BLOG TOUR - LOCAL WOMAN MISSING BY MARY KUBICA

  

Title: Local Woman Missing
Author: Mary Kubica
Publisher: Park Row Books, Harlequin Trade Publishing
Genre: General Fiction, Mystery & Thrillers
Release Date: 18th May 2021

BLURB supplied by Harlequin Trade Publishing
People don't just disappear without a trace…
Shelby Tebow is the first to go missing. Not long after, Meredith Dickey and her six-year-old daughter, Delilah, vanish just blocks away from where Shelby was last seen, striking fear into their once-peaceful community. Are these incidents connected? After an elusive search that yields more questions than answers, the case eventually goes cold.
Now, eleven years later, Delilah shockingly returns. Everyone wants to know what happened to her, but no one is prepared for what they'll find…
In this smart and chilling thriller, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author Mary Kubica takes domestic secrets to a whole new level, showing that some people will stop at nothing to keep the truth buried.

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EXCERPT

MEREDITH

11 YEARS BEFORE

March

The text comes from a number I don’t know. It’s a 630 area code. Local. I’m in the bathroom with Leo as he soaks in the tub. He has his bath toys lined up on the edge of it and they’re taking turns swan diving into the now-lukewarm water. It used to be hot, too hot for Leo to get into. But he’s been in there for thirty minutes now playing with his octopus, his whale, his fish. He’s having a ball.

Meanwhile I’ve lost track of time. I have a client in the early stages of labor. We’re texting. Her husband wants to take her to the hospital. She thinks it’s too soon. Her contractions are six and a half minutes apart. She’s absolutely correct. It’s too soon. The hospital would just send her home, which is frus­trating, not to mention a huge inconvenience for women in labor. And anyway, why labor at the hospital when you can labor in the comfort of your own home? First-time fathers al­ways get skittish. It does their wives no good. By the time I get to them, more times than not, the woman in labor is the more calm of the two. I have to focus my attention on paci­fying a nervous husband. It’s not what they’re paying me for.

I tell Leo one more minute until I shampoo his hair, and then fire off a quick text, suggesting my client have a snack to keep her energy up, herself nourished. I recommend a nap, if her body will let her. The night ahead will be long for all of us. Childbirth, especially when it comes to first-time moms, is a marathon, not a sprint.

Josh is home. He’s in the kitchen cleaning up from dinner while Delilah plays. Delilah’s due up next in the tub. By the time I leave, the bedtime ritual will be done or nearly done. I feel good about that, hating the times I leave Josh alone with so much to do.

I draw up my text and then hit Send. The reply is immedi­ate, that all too familiar ping that comes to me at all hours of the day or night.

I glance down at the phone in my hand, expecting it’s my client with some conditioned reply. Thx.

Instead: I know what you did. I hope you die.

Beside the text is a picture of a grayish skull with large, black eye sockets and teeth. The symbol of death.

My muscles tense. My heart quickens. I feel thrown off. The small bathroom feels suddenly, overwhelmingly, oppressive. It’s steamy, moist, hot. I drop down to the toilet and have a seat on the lid. My pulse is loud, audible in my own ears. I stare at the words before me, wondering if I’ve misread. Certainly I’ve misread. Leo is asking, “Is it a minute, Mommy?” I hear his little voice, muff led by the ringing in my ears. But I’m so thrown by the cutthroat text that I can’t speak.

I glance at the phone again. I haven’t misread.

The text is not from my client in labor. It’s not from any cli­ent of mine whose name and number is stored in my phone. As far as I can tell, it’s not from anyone I know.

A wrong number, then, I think. Someone sent this to me by accident. It has to be. My first thought is to delete it, to pre­tend this never happened. To make it disappear. Out of sight, out of mind.

But then I think of whoever sent it just sending it again or sending something worse. I can’t imagine anything worse.

I decide to reply. I’m careful to keep it to the point, to not sound too judgy or fault-finding because maybe the intended recipient really did do something awful—stole money from a children’s cancer charity—and the text isn’t as egregious as it looks at first glance.

I text: You have the wrong number.

The response is quick.

I hope you rot in hell, Meredith.

