Shadow of Time by Jen Minkman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Look out, it’s a self-published book! SHADOW OF TIME avoids most of the worst of self-pub, but it has some inconsistencies, like the way the dialogue of the characters changes. I keep expecting the main character to actually look Native American, and the cover really had me confused for a while (eventually, the butterfly will make sense). The relationships between the characters are well crafted, and it’s nice to get a sense of history from the story. The author mentions she’s never been to the US, let alone Dine (Navajo) Nation, so her research skills are clearly top-notch.
The romance is a little weird–at first it seems like a bit of cradle-robbing, but once the story plays out it isn’t so squicky–and smacks of insta-love at the beginning, though that at least has a reason behind it. The beginning of the story also drags a bit; it took me a few days to read the first two hundred pages, but the pace ramps up as the book reaches its climax.
The author does a good job of tying all her characters together, and the reader is left spinning along with the protagonist when bombshells are dropped. The historical parts of this novel made it worth the read. It’s also nice that all the loose ends are tied up at the end of this novel; I don’t read very many stand-alone books nowadays, because there just aren’t that many of them! Kudos to the author for not ending with a cliffhanger. With the author’s grasp of history, though, I’m pretty sure she can figure out another story to tell with these characters.
Received as a free digital ARC via Netgalley.
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