I was voluntarily provided this review copy audiobook at no charge by the author, publisher and/or narrator.

This is the second in Abrahams Alt Apocalypse series and it was a pretty wild ride. Even if you haven’t read the first one, you can enjoy this one since each book in the series is a stand-alone, just with recurring characters. But what I found interesting and a fun Easter egg, is that some of the characters remember the alternate stories they’ve gone through. That actually helps tie the stories together even more.

Once again, we’re not given a lot of background for each character but for some reason, that seems to work. We’re introduced to a few new characters, making you wonder if they’ll show up in later stories or not. Abrahams does a good job of making the reader feel the tension in the scenes. The terror of literally out running a forest fire, being brave enough to rescue someone even if you’re not sure it’s possible, keeping friends and family safe. When one character dies by smoke inhalation, I could almost feel my lungs and throat seize up with them. Abrahams does a good job of painting what it would be like dealing with the fires, being in the middle of them and how brave the EMTs and firefighters are in trying to stop them.

Of course, no story is perfect and there were a few times that the story stuttered and stumbled a bit but they were few and far between. This was like riding a roller coaster, you’re never quite sure where the next turn or loop is going to be and when you’ve made it through the ride, you are both relieved and excited. I’m excited about the next book in the series, to see what Abrahams does with the characters and to see if the ones I like make it through this time or not.

Once again, Mr. Pierce does a good job on keeping the tension tight when it needs to be but helping the reader relax during the parts in between. Each character has enough personality to make them interesting and to keep me listening and a distinct enough voice that, while I had some trouble figuring out who was who sometiems, I could tell if someone else was talking if there were multiple characters talking at the same time.

Overall, this was a great second book and I cared about the characters. I both want to see what Abrahams does to everyone in the next one while dreading what he’s going to put them through.