This book, wow! For some reason I thought I might no like it and that it would be too 'wilderness-y' but I loved it. Even though I haven't been camping since I was a child and I'm very much a city girl, I was sucked in from page 1.

In the acknowledgments the author talks about how this book started out differently and her editor didn't think it worked -- that was a good editor because this iteration turned out fantastic.

while I'm not outdoorsy, I do appreciate 'process-driven' stories and this book is essentially, how do you a) flee when your being hunted and b.) you're in Montana in blizzard conditions. It's the kind of book where you know not all of the characters are going to make it to the end and you hold your breathe hoping for the best possible outcome,

Even with such an action-forward and plot-driven story, the main characters are well rendered and I was very invested. You get dropped into the story not yet knowing the lay of the land and learn more over time and get a few flashbacks to flush things out.

I'd highly recommend this book as a great thriller read.

I've enjoyed other books by Brennan, but I struggled with this one. I had a hard time staying engaged. The story starts in the middle of the action, with minimal explanation, which made me wonder if this was part of a series. The pace was too slow, and the plot felt disjointed overall, especially with the large number of characters. Some parts were a bit too unbelievable, even for fiction.

For some reason I’m always hesitant to read books by authors I’ve never read before. I just usually stick with the ones I know. I’m so glad that I broke that habit with this book! I loved it! I hated putting it down, but life sometimes gets in the way of reading. Now I have another author to add to my list!

I received an advanced readers copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I found this one to be compelling at first and very fast paced. By the midway point I started to lose interest with the change in pace. There were a lot of unnecessary characters that I don’t think really added much. Although they were part of one of the twists, it was a little lacklustre.

I also noticed that some paragraphs were repeated later on in the story with a few added words. That felt a bit weird to me.

Thank you to NetGalley and Minotaur Books for this eARC!

North of Nowhere is a taut thriller that peters out in its last quarter but remains tense enough to earn a recommendation. Its characters are compelling and its action intriguing enough to keep the audience enthralled.

Sixteen-year-old Kristin and ten-year-old Ryan McIntire-Reed have been hiding from their brutal crime family - headed by their father, Boyd McIntire - for quite a while. Kristin witnessed Boyd kill a rival, and now there are a lot of people who’d like her to die in turn. The kids have been custody of Boyd’s best friend and former second-in-command, Tony Reed, for just that reason. Tony’s been keeping an eye on the kids on his ranch in Big Sky, Montana, for five years. But now their luck has run out, and Boyd’s men have found them. Boyd’s plan is to kidnap them back.

In the ensuing mêlée, Tony is shot and he and the kids get away in a private plane. He encourages Kristin to call her aunt Ruby, who abandoned the family years ago to enlist the army and cut off contact with the kids, fearing Boyd would trace his way back to them through her. One of Boyd’s men manages to strafe their fuel line; they crash in the Montana wilderness. Tony desperately sends Kristin and Ryan ahead into the woods for help – and, unwittingly, directly into the crosshairs of an upcoming storm.

Three groups of people are immediately on the kids’ trail – one headed by Ruby, who immediately goes into action when she learns her niece and nephew are in danger; one is headed by a tracker hired by Boyd; the final party is Nick Lorenzo - a local rancher who hears about the crash and seeks to save the kids without knowing anything about their situation - his son Jason, and their forewoman, Millie. None of them know that Frankie McIntire – the kids’ mother – looms large over the picture.

I had a single, big problem with North of Nowhere: the way the author chooses to whitewash the actions of one of the book’s main characters, blaming nearly everything they do wrong on the actions of their monster mother.

But I had to love Kristen in particular - she’s one tough, smart kid. She probably gets it from her aunt, and I also grew a soft spot for Ruby. The book’s PoV is split in multiple directions, and Brenan does a good job balancing all of these characters, even though it felt like there were too many perspectives. There’s plenty of character evolution, which is handled pretty well.

The adventure and suspense are perfectly written, and despite the small reservations I’ve expressed, I’d definitely recommend North of Nowhere to anyone looking for a thrilling adventure story.

I live in Montana so I really liked that the story was set there because I knew the places.
Lots and lots of twists and turns - some surprising, others just one more element that added to the story. Without giving away any of the story, I wish the 1st person who died would not have been killed off, because I would really have liked to have seen that character developed. Boyd turned out to be a very complex/complicated figure who at times you liked and other times not so much.
Liked that the swear words did not feel gratuitous, but seemed to fit with the situation. The ending was satisfying and didn't leave you wondering what was going to happen next or feeling like you had to buy a second book.
Really liked this book and would definitely read more by this author.
Thank you NetGalley for the advanced copy.

