Friday 23 June 2023

REVIEW - THE HOPE WE KEEP - LOST LIGHT SERIES BY KYLA STONE

  

Title: The Hope We Keep
Series:
Lost Light
Author:
Kyla Stone
Release Date:
1st May 2023

BLURB from Goodreads
Only in darkness can you see the stars...

Don't miss the stunning conclusion to the Lost Light trilogy!

When massive solar flares strike the planet, a million tons of super heated plasma rips through the Earth’s atmosphere. As power grids fail across the Northern Hemisphere, the entire world balances on the brink of chaos.

Goodreads Link

REVIEW
Another great cover that fits with the rest of the series really well. The covers of this series definitely do their job in that they would certainly have me picking them up from a bookstore shelf to read the book description.

The Hope We Keep literally picks up with Shiloh being attacked whilst tracking and hunting alone. Luckily Shiloh's instincts and everything Eli has been teaching her kicks in and she fights off her attacker, badly wounding him enough to escape.
This begins the speculation of who would want to hurt Shiloh? Maybe her mother, Lily's killer, after all she was a witness to the murder as she was in the house when the murderer left. Or is it Darius Sykes, escaped convict who would hurt anyone and everyone Eli Pope cares about to get to him? Or could it be some random traveller that thought she was an easy target? Regardless of who it is, it's a sign that the area is becoming more dangerous.

Lena's supply of insulin is rapidly decreasing especially as she has secretly been sharing it with a young boy called Keagan Tilton when she is approached by his parents Curtis and Traci to help him. With the local hospital running low on all its supplies and medications its perhaps inevitable when a decision is made to close it. The staff are leaving to care for their own families be that locally or travelling to family. Some staff are headed to the next nearest hospital to work with the remaining staff and the supplies the larger hospitals still have at the moment.
Eli and Jackson know they need more medical supplies as many are running low, becoming I'll or dying because of lack of medications. They are highly aware that Lena's insulin supply is also getting low though initially they don't know how little she has left.
Lena decides to use her own medical experience to help where she can. She collects books on herbal remedies and such from the local library. Despite opposition from Eli she invites people into the lighthouse for treatment. It's not long until jealousy arises with a local woman wanting to know why Lena and Shiloh have more than her. Yet when Lena offers to show her the skills and help her start to grow her own food and learn to can it and so on the woman declines, wanting continual handouts rather than to learn to look after herself. This makes the woman a strong suspect when the lighthouse is broken into and everything is smashed up from the lighthouse lantern to Lena's insulin vials. Now with even less insulin its vital that Eli and Jackson find some insulin quickly! Perhaps that why they fall into a hurried plan to hijack a train for medical supplies without the thorough research both Eli and Jackson would normally do. They do get help from an unlikely source of two of Sawyers group defecting to their side. The skills of Antoine and Nyx prove invaluable on more than one occasion in the book.
Jackson is made Sheriff amongst all this mayhem when his father Horatio openly attacks the current Sheriff bringing attention to his short comings. Jackson is given little choice but to accept even more responsibility when it his spring on him though does wonder what ulterior motive his father may have. Jackson is also left dealing with his mother and sister when his father just takes off and disappears. Jackson wants answers from Horatio and is about to demand them when Horatio disappears.
Jackson and Eli and their deputies are also having to handle the increasing deaths, finding men strung up on poles and murdered in a significant way. Eli knows its Darius Sykes and he and his band of escapee prisoners are on their way to wreak havoc. Eli is determined to protect Lena and Shiloh at all costs, finally convincing them to live at the Northwoods Inn settlement. Unfortunately for him Darius Sykes uses someone from the Northwoods Inn settlement to lure Lena to him ensuring there will be a battle to the death between himself and Eli.

There's so much going on in this book alongside all the questions we already have! We do finally discover the real killer of Lily and I did honestly have my suspicions. It really fits perfectly. Eli does reveal to Shiloh that he is her father, but just when Shiloh should be feeling like she finally has a family again theres so much going on and danger approaching she doesn't really get to enjoy the news.
Without going into detail and revealing too much the book ends with one set of bad guys dispatched, our favourite characters still co-existing nearby to the other bad guys led by Sawyer and even more, bigger bad guys on the way for retribution!
Some old cases are cleared up for Jackson but they end up causing him a whole lot of hurt, devastation & personal loss in the process, and he still has the mystery of Garrett to solve as well as having a 'grand finale' with his father.

My immediate thoughts were Amazing! The writing style of this book, of so many threads of plot, fantastic characters you really grow to care about (even the 'baddies') all taking place in an ever changing increasingly dangerous world really have you perched on the very edge of your seat and not wanting to put the book down!

Summing up this book really does have an action & angst ridden packed plot, with tempestuous, fierce characters willing to die for each other and what is right. Can't wait to read more! 


 

 

 

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