The phone slips from my hand. I yelp. The phone lands on the navy blue bath mat, which absorbs the sound of its fall.

Meredith.

Whoever is sending these texts knows my name. The texts are meant for me.

A second later Josh knocks on the bathroom door. I spring from the toilet seat, and stretch down for the phone. The phone has fallen facedown. I turn it over. The text is still there on the screen, staring back at me.

Josh doesn’t wait to be let in. He opens the door and steps right inside. I slide the phone into the back pocket of my jeans before Josh has a chance to see.

“Hey,” he says, “how about you save some water for the fish.”

Leo complains to Josh that he is cold. “Well, let’s get you out of the bath,” Josh says, stretching down to help him out of the water.

“I need to wash him still,” I admit. Before me, Leo’s teeth chatter. There are goose bumps on his arm that I hadn’t no­ticed before. He is cold, and I feel suddenly guilty, though it’s mired in confusion and fear. I hadn’t been paying any atten­tion to Leo. There is bathwater spilled all over the floor, but his hair is still bone-dry.

“You haven’t washed him?” Josh asks, and I know what he’s thinking: that in the time it took him to clear the kitchen table, wash pots and pans and wipe down the sinks, I did noth­ing. He isn’t angry or accusatory about it. Josh isn’t the type to get angry.

“I have a client in labor,” I say by means of explanation. “She keeps texting,” I say, telling Josh that I was just about to wash Leo. I drop to my knees beside the tub. I reach for the sham­poo. In the back pocket of my jeans, the phone again pings. This time, I ignore it. I don’t want Josh to know what’s hap­pening, not until I get a handle on it for myself.

Josh asks, “Aren’t you going to get that?” I say that it can wait. I focus on Leo, on scrubbing the shampoo onto his hair, but I’m anxious. I move too fast so that the shampoo suds get in his eye. I see it happening, but all I can think to do is wipe it from his forehead with my own soapy hands. It doesn’t help. It makes it worse.

Leo complains. Leo isn’t much of a complainer. He’s an easy­going kid. “Ow,” is all that he says, his tiny wet hands going to his eyes, though shampoo in the eye burns like hell.

“Does that sting, baby?” I ask, feeling contrite. But I’m bursting with nervous energy. There’s only one thought rac­ing through my mind. I hope you rot in hell, Meredith.

Who would have sent that, and why? Whoever it is knows me. They know my name. They’re mad at me for something I’ve done. Mad enough to wish me dead. I don’t know anyone like that. I can’t think of anything I’ve done to upset someone enough that they’d want me dead.

I grab the wet washcloth draped over the edge of the tub. I try handing it to Leo, so that he can press it to his own eyes. But my hands shake as I do. I wind up dropping the washcloth into the bath. The tepid water rises up and splashes him in the eyes. This time he cries.

“Oh, buddy,” I say, “I’m so sorry, it slipped.”

But as I try again to grab it from the water and hand it to him, I drop the washcloth for a second time. I leave it where it is, letting Leo fish it out of the water and wipe his eyes for himself. Meanwhile Josh stands two feet behind, watching.

My phone pings again. Josh says, “Someone is really dying to talk to you.”

Dying. It’s all that I hear.

My back is to Josh, thank God. He can’t see the look on my face when he says it.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Your client,” Josh says. I turn to him. He motions to my phone jutting out of my back pocket. “She really needs you. You should take it, Mer,” he says softly, accommodatingly, and only then do I think about my client in labor and feel guilty. What if it is her? What if her contractions are coming more quickly now and she does need me?

Josh says, “I can finish up with Leo while you get ready to go,” and I acquiesce, because I need to get out of here. I need to know if the texts coming to my phone are from my client or if they’re coming from someone else.

I rise up from the floor. I scoot past Josh in the door, brush­ing against him. His hand closes around my upper arm as I do, and he draws me in for a hug. “Everything okay?” he asks, and I say yes, fine, sounding too chipper even to my own ears. Everything is not okay.

“I’m just thinking about my client,” I say. “She’s had a still­birth before, at thirty-two weeks. She never thought she’d get this far. Can you imagine that? Losing a baby at thirty-two weeks?”