Allison Brennan can write a great story and North of Nowhere is just another in a long line of them. Afteryears in hiding from their murderous father, the day Kristen and Ryan McIntyre have been dreading has arrived: Boyd McIntyre, head of a Los Angeles crime family, has at last tracked his kids to a small Montana town and is after them. They barely escape in a small plane, but gunfire hits the fuel line. The man who has been raising them as his own, manages to crash in the middle of the Montana wilderness. The pair hike deep into the woods, searching desperately for safety and cover from a bad storm. Boyd’s sister Ruby left Los Angeles for the Army years ago, cutting off contact in order to help keep her niece and nephew safe and free from the McIntyre clan. So when she hears that the plane has gone down with the kids inside, she goes to try save them. Boyd has hired an expert tracker to find and bring them home. And rancher Nick Lorenzo, who knows the mountains and doesn’t understand why the kids are running, is on their trail too. But there is a greater threat to Kristen and Ryan out there.

Grab a cup of hot chocolate and be prepared to thank your lucky stars that you are not stranded on the side of a mountain in a horrible winter storm. "North of Nowhere" is a fast paced thriller set in the rugged winter landscape of Montana. Sixteen year old Kristen and her deaf younger brother Ryan are on the run from their biological father. Their family is dangerous and involved in shady business. Kristen and Ryan left 5 years ago after their mother was killed with a trusted family friend. They have been on the run until their father finally caught up with them. Now after trying to run away they have to use all their skills to survive in brutal conditions.

The novel was filled with excellent action and the reader was left guessing as to what would happen. The chapters switched to different character points of views so there were cliff hangers which made me want to keep reading. I thought this was an excellent thriller!! I would highly recommend for anyone looking for a good story filled with action and adventure.

Thank you to Minotaur Books and NetGalley for this ARC.

This book starts out with a bang as we run along with the characters to get away from the bad guys. We run and fly and run some more, but somewhere along the line, we do pause and wonder- who are these people and what is going on? We pause the chase for some backstory, but that change of pacing makes it feel like you've slammed the breaks on the chase and it can be quite jarring causing the story to feel slow in those parts. We finally get close to the end only to slow down even more.
Overall, this is a really interesting story, but the pacing would have been better if we had learned more about the family before the chase began. This would have given us a reason to care about their flight and it would have meant less times later on that we had to slow down and learn about the back story of a character.

Tony Reed wakes the kids, 16 year old Kristin and 10 year old Ryan to get packed, they have to leave. They have been in hiding for 5 years and even though they call Tony "dad", he is not their father.

This starts an exciting story of a corrupt family and criminal activities. I thought it was a page turner and couldn't wait to pick it up again after putting it down for real life issues. I loved the characters and the research the author put into a deaf child as well as other areas of the book. I will look for more by this author.

Thanks to the Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4 - this was a solid fast-paced winter thriller perfect for winter. The whole book took place over 1 day - can Kristen and her brother Ryan survive the ruthless winter storm in the mountains of Montana with multiple groups of people on their tails, some good and some bad.
Almost every character had a POV in this and there was a lot of switching around with some overlapping timelines. It wasn't too hard to follow, but I did have to go back and re-read a couple of times to make sure I was where I thought I was. I didn't mind all the POV's with the exception of the Sheriff, I didn't think that one was as necessary.
This definitely kept me on my toes and I had a hard time putting it down, which is my favorite type of thriller. The story was fine, but the whole crime syndicate family thing did feel a little overdone at times.
Overall, still a fun read that I'll be recommending come Winter and I will be checking out the author's other works.

Allison Brennan is at her finest with this stand-alone novel, North of Nowhere. Vividly set in the cold Montana wilderness which the author describes with such legitimacy - the reader feels as if he or she is navigating this territory with her characters. After crash landing in the Montana wild with the man they call "dad", Kristen and Ryan McIntyre are on the run to safety from their father, Boyd, who has been in jail for crimes he committed in California. He's now out and wants his children back and in the family business - run by his Mother. Boyd has a team in place to capture the kids, but the children also have a group of locals on their side that want them to be safe.... and one of them calls their estranged Aunt Ruby (a former Army paratrooper) who parachutes into the area to help find the children and keep them safe from Boyd. Ms. Brennan, as always, has woven such an incredibly rich and fabulous story. Absolutely one of my favorite books of the year! Thank you to St. Martin's Press for an advanced reader copy of this book. The opinions expressed are my own.

“North of Nowhere” boasts a unique and compelling premise that drew me in right out of the gate. It is a story that kept me engaged from start to finish and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. And yet, there was still something fundamentally missing—the heart pounding, nail-biting, edge-of-your-seat tension that quickly fell away after the first initial chapters. There is definitely a lot happening, but the tension never ramped up the way I had hoped it would. Perhaps this is due, in part, to the overall pacing. But more likely, it has to do with the somewhat disjointed storyline that was often times confusing. Still, I found “North of Nowhere” to be an enthralling read and one that I would recommend.

