After Sundown

By: Linda Jones, Linda Howard

Narrated by: John Chancer

Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins

Publisher's summary

Sela Gordon, shy owner of a Tennessee general store, prefers solitude. If anyone can chip away at her protective shell it’s the handsome, mysterious ex-military man who’s been hiding for two years in the wilds of Cove Mountain. But when he warns her that a catastrophic solar storm with the capability of taking down the power grids is approaching, Sela must come out of her shell and be the leader Wears Valley needs.

Living in self-imposed exile, Ben Jernigan has learned the hard way to look out only for number one. With a top-notch security system, he’s serious about keeping people at a distance. Yet he has to caution the undeniably sexy Sela about the impending threat - and now she’s making it too easy for him to lower his guard.

As panic spreads, Sela and Ben discover that in the dark, cut off from the outside world, there’s no more playing it safe - in life or in love.

©2018 Linda Jones (P)2020 Audible, Ltd

Good, but disappointed

Linda Howard has been a favorite author of mine for 20+ years. I have expected such great stories from her, but with this one I was disappointed. The premise of electric grid failing and country falling into chaos just wasn't what I was wanting especially with current pandemic crisis our country is facing.
That said, the authors did a good job building the characters and providing great descriptions that I could visualize. John Chancer performed the book well, but lacked some of the panache I expect in a narrator of a top author book. Audible Studios produced this book instead of the publisher. This is the full length book whereas the book publisher version is abridged.

Good Story Overall

I generally enjoyed listening to this book. It had a slow ramp up so I dont think I would have enjoyed reading it. The story kind of plodded along. I enjoyed the romance and the strong female characters. The story made me think about how Ibwould act and how prepared I would be I a dooms day scenario. Fairly nice story overall.

great story.

I love Linda Howard and couldn't wait to read this book. I enjoyed the characters and the theme of the story. survival after the grid goes down for good. everyone should read this book.

After Sundown

A good storyline with great characters. This book required a different narrator. Me. Chances should never do female voices.

Very enjoyable and timely.

Enjoyed the story. Many parallels to the current world situation that made me think about how much worse it could be.

So disappointed

I was so excited about this book. But it fell so short I really question if Linda Howard really wrote it! Plus the story was so depressing and the characters were very flat.

What a waste, save your credit.

I started with the Melissa Moran narration. She isn't a bad narrator but I couldn't stay focused. I switched to John Chancer's narration. He too, is an excellent narrator. The problem was the story. Superb narration can't make a bad plot interesting. I was completely under-whelmed. Ben is an ex-marine living in isolation in the mountains of Tennessee. The way he lives one would think he has a terrible past he can't over come. Nope, he just lives in self sustaining, brooding isolation because he likes it that way.

Sela is the gas station / convenience store owner in Wears Valley. She's divorced with self esteem issues and doormat tendencies. Her only relatives are an elderly aunt and the aunt's teenage granddaughter.

Ben gets word that a CME will damage the power grid. He goes to town to gas up and tells Sela to prepare before the news hits.

The story becomes one of preparing for winter without electricity (lots of canning and cutting firewood) as the town has to adjust to their new reality. Ben and Sela may have had the secret hots for each other but I didn't get their relationship at all. They have sex once and wham they're a couple.

I kept waiting for something interesting to happen and it never did. The romance never materialized. The few incidents in the story that could have been interesting were so predictable I saw them coming within the first 3 chapters. I'll never listen to this again and will have completely forgotten it by the end of the day.