Josh says no. His eyes move to Leo and he looks saddened by it. I feel guilty for the lie. It’s not this client but another who lost a baby at thirty-two weeks. When she told me about it, I was completely torn up. It took everything in me not to cry as she described for me the moment the doctor told her her baby didn’t have a heartbeat. Labor was later induced, and she had to push her dead baby out with only her mother by her side. Her husband was deployed at the time. After, she was snowed under by guilt. Was it her fault the baby died? A thousand times I held her hand and told her no. I’m not sure she ever believed me.

My lie has the desired effect. Josh stands down, and asks if I need help with anything before I leave. I say no, that I’m just going to change my clothes and go.

I step out of the bathroom. In the bedroom, I close the door. I grab my scrub bottoms and a long-sleeved T-shirt from my drawer. I lay them on the bed, but before I get dressed, I pull my phone out of my pocket. I take a deep breath and hold it in, summoning the courage to look. I wonder what waits there. More nasty threats? My heart hammers inside me. My knees shake.

I take a look. There are two messages waiting for me.

The first: Water broke. Contractions 5 min apart.

And then: Heading to hospital.—M.

I release my pent-up breath. The texts are from my cli­ent’s husband, sent from her phone. My legs nearly give in re­lief, and I drop down to the edge of the bed, forcing myself to breathe. I inhale long and deep. I hold it in until my lungs become uncomfortable. When I breathe out, I try and force away the tension.

But I can’t sit long because my client is advancing quickly. I need to go.

Excerpted from Local Woman Missing @ 2021 by Mary Kyrychenko, used with permission by Park Row Books.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Mary Kubica is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of six novels, including THE GOOD GIRL, PRETTY BABY, DON’T YOU CRY, EVERY LAST LIE, WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT, and THE OTHER MRS. A former high school history teacher, Mary holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, in History and American Literature. She lives outside of Chicago with her husband and two children. Her last novel THE OTHER MRS. was an instant New York Times bestseller; is coming soon to Netflix; was a LibraryReads pick for February 2020; praised by the New York Times; and highly recommended by Entertainment Weekly, People, The Week, Marie Claire, Bustle, HelloGiggles, Goodreads, PopSugar, BookRiot, HuffingtonPost, First for Women, Woman’s World, and more. Mary’s novels have been translated into over thirty languages and have sold over two million copies worldwide. She’s been described as “a helluva storyteller,” (Kirkus Reviews) and “a writer of vice-like control,” (Chicago Tribune), and her novels have been praised as “hypnotic” (People) and “thrilling and illuminating” (Los Angeles Times). LOCAL WOMAN MISSING is her seventh novel.

 

AUTHOR LINKS
Website: https://marykubica.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryKubicaAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaryKubica
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marykubica
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7392948.Mary_Kubica 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REVIEW - WE ARE SATELLITES BY SARAH PINSKER

Title: We Are Satellites
Author: Sarah Pinsker
Publisher: Head OF Zeus, Ad Astra
Genre: Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Speculative Fiction, Dystopian, Futuristic
Release Date: 13th May 2021

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Everybody's getting one.

Val and Julie just want what's best for their kids, David and Sophie. So when teenage son David comes home one day asking for a Pilot, a new brain implant to help with school, they reluctantly agree. This is the future, after all.

Soon, Julie feels mounting pressure at work to get a Pilot to keep pace with her colleagues, leaving Val and Sophie part of the shrinking minority of people without the device.

Before long, the implications are clear, for the family and society: get a Pilot or get left behind. With government subsidies and no downside, why would anyone refuse? And how do you stop a technology once it's everywhere? Those are the questions Sophie and her anti-Pilot movement rise up to answer, even if it puts them up against the Pilot's powerful manufacturer and pits Sophie against the people she loves most. 

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REVIEW
I have seen two covers for this book and prior to reading the book I was 100% that I preferred the cover with the woman and child on it. Having read the book I think that the red cover fits the book just as well if not better as it portrays the sci-fi, futuristic themes within the plot much better. Either of the cover images would make me pick the book up in a book store to learn more about it. As soon as I read the blurb, I was intrigued by the pilot technology and eager to learn its positives and negatives within the book. 

