Paranormal Romance has been a truly massive subgenre of the romance genre for many years and has seen many massive peaks in popularity across the past few years, especially thanks to juggernauts like Twilight.
This momentum seems to be showing no signs of slowing.
However, many outsiders to the subgenre have a very limited knowledge of it that rarely extends anywhere past Twilight.
The subgenre has seen some truly fascinating works crop up across the years, however. And one of the most popular of these is Nightfall, the first book in the popular Dark Age Dawning series of books.
The story has a post-apocalyptic setting and follows Jenna, a girl growing up with a father who often preached about the end of the world. However, no one ever expected his predictions to actually come true!
Thanks to her father’s preparedness, Jenna is able to survive the post-apocalyptic world, where she comes across a pack of mutated dogs.
However, instead of fighting back against them, she decides to join the pack, which puts her right in the firing line of those that promised to protect her at the orders of her father!
Nightfall is a gripping post-apocalyptic story, so you have likely already given it a read before yourself.
Want something equally as engaging? Then you really could not have come to a better place. Check out these books, like Broken, and Last Light to find something else worth reading!
Themes In Nightfall
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Survival
One of the key themes of Nightfall is survival. Of course, the story depicts protagonist Jenna’s attempt to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that she was not prepared for, and that makes her an immediate target.
The survival theme helps to make the book incredibly gripping. You read on hoping to see Jenna survive further despite the odds that seem to stand against her.
Family
This first part of the series also explores the theme of family, as the story is kick-started when Jenna finds herself stuck in a post-apocalyptic world full of hostilities and dangerous new factions that come together to survive.
The apocalypse itself was predicted by Jenna’s father, whom she believed to be delusional. When the apocalypse does eventually occur, Jenna quickly finds herself questioning her feelings toward her father, and what he meant to her.
This also brings up questions of fate, as Jenna wonders whether she was destined to end up in the post-apocalypse as a survivor.
As the story progresses further, Jenna finds herself creating a new family unit with the pack that she rescues. A family unit that provides her support and helps her to survive in the new frontier of this new world.
Fate
Fate is another crucial theme that the story does not shy away from.
It is fate that drives the majority of the action in the story, as Jenna’s Father’s prophecies eventually come true, leading Jenna to question how much of her life is predestined.
Another post-apocalypse tale that is full of romance and drama is Last Light, a novel by Claire Kent.
The story of this gripping tale takes place in first person and sees our protagonist forced to travel across what is left of the United States in an attempt to find the only people she knows who have survived.
Our protagonist is joined by Travis, a gruff but loveable former mechanic whom our protagonist is unsure about feelings towards them.
Travis and our protagonist soon begin to open up to one another, and forced to survive together, develop a bond that is simply beautiful to behold.
We cannot possibly pass up the opportunity to recommend this masterwork.
Pros
The central character dynamic is strong and intriguing.
Incredible and gripping world-building.
Cons
Recommended for more mature readers due to sensual content.
That’s right! Captured is a story that follows a first-person protagonist as they attempt to make their way across a world that is full of zombies, and the blood-curdling stench that they emit.
The story actually takes place more than 20 years after the initial outbreak, in a world that has come to terms with zombies, and has established a totally new world order.
Our protagonist goes through a great loss among their survivors and is then forced to travel across the walls of El Castillo.
This is a treacherous adventure that will be dangerous, but romance somehow finds itself blooming regardless. It’s truly special to behold.
Pros
A romance story with zombies!
Features well-developed characters and world-building.
When a pandemic threatens 99% of the world population, one woman finds herself fighting against great odds to stay alive. However, the central romance between our two leads is not so simple in this novel (If you love the romance genre, check out Books Like Shameless).
Frankie, one of our leads, has no intentions of surviving, with no survival skills, and no hope of rebuilding the world. Yorke, on the other hand, is a born survivor thanks to his time in the army.
The two find themselves falling in love, and building a new sense of hope despite all of the despair and destruction that surrounds them on all sides.
This story kicks right into action In Medias Res style, as we join Ali, a teenager who has been hiding away in their attic for more than eight months since a deadly plague broke out and caused everyone she knew to become mindless flesh-eating monsters.
But staying locked away in your attic can only last for so long, and within time, Ali finds themself needing to head out and explore the world that has been left behind.
This puts them in the orbit of Daniel and Finn, and the three very quickly strike up an incredibly strong friendship as they fight to survive in this new world.
Love soon begins to blossom within the group, and though survival may be the most important thing on everyone’s minds 24/7, they cannot help but indulge their deeper emotions.
If you want to be reminded of the enduring power of love, then you simply have to give this romantic and often steamy novel about surviving a monster-filled apocalypse.
Every page is equal parts tense and heart-racing while also being very romantic. It’s a wonderful balancing act that few can pull off as well as Kylie Scott does here.
Pros
The journey across the world of the story is engaging.
These four novels are amongst just a few of the very best books that are similar to Nightfall. However, we were careful not to simply choose books that were exactly the same despite sharing so much DNA.
These books represent not only a great avenue for fans of Nightfall to follow, but each of them stands up on its own two feet as a creative work.
Whether you want your post-apocalyptic fiction to be filled with fictional beasts and creatures, deadly pandemics, or flesh-eating zombies, these four novels all show that you can effectively marry two seemingly disparate genres together to create something magical.
The contrast between the dire circumstances of a post-apocalypse, paired with the enduring nature of true love makes for effective drama that will keep readers hooked for hours at a time.
Of the many works that have married post-apocalypses and romance, these are easily the very best of the best, and are the next works that you should give your full attention to.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many Pages Are In Nightfall?
The novel Nightfall has around 327 pages, which puts it around the general average page count of most works of its kind. A book of this length will generally take around 10 hours to read.
Can A Romance Have A Sad Ending?
Though most romantic novels and films may opt for happy endings, it is more than possible for them to end on a sadder note. In fact, there are many that do end on sad notes.
What Is The Saddest Love Story Ever?
Most would argue that the saddest love story ever told is Romeo And Juliet the play by William Shakespeare.
Hi, my name is Anna Davis and I have been working with books for five years now. I got a job at my local library, so I could be closer to all of the books! I created this website in the hopes of inspiring others to start reading again. Who knows, maybe you’ll find your new favorite book from my site!
