Last Best Hope

By: T.C. Butts

Narrated by: Cheril Lee

Length: 12 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

Everyone has a story to tell…I’m Charlie, and this is mine. My life…unremarkable when compared to gods and kings, until the day the sky exploded. Now, everything has changed…life is all new. This is where it took me, and the people whose stories met up with mine.

From her home in the Colorado Rockies, reclusive Charlie watches the stunning star-filled sky when fireballs begin to rain down on the city below…Denver is destroyed. When she learns that most of the life on this planet is gone, she takes shelter in a large cave cut deep into the mountainside, and then is joined by other refugees. From that moment on, her life swerves down a path completely unexpected. She reconnects with people, finds love and hope again. Charlie diaries the events following a catastrophic attack on this planet. This is the story of the people who travel that path with her, who become family. Can they keep their humanity…find happiness when the world they knew is shattered forever? As they struggle to find out what is left for the remaining members of the human race, will they someday face the unseen enemy? Will they ever be safe again? Follow Charlie’s journey into a world where survival means more than just staying alive.

©2012 Teresa C. Butts (P)2014 Teresa C. Butts

THIS WAS A WONDERFUL STORY!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Last Best Hope to be better than the print version?

I only listened, but it always is!

What did you like best about this story?

I liked how realistic it was, and how this group of people came together and formed a lasting bond...creating a new family!

Which scene was your favorite?

When John finally arrives!!!

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Oh yes...especially when Charlies dogs died..

Any additional comments?

** I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review **

I loved this book! This was not your typical post apocalyptic book...there were no zombies or monsters...but there were aliens!!! Charlie had moved to Colorado to seclude herself and live a peaceful life...she feels free, has a nice man...and pets.and is content...Then one day the sky rains down fire...ending the world as she knew it...John her boyfriend, sends her to the mountains and to a cave named the old lady...more people come and before she knows it, she has a family...This is Charlies journal....and it was a beautiful easy listen that I quite enjoyed....and highly recommend!!!

A story that will pull you into its world

I’m a fan of realistic sci-fi. This one fits that bill in that it asks the question…what would happen if we were attached by an alien force? How would we survive? What would life be like? Would it just turn into Lord of the Flies out there or would the humanity in us still survive?

The author presented a story which was so engrossing, I didn’t watch TV for three days because I wanted to keep listening to this story! I felt every emotion; from fear, to grief to joy and everything in-between. The narrator helped with this as she had the perfect voice for Charlie, distinct voices for other characters, and a variety of accents to help bring the story to life. This was a slow burning story, which was perfect as it gives readers time to care about the characters and feel as though they are along with the characters figuring out how to survive in this new world.

For me, a great book is one that leaves me thinking about it long after I’ve read the last word. This one is great. I received this book through a promotion for a review and I am so glad to have come across it! As a debut novel, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I just thought the premise sounded interesting. Whatever my expectations were, they were exceeded. The author did a good job crafting the story in such a way that you felt the characters’ experiences and emotions. Don’t expect gratuitous violence, unneeded gore, or unending action-with-no-plot in this one. Expect a story that will pull you into its world and keep you there.

This audiobook was provided by the author, publisher and / or narrator at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review courtesy of AudiobookBlast dot com.

Entertaining

Any additional comments?

Last Best Hope is an entertaining audiobook. It sucks you into it from the beginning and never lets go until it is over. I really enjoyed it and I would recommend it.

Wonderful book and a Must read!

I loved this book and was aghast when I realized I hadn't posted a review here. This was so enjoyable to read, and so different than any other SHTF scenario. I've been hoping T.C would write additional books, but I've only found this one. This is definitely a pearl in the huge ocean of the apocalyptic genre. Please write more!!!!

A different type of apocalypse

If you could sum up Last Best Hope in three words, what would they be?

Last best hope.. pretty much sums it up perfectly.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Last Best Hope?

When John comes back, I was hoping Charlie was going to have someone to spend the apocalypse with :)

What about Cheril Lee’s performance did you like?

She had a pleasant voice, very easy to listen to.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Not an extreme reaction, but I did smile quite a bit. And sniffle a little when Serenity and Peace passed on.

Any additional comments?

I normally go for higer action - zombie apocalypse - lots of gore type books, so this was a pleasant change. It's like the optimistic apocalypse, at first I was a little annoyed that everything went perfectly - but I grew to enjoy the writing style.

Best Hope for a good SciFi

Last Best Hope by T.C. Butts is a good book. And i almost had to give full score for this book, but the action level is a bit low to be honest, but gosh this gets close to perfect! I would give it 4,4 out of 5, and gosh i wish it had that last 0,1. I recommend this book in the highest if you want a good quality SciFi. So get this book and be amazed like i was!