Put super simplistically a Pilot is a small device that is attached to the brain via a surgical procedure and this then helps the wearer/user multi task and be hyper aware of their surroundings. The pilot is marketed as enhancing what you & your brain can do. You can learn faster, notice and have a higher level of awareness of things going on around you without even appearing to be taking notice.

The relatively happy family at the centre of the book are school teacher Valerie, political assistant Julie, their son David (who is biologically Julie’s son) and Sophie who the two women adopted. Valerie first noticed a blue light flicker during a lesson in an auditorium and that’s how she discovers “pilots” and then learns about what they are. Valerie later attends a parents evening event at David’s school where his teacher explains that David is being left behind academically by his fellow students. David had always been good academically so Valerie asks his teacher to elaborate. The teacher reveals that the reason David is being left behind is that so many of the other pupils are being fitted with pilots, meaning they are learning at a much faster pace than David is able to do with his unenhanced brain.

The whole debate of whether David should get a pilot or not is talked over by his mothers, Val and Julie. Valerie is sceptical, she doesn’t like the idea of messing about with such an important organ as his brain. Val’s reasoning is that their other child Sophie, suffers from epilepsy which affects her brain and the Doctors cannot operate to fix that nor come up with the correct mixture of medication to stop her fits, so how can someone have created the pilot, as well as a safe procedure to attach it to your brain? Julie’s opinion is different, the company that makes the pilot has brought a lot of money and jobs into the area, in fact she has been secretly thinking about getting a pilot herself.

What with new employees at work as well as the old employees having pilot’s she is being left behind herself and feeling like she is becoming obsolete and continually overlooked for higher positions. Julie stays quiet about her considering a pilot for herself and reasons with Valerie that David having a pilot could be a positive thing and increase his chances of getting into a good college after school. So, Julie takes David to have a pilot fitted at the bright clinic that strangely smells of cookies and really doesn’t resemble any hospital she has ever been in. Sadly, both Julie and Val have visited many hospitals and clinics with Sophie over the years.

When David announces an Army recruiter has visited his school and he has signed up to go into a special force consisting of young people his age, fitness level who also have pilots fitted, Val and Julie are devastated. They end up respecting his decision, at his age he is classed as an adult so they can’t really do much about it. Though it doesn’t stop them both reacting in different ways. Julie arranges a meeting with an army recruiter who basically assures her that David will be an asset to the army not a pawn or foot soldier used as cannon fodder. That seems to appease Julie and her worries, she also goes ahead with having her own pilot. Val has an outburst at school with an army recruiter still bitter about what she considers as an underhand trick getting David and some of his friends to join up.

The book continues telling this families story, the way David continually struggles with what he calls the constant noise since he has had his pilot fitted. Despite reaching out to those that fitted it he is told to just continue with the games and brain exercises. In fact, David is led to believe it is him and his brain that are at fault, not the pilot. Whilst David is away in the army his younger sister becomes involved in an activist group that organises rallies and protests outside of pilot manufacturers and clinics on a regular basis. Sophie ends up being co-manager with Gabe of the local branch of activists against pilots. Sophie has sympathy for her brother saying it was peer pressure and he really had very little choice in having a pilot fitted. However, she has very little sympathy for Julie, who she said had all the facts and was old enough to say no to her pilot. Family dynamics have totally switched over as Sophie used to favour Julie, until Julie got a pilot. Sophie now increasingly favours her non pilot enhanced mother, Val. After Val’s outburst at her school with the Army recruiter she was initially suspended for just 2 weeks until things had quietened down. However, Val was never reinstated and it took a year to get another teaching job in a public school where she and a couple of other teachers without pilots teach classes to the few students with no pilots fitted. Those without pilots are soon looked down on as having something wrong with them, which naturally also affects the ability to get into a college, or to get a decent job too. Some cannot have pilots due to a medical-conditions like Sophie who has epilepsy, and others like Val just have no desire to get one, or have religious reasons. Sadly those without a pilot are quite blatantly discriminated against, even though it would be denied if someone tried to claim it was the case.

