Sixteen-year-old Kristen and eleven-year-old Ryan escaped their criminal family with their godfather, Tony, five years ago. Since then, they’ve been living under the radar, Tony posing as their dad. Tony’s prepared for them to run if they’re discovered and has all the plans in place. Unfortunately, Tony spots the bad guys with little time to spare and with a wicked blizzard on route.

They end up crashing the small plane in the Montana wilderness and must hike out to their safe house. The bad guys are in pursuit, but there are a few good people out to help them: their aunt Ruby, a former marine and tough lady ready to risk it all for them, Nick Lorenzo, owner of Triple Pine Ranch and Tony’s employer/friend, and Sheriff Kate Paxton. These people had big hearts and couldn’t be bought by Kristen’s criminal family.

North of Nowhere started off with a bang and was action-packed all the way through! I was on the edge of my seat! I needed to know these kids would be safe! Being lost in the Montana wilderness as a terrible blizzard beats down on them was intense, but they were being pursued by hired gunmen and their father, a criminal and murderer on top of everything else. Even worse in my opinion was their evil grandmother! The thought of Kristen and Ryan back with her sent terror into my heart!

I admired Kristen, being tough and determined at such a young age. She cared about her brother so much. Ryan was a sweet, smart kid with a hearing impairment that didn’t seem to hold him back. I rooted for Kristen and Ryan, and I was happy they had good people on their side!

I’m a big fan of Allison Brennan’s mystery/thrillers and this stand-alone did not disappoint! It was the perfect combo of action, suspense, and likeable characters. Also, more than a few unlikable characters! North of Nowhere was one heck of a page-turner!

I alternately read an e-copy and listened to the audio version. I highly recommend either format! Eliza Foss’s performance was excellent! I’ve enjoyed her performance in the past, most notably narrating Allison Brennan’s Max Revere series. I love her rich voice! I listened to my usual 1.5x normal speed and sometimes a little higher when things got intense.

4/5 stars! Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the opportunity to review this recently released audiobook! I really enjoyed this fast-paced thriller. It was easy to root for the main characters as they fight for their lives, and I also loved how the Montana landscape was so integral a part of the book.

Kristin and Ryan are siblings on the run from their organized-crime family. They have been living in rural Montana with Tony, a man who was once a part of the criminal organization and since turned in order to protect the children. The children's father finally tracks them down in Montana, so they escape into the wilderness in an attempt to stay hidden. What ensues is a harrowing cat and mouse game, where everyone's lives are on the line.

This was a perfect book to read on audio because it had a brisk pace and was plot-driven, so it kept my attention the entire time. There was enough character development that I cared about what happened to them, but not so much that it took away from the action. Overall a solid thriller!

Wow oh wow did I really enjoy this book. This is a stand alone book by Allison Brennan. The end of the story was done well and it didn't leave you hanging which is great since their will be no more.

I enjoyed learning and hearing how the main girl character and boy character grew as they were challenged through out the book. They had to conquer so much while also experiencing some major trauma events.

If you are looking for a book filled with action, adventure, and suspense then this is it for you. It has so much unexpected and that's what really makes this book so great.

The narrator was amazing at reading the story and making it come alive. They brought the story to life and you could feel the emotion of the characters come through as the story was read.

Rating: 5 out of 5

I listened to an advanced reader's copy of the audiobook for Allison Brennan's North of Nowhere thanks to #Netgalley and #St.Martin's Press. The book tells the story of two kids who were rescued/kidnapped to escape from the mob family they were in. The kids built a life in Montana, but five years of being on the run has caught up to them, and they need to make a quick exit as the children's mob father has found them. But the escape goes wrong, and they end up crashing a small plane into a remote Mountain lake, hours before a major blizzard is about to hit. The characters were well developed, and very likable -- except for the matriarch of the McIntyre crime family, "Frankie." She embodied pure evil.

The audiobook was performed very well kept me interested. I can't say I was surprised by the ultimate outcome of the book, but the story was compelling enough for me to listen to several hours of it a day. It was very fast paced, but the author did a good job developing the characters. The book had basically two parts - the initial "rescue" efforts during the snow storm in the mountains, and then the aftermath (no spoilers here), leading to the final conflict over the resolution of the kid's fate. I suspect this would be a great beach read, or a road-trip read in the car. Definitely won't be the last Allison Brennan book I read.

First line: Tony Reed was alive today because he always listened to his gut.

Synopsis: 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.

North of Nowhere is a book that I recommend to any mystery thriller reader. This is an atmospheric story - the details of the storm and the area is so detailed that I could feel the cold, see what little they could see, and feel their fear as they worked to get back to safety. It's like the cold wintry backdrop is a character in itself adding to the tension and suspense.

Within the first few pages of North of Nowhere, Tony knows he has been found. I love that he was both aware of what was happening around him and he has a plan.he has been preparing the kids as well, They have been trained to take care of themselves in this dangerous mountain country. So when Boyd comes a knocking, there is no time for questions, no time for discussion, everyone knew their role and they jumped right into action. Tony's main goal is to protect Kristen and Ryan. He borrows his boss’ plane and initiates his plan to get the kids out and to safety. But, something goes wrong and it could lead to the death of all of them.

