Dark Retreat: EMP Lodge Series, Volume 1

By: Grace Hamilton

Narrated by: Andrew Tell

Length: 7 hrs and 4 mins

Publisher's summary

Three months after life as she knows it was decimated, Megan Wolford has only one goal: protect her daughter, Caitlin, at any cost. When a mysterious illness strikes Caitlin down, Megan is forced to forage for medical supplies at a remote lodge. The last thing she wants is help from her fellow survivors when so many in her life have let her down - but soon she'll find herself with no other option.

Ex-Navy SEAL Wyatt Morris is doing everything he can to hold his family together after the tragic death of his prepper Dad. So when Megan enters their lands, he is mistrustful at first, despite feeling drawn to her. He won't turn away an ill child though - no matter how deadly the world has become. But the arrival of another stranger named Kyle soon gives them all a new reason to be suspicious.

Wyatt knows he'll have to forge alliances in order to keep his family safe, but trusting the wrong person could be a deadly mistake. When Megan and Wyatt discover her daughter's illness may be linked to Kyle's arrival, it sets off a race to discover the truth before it's too late to save Caitlin - and the rest of the Morris clan. Can they work together for survival...and something more?

©2017 Relay Publishing (P)2017 Relay Publishing

Great intro to Grace Hamilton and Andrew Tell

Audio Book Review

The story and performance of Dark Retreat EMP Lodge #1 was fantastic. Grace Hamilton wrote a compelling post apocalyptic tale that Andrew Tell brought to life with his rich voice.

After a EMP virtually shuts down the entire world chaos ensues. Megan is just trying to keep her and her daughter safe and create some semblance of a normal life. Her daughter, Caitlin, falls ill with a mysterious illness while they are traveling. That's when Megan stumbles upon a cabin in the woods.

Wyatt, his mom, brother, and friends have created a pioneer home in the mountains which Megan happens to stumble upon. Unbeknown to all them, there is a con man following Megan.

You can kinda see where this is going. I don't want to add spoilers!

The MC, Megan, is strong, resilient, and brave. Her love for her sick child and her ability to stand in the face of danger not only for her child but the newfound family she finds in Wyatt and the others. I found myself cheering her on.

Andrew Tell is a fantastic narrator. He did a wonderful job bringing this story to life. I look forward to checking out other work from him.

Enjoyable.

This follows Megan and her daughter Caitlin. Caitlin is deathly ill and Megan is trying to find a way to save her. She stumbles upon a remote cabin that seems abandoned and breaks in to see if there is anything there to help her daughter. Extremely tired, she falls asleep only to wake up to some people in the cabin. Thankfully the people are friendly to her and agree to help Caitlin. She is hesitant to accept their help because so many people have let her down, but Caitlin is too sick to go anywhere.

This was an enjoyable read, though a little.... too easyish for Megan and Caitlin. It's hard to believe that they would stumble upon people who are so nice and so prepared, but that could be just my cynical self ;) I also rolled my eyes a bit at the predictable romance!! It felt too fast.

I did really like all the characters though. Megan is well prepared and knowledgeable in a lot of things and is well able to look after herself, but I liked that she didn't know anything and was willing to teach the family things, whilst also learning things herself. I liked the family too, especially the dog ;) They were all well written and developed!!

In all, a good solid start to what I'm hoping will be a great series. I liked the extra mystery within the post apoc element. Like life isn't hard enough, they have to figure out what happened Caitlin! I'm looking forward to thee next one.

Andrew Tell was awesome. It's been a while since I've listened to one that was narrated by him, but he is as good as I remember. He has a wide variety of tones and voices and even though the majority of the book is from a female perspective, it didn't feel like a man was narrating. Thoroughly enjoyed his performance.

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

loved

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

I really enjoyed this book. If the world ever ends I hope I am like the family in this story. I also enjoyed this narrator, very pleasant to listen to. I look forward to hearing the others in this series.