When David returns from the army, he has a job all lined up with the people who manufacture the pilots. Previously used as a “poster boy” in a campaign when he was younger and first got his pilot. It is partly because of this that David is chosen to go to schools and work places encouraging other to have pilots. Despite David still struggling with his own pilot and following all the rules and guidelines things go from bad to worse for him. He loses his job, argues with Julie and walks out of his family home. He finally discovers something at a party that helps subdue the “noise” but these pills marked with what looks like a “q” which prompts David to call them “Quiet” are not on prescription so become expensive.

Without giving too much more away, the family that used to talk about everything have turned into a family that keeps secrets from each other, storm off and slam doors. When David has an accident, Val, Julie & Sophie are all thrown together and they begin to reveal their “secrets” which end up leading to more questions about the pilots. They make a plan together to unearth the answers they need and set about revealing what they have learnt about the pilots and their manufacturers.

One of my favourite characters in the book was Milo, Davids school friend and army colleague. Milo is back to being a civilian a few months or so before David and is eager to help his long term, friend assimilate back into society. He admits to David that he found it difficult to stop watching all around him, sitting with his back to a wall, assessing every possible danger etc. Even when David has nowhere to live, he offers his friend a room in his own home that he shares with his girlfriend Katrina. Despite Katrina nagging Milo about David over staying his welcome, he sticks up for his friend and pleads Davids case to her explaining what it’s like coming out of the army.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing this book were a brilliant read, certainly makes you think a lot about procedures and medications in our current world. You look at the pilot from each point of view, positive, negative & indifferent! It honestly has you questioning yourself as to whether you would have had a pilot fitted, if yes why? And of course, if not why?

To sum up I really enjoyed reading this book a lot. It made me really think about the technology featured in the book. It reminded me a little of The Passengers with futuristic technology that has been rushed out with any possible issues overlooked in the eagerness of a big company wanting to sell it to people and make money. Then when it all starts to go wrong the big company tries to hide the evidence of these flaws and continue on regardless. In this book it takes a group of people consisting of a majority of those without the technology to uncover the lies, and with the help of a reporter and others that have had issues with the pilot really uncover what has been going on. The book certainly keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. The book also has you pondering what you would do in the individual circumstances in the different characters positions. Who do you consider right? Or wrong? Could David’s accident have been avoided? The book leaves you thinking about so many issues, and to be honest the way modern technology is changing so rapidly it isn’t that unbelievable! I also found the changing family dynamics an interesting part of the story too. Could a lot of the misunderstandings have been avoided if they had all sat down and discussed what was going on in their respective lives? Definitely a thought provoking read!

And just in case you'd like to look at 

the other cover here it is! 

 Do you have a favourite cover?

Have you read the book? And did your favourite cover choice change after reading the book?

 

 

 

 

WISHLIST WEDNESDAY - THREADNEEDLE - THE LANGUAGE OF MAGIC BY CARI THOMAS

This weeks Wishlist Wednesday is
Threadneedle by Cari Thomas
and has been stated as being the most anticipated
debut fantasy release of the year!

Title: Threadneedle
Series: The Language Of Magic
Author: Cari Thomas
Publisher: Harpercollins
Release Date: 27th May 2021

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Within the boroughs of London, nestled among its streets, hides another city, filled with magic.
Magic is the first sin. It must be bound.

Ever since Anna can remember, her aunt has warned her of the dangers of magic. She has taught her to fear how it twists and knots and turns into something dark and deadly.

It was, after all, magic that killed her parents and left her in her aunt’s care. It’s why she has been protected from the magical world and, in one year’s time, what little magic she has will be bound. She will join her aunt alongside the other Binders who believe magic is a sin not to be used, but denied. Only one more year and she will be free of the curse of magic, her aunt’s teachings and the disappointment of the little she is capable of.

Nothing – and no one – could change her mind before then. Could it?

Goodreads Link

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Amazon UK
Amazon US(no link as yet)

SPOTLIGHT SUNDAY - THE GRIMROSE GIRLS BY LAURA POHL

 This contemporary take on classic fairytales reimagines heroines as friends attending the same school. While investigating the murder of their best friend, they uncover connections to their ancient fairytale curses and attempt to forge their own fate before it's too late.

