You know when you read a really great book and you just know that other people will like it too and you want to shout as loud as you can READ THIS SERIES....well this is one of those books. If you like Urban Fantasy please take the time to check out the first book in this series The Better Part Of Darkness you won't regret it I promise.

The Charlie Madigan series is Urban Fantasy but it doesn't contain vampires, were's or Fae. It is unique in that there are two different worlds Elysia and Charbydon which exist in another dimension. Charlie is a cop who polices the beings from these two worlds who come to Earth to visit and live. Charlie has seen her fair share of trouble. In the first book she is brought back to life when she is injected with the DNA from beings from both heaven like Elysia and hell like Charbydon. We are now discovering that Charlie is getting powers which she doesn't understand or know how to use yet. In the last book The Hour Of Dust And Ashes her Siren cop partner and possible lover Hank was arrested and taken back home to Elysia as a traitor for his desertion some 200 years earlier. Shadows Before The Sun picks up with Charlie travelling to Elysia to find and rescue Hank and to bring him back home.

It has been a long year waiting for this book to be released. The last book had such a massive cliffhanger with Hank being carted away back to Elysia, I was desperate for this book and it did not disappoint me what so ever. All four books in the series are consistently well written, Ms Gay never fails to deliver a first class book. The stories are thrilling, enthralling and a fascinating read and they read a bit more mature than some other UF books. There are some awesome characters in these books from the sexy Siren Hank, to her possessed ex husband Rex but it is Charlie who is my favourite. Charlie is a great character she is a kickass cop who also has a softer more vulnerable side as that of a divorced mum with her daughter. The world building is excellent and quite different to other UF series where Ms Gay creates two worlds with both Elysia and Charbydon. They are literally worlds apart and there is a fair bit of imagination used with how the worlds exist and how we travel to them.

If you have read this series before you will not be disappointed with this book. My only problem was that the ending could read like the end of the series however news on Ms Gay's website does not say that is the end of Charlie however Ms Gay does confirm that this was the last book of her current contract. Please please please can we have more Charlie I'm not ready to give this series up yet. Shadows Before The Sun was magnificent and I am going to give it 5 stars.