Dark Retreat

What do you get when you add an EMP, a Dash of romance, a pinch preparedness, and added in scented old-fashioned values, an con man. YOU get a great story with a fluffy dog in it as well.
I read a lot of WSHTF books, though I love them, they are all the same.. good but all the same.
Well this is book is different.. it has a great storyline, and great tips in it as well. The characters are well-developed; and I was ever in the situation, this is the family I would want to find. Narration was amazing. I would recommend this book to anyone that loves apocalypse books that is looking for something lighter with a tad bit of romance in it.
and NO cliff hangers!

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Post-Apocalyptic Romance

After an EMP has put an end to the world as they knew it, Megan is looking for a way to survive along her daughter Caitlin. Sadly Caitlin is terribly sick, and Megan just needs to find a safe place and medicines if she has any hope of helping her daughter.

This was an easy and relaxing listen. I especially enjoyed all the tips the Morris family had in store for after the apocalypse. I almost felt like stashing up and get ready just in case.

The main characters were well developed and it was easy to connect to them. The secondary characters though, were one dimensional and just there to complete the story and give some background.

Although I really enjoyed the story, I didn't really buy the fact that Kyle went out of his way to check if he succeeded in killing Caitlin. She witnessed something he did, yes, but in an uncommunicated world, does it really matter what someone from the next town did? Someone who you will probably never see again? It just doesn't seem plausible to me.

The romance in this book didn't really bother me but it felt a bit rushed. Everything worked out very well very easily. A young woman arrives at a house and one of the men there immediately falls in love with her. Again, not very realistic, but okay.

I found strange that mother and daughter appear blond on the cover of the book, while both of them are described with black hair. This is not really a criticism towards the book per say, but details like this one make the difference between something just okay and something really good.

One of the reasons for which I really enjoyed the audiobook was Andrew Tell's narration. He delivered a very clear and pleasant narration, with great characters' interpretations and a decent voice range to be able to discern who was talking. It felt like watching a movie with different characters.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Grace Hamilton. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Believable

This story pulls you in and keeps you glued to the edge of your seat from beginning to end as this storyline reads as believable as it is the tale of survival during extremely difficult times and showcases the depths that people can go through when protecting the ones they love. As a mother, this story truly hits home. Not only was a drawn to the characters and the circumstances but I believe that the narrator truly wraps this up in a great package as I felt like he was telling me the story personally... if that makes any sense. I look forward to seeing what's to come. I will certainly be reading/listening to more of this author's works.

Another take on the EMP Apocapylse

This story follows Megan and her deathly ill daughter Caitlin. The pair stumbles upon a remote cabin. Megan breaks in hoping to find life-saving supplies but it appears that it is pretty well picked over. Megan is extremely tired keeping vigil over her child and falls asleep. The owners return. Luckily they are kind and offer to care for Caitlin and help them. Megan is hesitant to accept their help because in the new and old world people suck and can not be trusted. but Caitlin is too sick to go anywhere. This was enjoyable but predictable. The characters were well written and fun. This could be a good start to a great series as long as they stick with the same narrator.

I really enjoyed the narration of Andrew Tell. Mr. Tell did an awesome job. This was a great performance and I look forward to hearing more of his work in the future.

This review copy audiobook was provided by the author/narrator/publisher free of charge via Audiobook Boom.

Holds potential to be a good series

There was much I liked about this book. First, the world as we know it is no longer there with all it’s technology and governments and such. While everyone believes that a large powerful EMP is the reason, the details are left sketchy, which I found very believable in this new world of limited communications. While folks begin to explore and rely on herbal medicines, they also concede that they can’t cure everything and diagnosing without medical tests is very challenging. The stage is set well and now we just need a good plot and some interesting characters.

