Gracen has prepped over the years and thinks he has everything ready to go when the SHTF. The only thing he didn’t count on is that no one would be with him when it happened. The wives are on a girls’ trip to the Florida coast, his daughter is at college, his brothers are in town. They all have their bug out bags and should make it home in no time if they leave as soon as they realize this is real. He’s trained them all, right? He just has to get everything going and wait for them at the homestead.
There are some real moments in this listen. There are also some really great tips for someone who isn’t into prepping and doesn’t know what to do when things go bad. The list of items in the bug out bags was something I haven’t seen before and would be extremely helpful, filling up all available containers and draining your pipes is another. Cooking everything in your refrigerator and freezer, having a compass, and a small water filtration device. Turning all electical appliances to off or unplugging them. All of these things are common sense but no one thinks of them. They just wait for the lights to come back on.
I liked how the women in this story were as prepared as the men (except Olivia who was irritating beyond belief) and sometimes more so. For a hardcore prepper, I would have thought Gracen would have a CB setup to communicate with his family. That was a little disappointing but forgiveable. I would also have thought he would have checked that his reluctant prepper wife had brought the bug out bags he had carefully prepared for all the wives. I was also disappointed that it took sooooo long for everyone to realize this was real and get moving towards the homestead. Denial is not an attractive trait in a prepper.
Having said all that, the story was plotted well and flowed between the different characters and their situations well. My only true disappointment was that the ending did not wrap up the story very well and seemed rushed, with not all story lines concluded in a satisfactory way. Would I read a second book? Most definitely. But when you’re writing a series the ending of each book should resolve the current section of the story.
The narration by Kevin Pierce was fantastic, as always. His voice is tailor made for this genre. He doesn’t try for the female voices and yet weaves the tale in a way that you know who each character is each time they speak. His voice in general is so sublime that I could listen to it for days on end. And do every chance I get. He is one of my favorite narrators and has not disappointed me yet.