Into the Storm

By: Melanie Moreland

Narrated by: John Lane, Tatiana Sokolov

Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's Summary

She is a woman on the run. Pain, loneliness, and terror are what she is leaving. Where she is headed doesn't matter as long as it's away from the hell her life has become.

Joshua Bennett is trapped in a prison of his own making by the memories of his past. Traumatized and isolated, he is a reclusive writer, living a quiet, lonely life, his only companion his dog, Bear. It is what he knows, what he has accepted to be his life.

One dark night, one huge storm, and one ice patch brings them together. He finds himself with an unexpected house guest with no memory. She wakes up a stranger to herself and the man watching her. Even more mysterious is the lack of any sort of identification with her or in her car. She is an enigma to both of them.

Trapped by the storm and isolated from the outside world, they slowly open up, learning to trust and love, until the world once again shows up, threatening the fragile peace of their newly discovered world, and tearing them apart. Will they overcome both the mental and physical elements that keep them apart to find their way back to one another?

©2013 Melanie Moreland (P)2016 Tantor

2 LIVES, 1 STORM & DESTINIES WERE FOREVER CHANGED

The Publisher's Summary may describe the backbone of the story.. but nothing can prepare you for the layers contained within it, the emotional highs and lows that were reached and the character development that transpires when two broken damaged people accidentally meet. Elizabeth is running and Joshua is hiding - but together they fall in love, heal and rescue each other.

A totally captivating story that delivers drama, angst, sex, romance, bitter-sweet scenes and emotional ones too and this talented author didn't have to bless us with an Epilogue because the book was wrapped up so well.. but she did and it was the perfect ending for a perfect couple who fought hard and deserved their HEA.

Worth a credit? YES absolutely.. an entertaining and addictive story that whizzed by in chunks of dual POV's as told by a couple of awesome narrators.

Love When The TYRANT Gets His Just Deserves

When I started listening to this book I had a lot of questions but as I continued listening the questions were answered. So be patient.

Elizabeth has been married to a tyrant for 2 years. He controls every aspect of her life including what she wears, eats and she's his personal punching bag. It's really bad.

Joshua is a famous author. He lived in the city until he almost died from a mugging. After 6 months of healing he started suffering from anxiety so he bought a place in the country and became an agoraphobic.

After Elizabeth's husband, Brian, beat her the worst ever then said he would be back in 2 hours to give her more she packed a bag and ran.

She ends up in the worst snow storm of the season and crashes into a tree on Joshua's property. This is their story....

The story moves at a good pace, there's no fluff, it has plenty of mystery, suspense, twists, sex but not detailed and insta-love. Every question you could have is answered. The end isn't rushed it's given to us in a nice wrapped up package.

I've read that this is Melanie Moreland's debut book. I'll be looking for more from her.

To have accomplished performers John Lane and Tatiana Sokolov perform a debut book you know it's a gem.

Worth credit/$ Absolutely.

Beautiful love story, weakly executed

I understand this is the author's debut, and her imagination shows great promise. This book, unfortunately could have used a better editor, and could have been about 1/3 shorter than it was.

Moreland's story has a fascinating premise & a grab-you-by-the-throat opening--an abused woman finally has enough and practically crawls to her car & escapes. Problem is, she's headed into a major, major snowstorm. Before long,she loses control of the car and smashes into a tree. When she comes to, she's in the arms of a male stranger who is carrying her to his house.

Joshua Bennett lives an abnormally secluded life, suffering from agoraphobia after he was mugged, robbed, & beaten to within an inch of his life. An author, his only contact with the outside world is through telephone & his computer--until this battered stranger, who awakes with amnesia, barrels into a tree on his driveway.

A great premise, this story had me hooked until, about 1/3 of the way through, it deteriorated into scene after scene that can only be described as erotica. Honestly, I almost put the book down after about the 15th consecutive sex scene. The author also uses more adjectives and adverbs than I've ever seen littering a page, repeating the same phrases over & over again. I did, however, push on in the hopes the story would pick up.

And it did. The storm ends, the power & the communications resume, and the woman, who Joshua has nicknamed "Rabbit" is identified, though she still has no memory of her past. This is where the story really became exciting.

Unfortunately, the uber-numerous adverbs and repeated phrases continued, bogging the story down. There were at least three places in the last quarter of the book where it could--and should--have ended. But it goes on and on and on, reminiscent of an old-time soap opera.

I believe this author has tremendous talent for creating compelling stories, but this debut really deserves a rewrite in order to bring it up to its full potential. Setting & character descriptions were almost non-existent. I would love to have known a few basic facts that would have helped ground me in the story: what "Rabbit" looked like, what Joshua looked like, and where in the world he lived. His dog, Bear plays a significant part & we never learn what he looks like either. It isn't until more than halfway through the book that we learn the setting is Canada--then the monstrous snowstorm & lack of communication for weeks is much more believable.

A beautiful love story if you have the patience to work through it.

Great story

I enjoyed this lengthy romance very much. The delicate topics of abuse and phobias were well written and the characters were easy to like.