North of Nowhere started out with a bang. I inhaled the first 30% without breathing, it felt like. I had nightmares about it, imagining myself trapped in a similar situation. But then from 30% on, I felt like I was reading the same story with each alternating POV. The storm is coming, the terrain has a life of its own, the snow is falling, round and around. It started to get tedious, despite the beautiful writing and complex characters. This was a miss for me.

North of Nowhere is an action-packed thriller set in Big Sky, Montana in the hours leading up to and during a powerful blizzard. The book has a great beginning that had me hooked by the second page. Although the suspense carries the plot forward, the novel is also a coming-of-age story and one that delves into the importance of a loving family as opposed to the powerful and oppressive one that Kristen McIntyre has been on the run from for 5 years. With the help of Tony Reed, who was in love with Kristen’s murdered mother, she and her deaf younger brother Ryan fled to Big Sky, where Tony works on the Triple Pine Ranch owned by Nick Lorenzo. Kristen and her brother feel at home at the ranch. Kristen, now 16, is in the beginnings of a relationship with Nick’s son Jordan. Her life is turned upside down when Tony wakes her up one morning telling her they must leave the ranch to escape from Kristen’s father and the thugs he has brought with him to bring her and Ryan back to Los Angeles where the McIntyres rule a powerful mob business. Brennan’s novel is character driven, but the on-coming blizzard keeps the reader focused and rooting that Kristen and her brother can not only escape from their father but survive the blizzard when they find themselves lost in the middle of nowhere.

Kristin and Ryan are in Montana hiding from their father and now Boyd McIntyre, a crime boss, knows where they are. They have been on a plane and crashed in the wilderness. Boyd’s sister, Ruby, finds out about the crash and hopes to save them. The siblings have Ruby, a tracker Boyd hires, and a rancher, Nick, who is familiar with the area looking for them. An approaching storm complicates their problems. The book had a lot of action at first but when the characters discussed their thoughts and feelings the action waned. I was looking for more action. I enjoyed the Montana setting and Nick.

Thank you @netgalley @minotaur_books for the #gifted copy of this ebook.

Montana. A cold and unforgiving storm. A family with deadly secrets. A family with some who want to escape. A family who will stop at nothing to bring everyone all back under one roof.

Kristin and Ryan have been on the run and hiding from their father, Boyd for the last 5 years. Hiding out with a man they now call “Dad” doesn’t sit well with Boyd. Boyd will stop at nothing to get them back. The kids on the other hand have another idea in mind. They narrowly escape a plane crash and gunfire and run into the woods. Soon they will end up fighting a dangerous Montana winter storm…they just don’t understand the severity yet.

Up against Mother Nature and family they can’t trust they will do anything to get away. Thankfully, they do have one relative they feel they can trust, Ruby and she’s hopped a plane to try and come save them. Ruby does find them but the journey to safety is anything but easy and soon finds out maybe the storm was a better place to be!

Thoughts: I did enjoy this wintery intense action packed tale! If you’ve read any of Alice Henderson’s books (A Solitude of Wolverines, A Blizzard of Polar Bears etc) I had similar vibes. The scenery was quite atmospheric and was easily swept away into the heart of the storm. I did feel the pacing was a little slow at times during the middle of the book however the ending definitely picked back up and was loaded with heated family drama. If you like a good story about family loyalty, outdoorsy action and risky escapes grab yourself a copy of this book!

Allison Brennan does it again with North of Nowhere! I have really enjoyed reading her Lucy Kincaid series. North of Nowhere is a strong stand-alone with a taut well-executed plot. From the first page I was engaged and immersed in the story, completing it in one day. Tony Reed kidnapped two children to keep them safe from their crime family. Five years later, Kristen (16) and Ryan (10) are willingly on the run from their father in the Montana mountains during a snowstorm. There is a large cast of characters and it’s not always clear who is on which side. Who can be trusted? Kristen is a particularly well-developed character. Despite the ongoing danger and violence, this is very much a story about family, loyalty, and trust. I highly recommend it!

With thanks to Netgalley St. Martin’s Press for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

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This story grabs you right away and takes you on a fast paced journey for two children caught in a dangerous chase. Really good!

It was definitely gripping and I read it really quickly! However the writing could be better - like I get it, you want your kids back! You hate your dad! Your grandma is scary! And I felt like it was too light and fluffy of an ending. Basically if Hallmark made a thriller movie - this would be it.