I liked Megan at first. She’s determined to find safety for her daughter and she stumbles upon a remote cabin. Pretty soon, she meets the family that lives there: Wyatt, his brother Chase, Chase’s wife Willow, the men’s mother Rosie, Willow’s young son, and also someone’s neighbor Albert. There’s also the guard dog, Duke. Each character brings some skill to the table and I was pleased that Megan was able to pull her weight from the beginning with her hunting and snaring skills.

Now I did get a little tired of Wyatt man-splaining so many things to Megan. Yes, he’s got skills she needs to learn and she’s a willing student, but after the first round or two, I really felt it was venturing into the ‘pat you on the head, you’re such a good student’ realm. We’re often shown, step-by-step, how Wyatt makes a water filter or a food dryer but when it comes Megan’s skills, we’re just told and it’s very brief. So I would have liked some balance there.

Meanwhile, the plot thickens as a shifty character enters the story: Kyle. He’s out for trouble and we know it from the start. Too bad these well meaning preppers want to think the best of everyone. I liked that Kyle brought so much tension and danger to the story. It’s not just about surviving the elements; it’s also about surviving other people.

Megan’s character does get a little whiny later on. She’s got big trust issues and those push her into making some silly and possibly deadly decisions. If I knew more about her background, this might have come off better but as it is, it felt mostly like drama for drama’s sake. Toss in the near insta-love and you have some cookie cutter plot mechanisms in play. Wyatt was falling for Megan by Day 2 and I felt, at that point, it was more about loneliness and perhaps lust than about love. It’s OK for characters to acknowledge that. Still, I was happy with how their friendship deepened towards the end of the book.

Setting aside my quibbles, I felt the pacing of the story was good. I was never bored and I liked that even as they solve one problem, or are planning for a future harsh winter or such, a new problem crops up. There’s also the varying personalities that everyone has to get along with. The setting/world building is what shined in this book for me. 4/5 stars.

The Narration: Andrew Tell did an excellent job with this narration. At first, I was a little concerned because our primary character is Megan and I wasn’t sure Tell could pull off a female voice for the majority of the book. He did just fine as Megan. In fact, all his female voices were feminine and each was distinct from the other. I did sometimes confuse Wyatt’s and Chase’s voices, but they are brothers and needed to sound similar. Tell makes a great grumpy Albert. 4.5/5 stars.

I received this audiobook as part of my participation in a blog tour with Audiobookworm Promotions. The tour is being sponsored by Grace Hamilton. The gifting of this audiobook did not affect my opinion of it.

Fantastic!

Any additional comments?

I received a copy of this audiobook. All opinions expressed are my own.


Dark Retreat is based in a post apocalyptic world where you can trust no one.

Megan is a strong, fierce woman who would do anything to ensure that her daughter and her survive in this world that makes it difficult for anyone to survive. I loved how strong her character was, she is a single Mom with a young sick child and her focus at all times is her child and their survival. She has so many skills that ensure their survival (tracking, hunting, etc..) and I really enjoyed that these shined out throughout the book. Her current survival mission? Find medication for her very ill daughter. Which sounds easy in theory but is proving to be quite difficult. It is in the hunt for this medication that she stumbles upon the cottage of Wyatt.

Wyatt and his family have built the ultimate survival home. It actually left me in awe listening to how much thought and preparation went into their home. If there was any home that Megan could find then this was her best chance. She struggles with accepting their help due to her independent streak - could she really trust them? Why would complete strangers want to help her? They also struggle with the same thoughts, would helping her come back to haunt them? Thrown in is a twist that doesn't become apparent until the end of the novel.

This was an exciting novel from start to finish. We have this post apocalyptic world which has turned people against each other, a young Mother trying to help her daughter and throw in an evil stranger tracking her daughter and we have an excellent plot! The story is well-played out and the narration was well done and suited the novel. I liked that it wasn't heavy on the apocalypse and death but more on hope and trust.

slow. some what boring bad ending

Ok book . not recommend for over the road driving . has to stop listening. a few minutes because it made me sleepy. not a good EMP book.