After the ending of the previous book, ‘Travelers‘, that hit our hearts, left us confused and eager to know more, V. S. Holmes comes back to the story without fan-fair, and what we mean by this is that the author throws memories of the deaths on the first book, the conflicts inside Nel and her duties as a teacher to the reader with full force.

The author can make and does an excellent job when it comes to portraying emotions and making the reader connect with the characters and their feelings.

The atmosphere of the book changes with dynamism and when many characters are in the same scene, we can feel the conflicts of interest between them and how differently they manage situations. Impressive!

OK!!! You won’t have to wait long for the book to go full-gear thriller and mystery as the “what-the-hell is happening here?!” factor hits the fan. Is someone is trying to frame Nel, or did she kill the victim without being there?

If it was her, why is she receiving cryptic texts from the Institute telling her to keep running from the cops? Are they trying to help? If so, how? Where’s Lin and does she has something to do with this whole situation? Is she going to come back to Nel? Is she going to save her? Is she even trying to help? There’s a lot for us to discover in this book, and all while trying to keep pace with our awesome MC. Anything is possible at this point, and with this book.

The tense humor and sarcasm are very present in this book, to relieve the high level of thriller in the book. That, and to relief the level of Nel’s anger, that we finally get to see in full throttle.

The coping mechanism that Nel uses when it comes to Mickey is understandable, sometimes funny, but it makes us raise questions. Is Mickey really dead, or is it Nel’s imagination? We will see.

We have a pure, unaltered thriller on our hands, with chases and running all the time, unplanned fugitive hiking, wounds, wolves and coyotes and lots of angry cursing to keep our MC’s live, and sanity, intact, for the most part.

V. S. Holmes made a great job here. Not only on the thriller department, but also in the realness of it all. When it came to the running, chasing and the woods, the author did make it look exhausting and dangerous. With description of bruises, close encounters with Death, sometimes in the dumbest ways, the pain, the sore muscles, the hunger, everything you can, and can’t, imagine, told in detail. AWESOME! You will feel miserable for Nel. Oh god, so much suffering for one person.

There are precious little mentions here that required heavy research, like the influence of the weather on the battery, how the human body functions in starvation, the rationing of the water bottle and the time it would end, the honey and the peanut butter, the stomach tightness and the vomit, little things that do not pass unnoticed on the eye of an engaged reader.

Oh, we loved how the big plot twist came on the book, and to our surprise, quite early too, and how well crafted and disguised it was. Behind all the tension, all the running, it came out from nowhere! LOOOOOOVVEEEE IT! Ingenious! And we have to say that twice, as the author pulls the stunt again, turning the book to a completely different direction, up, towards space. LOL

A razor-sharp story where our MC runs, barefoot on top of the blade. Excellently told, as we can feel every emotion, every droplet of panic on the dangerous scenes in the book!

This book is AWESOME! One of those you can’t turn your eyes away from. *Claps*. Mysterious characters that we know already but somehow are completely new, love stories, heartbreak, exes, chase, bullets, wounds and infection, rotten meat, the FBI and… sexy aliens. HA! Original in so many ways. Deep, solid, gripping, heart warming, heart-breaking and with steamy doses of lesbian sex. Oh, and curses. Lots of curses. What is there not to love?!

Still thinking? Grab your copy now! Hahahahahahah.