Described as The Descendants meets Pretty little liars.

 

Title: The Grimrose Girls
Series: Grimrose Girls
Author: Laura Pohl
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: YA, Fantasy, Mystery, ReTellings
Release Date: 1st August 2021

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Four troubled friends, One murdered girl... and a dark fate that may leave them all doomed.

After the mysterious death of their best friend, Ella, Yuki, and Rory are the talk of their elite school, Grimrose Académie. The police ruled it a suicide, but the trio are determined to find out what really happened.

When Nani Eszes arrives as their newest roommate, it sets into motion a series of events they couldn't have imagined. As the girls retrace their friend's last steps, they uncover dark secrets about themselves and their destinies, discovering they're all cursed to repeat the brutal and gruesome endings to their stories until they can break the cycle. 

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REVIEW - ERUPTING TROUBLE - EMP CATASTROPHE BY GRACE HAMILTON

  

Title: Erupting Trouble
Series: EMP Catastrophe
Author: Grace Hamilton
Publisher: Relay Publishing
Release Date: 14th April 2021

BLURB from Goodreads
A father with a heart problem and a son determined to get him home…

Matthew Riley wants to believe that people will come together in times of great struggle, but as panic and chaos set in after a massive EMP event, he has to face the fact that the only people he can trust are his family. His ailing father, David, an Army vet, has the skills the Riley family needs to survive in the dark new world, but with no medication for his heart condition on hand, keeping him alive may be an impossible task as they journey home from what was supposed to be a simple day trip.

She’ll keep her daughter safe and reunite her family…

Kathleen doesn’t share her husband’s optimistic view of humanity. When the power goes out during a visit to her brother in prison, she and her teenage daughter will need to find their way out and start the long journey back to Galena, IL, in the hope they can reunite with the rest of their family.

They’ll defend their home…

With the rest of the Riley family gone, it’s up to Ruth and her grandson, Patton, to keep their newly renovated hotel safe for the family they know is coming their way. But food is running low and some see an elderly woman and a pre-teen boy as easy pickings.

In a broken civilization the only way to survive is strength in numbers. One family is determined to work together in this new world, but will they be able to defend themselves against desperate survivors? 

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REVIEW
The cover gives the biggest clue to the genre of this book, the carnage of cars, the two figures with guns and backpacks. The cover certainly makes you wonder who the two figures are and why and where they are travelling. As well as the questions it raises about what has happened that has abandoned cars & carnage on what looks to be a highway/motorway. So, the cover certainly drew me in to read the blurb, and I have read other books by this author in the past too.
I usually enjoy this type of “apocalyptic event” and what happens after scenario and there seems to be a wide range in ages of characters so I thought it would add another level of “interesting” to reading the book, seeing how those older/younger deal with what happens.

