l came in on this series with this book, which is #4. Dr Laurel Rivera’s character was probably best reviewed by her own daughter Mayflower (May) who said she’s “bossy, a know-it-all even with things she knows nothing about, an one who forces things to be done “her way or the highway!” She is a thoroughly unlikeable person, someone everyone knows in their life, nowadays called a “Karen”. Yet her former military husband Bjorn (Bear) often defers to her decisions because he wants his family back together, he has PTSD and hearing loss that in a crisis situation exacerbates his distrust of his own judgement. Bear is trying to reunite his family so that they can all ride out this crisis together, in spite of the fact that their daughter May is a soldier, as if leaving her unit is something their rebellious offspring is likely to easily do, especially since they’ve added a young teen male named Trent into the mix as a wannabe son/brother. In the midst of this family disfunction, Laurel’s mother dies, civilians are fighting military groups and there are the prerequisite horrors of life without electricity and phones. While I can definitely believe that something like this would happen during a crisis, it’s equally clear that people like this wouldn’t survive long without someone more organized taking charge of them. The PC-ness fallacies would very quickly be exposed as totally useless within weeks. No woman will lead without genuine leadership skills. Laurel’s constant pouting, refusal to face reality (I don’t buy a doctor who deals with life and death being sooo impractical about her cancer ridden mom) and inability to move forward within timely manners is Not establishing a good format for teaching survival skills.
Best character so far…Kermit, hands down. Carrier pigeons idea was absolutely brilliant. Carry that into the next book in a bigger way.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.