Sappy•Soapy•way too looooong••

It starts out real good and capturing, starts to drag in the middle and just goes down from there !! The story becomes too much of a want to be self help book. I did however really enjoy the narrators who do a great job! Sadly the story could not keep up.
Too much blather🙉

Even better 2nd listen!

This book has great characters, an engrossing story and, of course, romance. This was the first book by this author for me but I'm on to other books as I really enjoy the way the story is told. Now one of my favorite authors.

A Winner!

I absolutely loved this romantic thriller! The story begins with a badly beaten Elizabeth on the run from her abusive husband, her bad luck is compounded when she heads straight into the worst snow storm of the season. Lost and in pain, she loses control of her car in the storm and ends up crashing headlong into a tree.

Author, Joshua Bennett lives in a self-imposed exile, refusing to leave his remote property since a vicious attack almost ended his life, when he hears the crash his dog Bear races off towards the car, Joshua reluctantly follows and begrudgingly rescues Elizabeth.

I really enjoyed this audiobook, which is almost 12 hours in length and the time flew by, this story never, ever lagged and was filled with suspense, heartbreak, and is a tender love story.

Into The Storm is a dual narration production by John Lane and Tatiana Sokolov, it's mostly narrated from Joshua's point of view and John Lane did a wonderful job fully voicing all the characters in this audiobook and of course, Tatiana Sokolov always does and awesome job, she's one of my favorite narrators and does an amazing job voicing male characters.

YAAAWWWWNN - But not sure why

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I have an hour commute, so I'm an obsessive audio listener and usually HATE to get out of the car when i get to work. I was almost relieved to get to work listening to this book. I wanted it to be good, i hate wasting credits, and it had a good chance, but it never captured me.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

The characters seemed shallow to me. I never felt like they were people I could actually sit and talk to, and frankly I wouldn't want to. They had no personality. it was like a whole book of Liliths (Frasier's ex-wife on TV)

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

OK, this may have been my ultimate problem with the book. Tatiana and John's voices were fine, but it was their pronunciation of some of the words that I couldn't get past.... It may be a Canadian thing, which is where I'm assuming the story was based?? Dress-eees, piece-ees, the long "e" on any plural word ending in 'es' drove me NUTS. But I'm from Alabama, what do i know about talking? :)

Was Into the Storm worth the listening time?

i only have 1 1/2 hours left in the book and I've already started another book. I couldn't give a rip about what happens to Rabbit.

Any additional comments?

Some may like it, but i didn't

The Difference between a Dom and a Hero

While sad and disturbing, it was refreshing how Elizabeth's marriage to a dominating asshole was realistically presented as cruel & dangerous rather than an erotic adventure.

It was also refreshing when the real hero (Josh) showed Elizabeth how a caring, strong man (even with flaws) should treat a woman he likes and respects. Although Josh battled his own demons and made mistakes, he constantly put her happiness first.

Best of all, I enjoyed Elisabeth's transformation from traumatized abuse victim to brave survivor with the help of Josh, his dog Bear and some new friends. Into the Storm was an engrossing story filled with suspense, romance and hope.

Loved the Narration. Joshua & Lizzy's Saga!

If you are looking for a short or quick read, this is not the book. I listened to John Lane narrate and thought he did an excellent job. It's not often I find a book and hear the male narrator more than the female.

Every time I thought Joshua and Lizzy's (Rabbit) tale was coming to a close, their path took another direction. I am not even sure exactly how long they were together before CeCe discovered Lizzy's identity, but it felt like months. My guess is that is why I didn't think of the book as instalove/instalust. When I think about it, they had only been together about 2 weeks.

I found myself completely immersed in their story. I wanted to strangle Joshua for trying to be noble. Couldn't he see what was happening? I was surprised that his friends did not want to check out her situation more before delivering her back into evil. I held my breath the entire time she was with James. And then I was on edge waiting for James to pop up again.

I thought James' problem was rather obvious, so it came as no surprise when it was revealed. I also thought James' "comeuppance", so to speak, suited the crime. I was glad Lizzy had the opportunity to say what she wanted to James.

The romance, was in Joshua being willing to overcome his own issues, in order to take care of Lizzy's. Joshua survived his own trauma with the scars to prove it.

There was so much to this book that it would take almost as long to explain my likes and dislikes as it did to listen to it. I wasn't thrilled when Lizzy made the decision about James. I did enjoy the James standoff.

This book was more like the saga of Joshua and Lizzy. Two troubled people with difficult pasts and complicated presents. I really enjoyed the part where Joshua's friends stepped in to support both Joshua and Lizzy. Adam, Cecelia, Trevor, Frank, and David really stepped up to the plate. There were twists, turns, and some not so surprising surprises. On occasion, I like to read/listen to a longer book to really get into it. This was just that book. 4.5 stars.

Fabulous!

A beautiful story of two traumatised people who find each other and through the strength of their love, help each other to overcome their troubles.
Believable characters, expertly performed by the narrators, John Lane in particular. Bravo!

Domestic violence

Very well written and narrated, the characters were lovely, Josh is wonderful :-)
It's good that they both had their own demons to deal with. smashing story, Melanie Moreland is on my list of favourite authors.

Sickly story

Just a terrible Sickly romance, I am sure people like this couple don't really exist