Something happens, both solar flares and terrorism are mentioned in the book. Though this book doesn’t solve or uncover exactly what happens it is more centred on how the main characters, the Riley family cope. The Riley family are spread quite far away from each other when the “event” occurs. All the family members are in dangerous situations for different reasons. Matthew and his father David, an ex-army veteran who has a heart condition that he is particularly stubborn about find themselves stranded 80 miles from home in Galena at the River Rock Hotel. They are in Wilson’s antique store when the lights suddenly go off, then they discover their car will not start either. Matthew and David soon realise that if they want to get back to David’s wife Ruth, and Matthews twelve-year-old son, Patton they will have to set off walking! Which bothers Matthew as his father’s heart isn’t in great shape meaning walking will be a struggle for the stoic man. Unbeknownst to Matthew his father has been particularly stubborn and rather naively left his heart medication back in the Hotel in the Galena mountains. What Matthew initially viewed as a difficult journey, changes into being a dangerous, life threatening one. If that isn’t enough to worry about, his wife, Kathleen and his daughter Allison are not home at the hotel either, they are visiting Kathleen’s brother, Max in prison. Max had been caught, his first offence as a small-town drug dealer/drug mule. Kathleen finds it difficult talking to her brother, not really knowing what to say. Kathleen is already nervous about the hunted look on her brothers face and the lack of his usual carefree attitude. Then the lights go off! Kathleen quickly realises from the guard’s reactions that they are no wiser as to what is happening….and are unsure what to do. Initially the guards plan to keep the visitors in the prison too. Max tells his sister when she gets out she needs to go retrieve a bag he has hidden in the Chicago area, he then makes a stand and when other prisoners seem to agree and pressure the guards the visitors are released to go on their way. It’s then Kathleen realises what danger her brother is in and finds out her car along with the majority of peoples around them will no longer start. Kathleen decides they need to head home to Galena and buys them some bikes for the journey. Allison being a “typical teen” is irritated and sulky when her mother explains they cannot go and visit her friends as she had promised before “it” happened, even when her mother explains how serious the situation is that they are in. Allison soon changes her mind when she is surrounded by young males trying to take her and her mother’s bike from her whilst her mother is retrieving the bag Uncle Max told her mum about. Kathleen retrieves the bag her brother has told her about, both cursing and thanking him for its contents and returns to what could turn into a dire result if she doesn’t handle it swiftly and correctly.
When thinking about “home” the newly purchased River Rock Hotel, Matthew, David, Kathleen and Allison are all under the impression that everything will be fine there, all they need to do is to get back there and everything else will be fine.
It is Ruth, David’s wife, Matthew’s mum that is at home with her grandson, Matthew & Kathleen’s youngest child Patton. Ruth and Patton try to ignore the lack of electric at first and continue their cleaning in the hope the problem is temporary. When it becomes apparent it isn’t temporary Ruth sets about first preserving food, then going shopping down the mountain in Galena. It’s on the way back they spot a van that was probably on its way to deliver their grocery order when everything stopped. They continue with home their purchases, and decide to head back to take some items from the van. Its on that return journey they come across Samuel, who Ruth instantly feels negative, dangerous vibes from. Ruth gets herself and Patton away from him as soon as possible and they lock up and lay some homemade alarms around as neither of them feels particularly safe.

Other than the main characters one of my favourite individuals in the book is Rhonda who is an old friend of Kathleen’s. The two women lost contact, leaving things not on great terms. Kathleen takes a chance on turning up on her friend’s doorstep, as if anyone can help and advise her how to get home to the River Rock Hotel it is Rhonda as she was always into prepping for events just like this one. I also felt sorry for, and couldn’t help liking Jade, despite her way of thinking and her somewhat shady past. I can’t help feeling she isn’t wholly bad, more perhaps a victim of her circumstances. The character I loved to hate was Samuel, you’ll learn why when you read the book. I’m not so sure I would be so lenient on him after what he did. I almost forgot Jordan, who recommended some basic hiking/survival gear to Matthew & David. I adored the reference to the old credit card machine, the three different pieces of coloured carbon copies, the whole sliding the top slab bit over and handing Matthew the pink slip. It reminded me of my early working years and my battles with the manual machine!!

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the relationships within the Riley family. The similarities and stubbornness between David and Matthew. The way David is more cynical and Matthew the tolerant one who wants to believe the best of everyone and give them multiple chances to redeem themselves, but I can’t help wondering if his “soft heart” could end up costing a life somewhere along in this book/series. The relationship between Kathleen and her brother Max was written so well, with both of them attempting to keep a brave face on for the other. Then the way Max sticks his head above the parapet, getting himself “noticed” with the guards and prisoners when he speaks up to get his sister and niece out of the prison before things turn into a riot. I’d love to see more of him as the series goes on, but maybe being “noticed” could have put him in the crosshairs of those he was trying to stay hidden from.

As we soon learn strange times, make odd people do awful things. In fact, this event begins to make a lot of people act out of their normal range of behaviour and moral compass. The book follows the different character duo’s, how they react when things go wrong and what they do to protect themselves and their loved ones.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing this book were Oh wow! What a time/place to end!!! Can't wait for bk2

Summing up this seems like a great start to a possibly amazing series. This book ended with me still having lots of questions and hopes for the characters introduced in this book. Really looking forward to what happens next. How will the River Rock Hotel and its owners survive, and what other dangers will they be facing? And I’d love more Rhonda and Max….really loved reading this book! The ending of this book certainly left me wanting more, more, more!