molded Ned into the shy, slightly reclusive man he is today, is an understatement. Working at a local deli by day, Ned lives for the night for that is when he can meet his friend on the footbridge by the zoo and spend time with the man he secretly desires—Joe.
Joe doesn’t really like people. It’s not that they have done anything specifically to make him avoid their company, it’s just that he has little time or patience for others, in general. Except his next door neighbor, Ned. Ned is a light in Joe’s drab, lackluster life. But Joe can’t seem to find the courage to tell Ned about his feelings. In fact, he is scared that Ned will not only rebuff him but will choose not to be his friend anymore, and that would simply kill Joe.
Right before the world turns upside down, these two gentle, sweet souls find the courage to admit their attraction to each other. It is a beautiful moment. And then the lights go out.
This story is part romance and part psychological thriller. It is an intense novel where the action never lets up and, at times, gruesomely reminds us of how close human beings walk that fine line between sanity and madness. John Inman explores how far humanity will fall when pushed to the edge and is given near free reign to unleash the evil that resides inside the hearts of some. Running beside this intense drama, a relationship unfolds between two men who have had their fair share of a cruel life. Ned is just impossibly sweet, caring, loving and trusting. He has supreme faith in Joe, particularly when their world begins to fall apart.
Joe, for his part, cannot begin to understand the depth of love he feels for Ned. Somehow the friendship he shared with the gentle young man has blossomed into the need to protect and care for him at all costs. These men and their newfound love will be challenged beyond belief over three days that morph into a terror-filled existence, one where every shadow brings potential danger and life, as they knew it, ceases to exist. It will be their belief in each other, an inner strength neither knew they were capable of, and a love that grows stronger with every passing hour that will keep them alive.
John Inman combines his skill at writing romance with his equal ability to write intense thrillers in Nightfall. From the very start of this book, you want these two guys to succeed. Watching them dance around their mutual attraction and fear of losing the other, should their feelings not be reciprocated, was both lovely and frustrating. So often I wanted to shout at them to just spit it out already, admit you like each other so we can all sigh and be happy for you. There was just enough buildup, just enough sexual tension, that made the final confessions near perfect. This is a beautiful love story, but life was not done dealing these guys curveballs. As the story unfolds and it becomes apparent that hell is going to be unleashed, you are forced to switch gears and go from happily seeing these guys falling for each other to hoping to god they survive.
Nightfall dares to ask the question, what kind of person will you be when the world is not watching and the chains of civilized behavior cease to exist? Will love or evil prevail when the world goes mad? I urge you to crack open this intensely thrilling novel and discover for yourself just what happens when the lights go out.
You can buy Nightfall here:
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This is by far the best book I have read so far this year! Will be reading it again and again.