12 hrs and 15 mins with Cheril Lee is good, she does read the bo.ok a bit fast to get full score, but she is also a 4,4 out of 5. Cheril Lee is new for me, and i feel maybe she needs to get a bit more sure of her self, but gosh she is good for her first book!

"I was provided this audiobook at no charge by the author in exchange for an unbiased review via AudiobookBlast dot com"

Kept me listening even at work!

From beginning to end, I kept thinking, she will wake up from a dream. I really loved the story as it progressed and the narrator was just the perfect person for the job. All the emotion, joy, fear, from one end to the far end of the scale. I caught myself crying while driving down the road when serenity and peace drifted away, other drivers kept looking at me strangely.
I started this book because of the author, not knowing much about it, but was really surprised when I could not stop. I got the audible and listened in the car. Without telling much of the story, the progression of all the love story's and survival mode was beautiful. I also think the narrator can make or break an audible book and this was a great match.
Thanks for making me stop and thinking about a LAST BEST HOPE that can come any day .......

A pleasure to listen too!

I'm used to dystopian type reads in this genre so this was a switch! But, it was a pleasant switch. An end of the world scenario but with people that keep the out look as positive as possible under the circumstances. You have the dark sides to the story but without hashing it out to were the negative is predominate over the positive in way of description. Sometimes you don't need the detail descriptions of the bad, just knowing is enough. This author gives you the bad without pages of gory detail so you don't need a strong stomach here. There is love and loss. Hope and determination. Change and adaption. Unity and collaboration. A really pleasant end of the world experience. That sounds weird but this story isn't all despair and pain. Its the positive of the human experience and that was really nice for a change.
The character development is fabulous!!! You really get to know everyone. You cant help but come to care about them all. There are parts you need a tissue for but many parts that bring smiles.
The narration was excellent!! The narrators voice really fit the first person perspective she was depicting. The change in characters was great. I had no problem distinguishing them apart. She gave the characters personality and emotions came through. Her voice was clear, crisp and pleasant. This was truly a pleasurable listen.
This story was on the lighter side of my usual scifi read, but I am glad I got to experience it.
This is my personal review via a promotion. Its one of the wins for me!! So glad I got to experience this book. :)

waited for something exciting to happen

interesting, I like post apocalyptic stuff and although it teetered between a more realistic view and a sickening sweet big happy family feel. I kept waiting for a climax but wasn't satisfied. I never did find out what really happened and didn't get the Impression that I ever will.

Choosing to Live and Not Just Survive

This story ended up being very different than I expected, but I was pleasantly surprised nevertheless. If you're looking for a lot of fast paced scifi action, thrilling encounters with the unknown or large-scale warfare by freedom fighters, this may not be the book for you. But if you like the details of day-to-day struggles in a post apocalyptic setting, or if the uncertainty of a risky supply run interests you more than a constant barrage of firefights, then stick around because you're in for a treat.

When the world breaks down, when society dissolves, humans are left fully to their own devices and individual moral compasses. We experience this fallen world through the first person voice of Charlie. Charlie has an amazing attitude about the world in general and having the story piped through her idealistic and optimistic filters was very refreshing for such a bleak setting.

The group of survivors the story follows goes through the challenges you would anticipate in a world after a catastrophe - matters food, safety, and health. But the unique take on this book is that the group does more than just survive, they endeavor to still have lives with meaning and depth. We're given a fairly diverse cast for Charlie to interact with, and in stark difference with many disaster stories about desperate people, there is far more focus on the good inside people than the bad. The people are decent on their own merit and don't just merely seem that way because they contrast with the horribleness of others.

I'm going to make a confident guess that T.C. knew and cared a great deal for many of her characters, and that affection for them pours out through Charlie. One of my few complaints about this book, if you must call it a complaint, is that Charlie will often declare her love and admiration for certain individuals while we're only given small glimpses of these characters. Charlie will see a person as a beautiful, brave soul while the reader has been given small reason to come to hardly any conclusion about the supporting characters. I don't doubt for one second that these people were dear to the author's heart, but I feel like the reader wasn't given ample opportunity to become attached.

All in all, I liked Last Best Hope. It certainly falls in the gray area between genres, but it's worth a read if you like post apocalyptic, light romance, or large casts of characters in books. I always looked forward to the drive home so I could listen and find out what Charlie and crew was up to next. I would read another T.C. Butts' book in a heartbeat - I especially like she wrote Charlie as introspective without bogging her down. Cheril Lee was an excellent reader, handling tones and accents flawlessly.

--I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.--