This story moves like lightening. I enjoyed the chase. And believe me…this is a big chase, over the mountains and through the woods…in a blizzard, no less. And let me tell you, there are some major intense moments where I literally gasped out loud. And just when you think things may be about to settle down, there is another twist and someone’s life is thrown into jeopardy again!

Many thanks to Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for Allison Brennan's a fast paced, exciting thriller. I do believe her 2nd book is better than her debut!

Note: I both listened to the audio and read this book. Both are excellent and worth your time!

3.5⭐

It’s been five years since Tony Reed fled Los Angeles leaving behind a life of crime and his association with the Los Angeles McIntyre crime family headed by Boyd McIntyre. Tony was godfather to Boyd’s children – Kristen and her younger brother Ryan who is hearing impaired. When Tony fled five years ago, he took the children with him to save them from the life that awaited them under the watchful eye of their paternal grandmother who holds the reins of their family's criminal enterprise. But Boyd has traced them to the small Montana town they have made a life for themselves as a family and will leave no stone unturned to bring his children back home and exact revenge on Tony.

Escaping Boyd and his goons won’t be easy this time. Boyd has connections and has used his money and connections for information on Tony. When the plane in which Tony, Kristen and Ryan are attempting to leave is shot down and Tony is injured it is up to Kristen and Ryan to tap into the skills Tony has taught them to survive the incoming blizzard and the danger of being found by Boyd and his men who are tracking them. Also tracking theme are Tony’s employer, rancher Nick Lorenzo and his son Jason who is a friend of Kristen’s, who are concerned for the kids and Ruby McIntyre, the kids’ aunt who severed ties with her family and joined the Army years ago and who was contacted by Nick when got wind of what was transpiring.

I loved the premise of North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan and the Montana setting. The plotting was on point and the characters were well drawn. However, the pacing suffers midway into the novel and I felt the journey to the end was a tad long-drawn with several characters who enter the fray. Overall, I enjoyed the dark and suspenseful vibe and especially liked the female characters – the good ones and otherwise - and the moose whose heroics in a crucial moment deserves a special mention! This was my first Allison Brennan novel and I would be interested in reading more of her work.

I paired my reading with the audiobook narrated by Eliza Foss which did enrich the experience though I felt that with so many characters, the audio experience would have been even better with more narrators.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the digital review copy and the ALC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Copied from Goodreads:

2.5⭐️ Our story opens as 16-year-old Kristin, her deaf 10-year-old brother, Ryan, and their adopted father, Tony, prepare to run away from the place they’ve been hiding for 5 years—Big Sky, Montana, a town “north of nowhere.” Meanwhile, the rest of the residents and all area law enforcement are preparing for the first blizzard of the year. Cue drama…

I realize that hyperbole is necessary in any thriller, but it seemed overwrought here. Much is said about people being neither all good nor bad, yet there are few gray actions in the book. It makes the majority of the characters in the novel seem like more like caricatures. The many antagonists were needless, complicating an already harrowing escape without benefit. I felt particularly badly for Ryan, who seemed more like a plot device than an actual character.

I do not believe I have read a book by Allison Brennan before. I would not shy away from another, but I would also not seek one out.

Many thanks to Macmillan/Minatour Audio via NetGalley for an audio copy of this text in exchange for an honest review.

An action-packed novel that I couldn't put down!

Kristen and her brother Ryan have been hiding from their biological dad for the past five years. Now that he's out of prison, he will stop at nothing to bring them home.

I stayed up past 3 in the morning to finish this! The story was captivating from beginning to end! There was never a dull moment. I hope we get a prequel or even better, an entire series. I didn't want the story to end.

I highly recommend it to fans of thrillers with lots of action.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Allison Brennan, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

Allison Brennan (Original Sin) is back with a stand alone thriller. This thriller is a family affair. We have a man (Tony) who kidnaps his best friends children and raises them as his own, only one knows that they were kidnapped. The father of the children finds them, they run, a blizzard comes, and crazy happens.

This story has a lot of different POVs happening, but they gist is everyone has secrets, and this crime family is bringing in their own, except they don't want to be brought it. Tony is the father that these kids always wanted but after their dad murder's their mom Tony decides that he needs to keep the kids safe and the only ways it get keep them away from their dad. Clearly this is a highly connected crime family. The more we go along the more the past unravels and the more bodies get left in their wake. This is a pretty high paced action thriller with attempts to make a family outside of your own blood.

The pacing from character to character POV can throw the story a little of kilter and make you pause to remember who is who. Sometimes some of the side characters got lost to me. There were just so many characters that weren't significant or minorly significant brought in and thrown at you.

The narrator did a good job with all the voice, bringing the anxiety and stress out in all the characters. Making the bad guys sound exactly the way you'd imagine them. She really helped bring this story to life.

Overall, the story is ok. It is a quick action packed family thriller with threats not only from people but also environmental and nonhuman factors.

3.75 rounded up to 4. I listened to the audio book version and I was not a fan of the narrator. The voices she used for several of the men made them seem very old, when in fact they are not. I suspect had I read the book this book would have been a solid 4 stars as I really liked the plot and how it played out. In fact I feel like there could be a sequel so we can see where the characters end up as their lives move on from the trauma inflicted by their family.

The story is told from multiple POVs. This was hard to keep track of for me at the very beginning of the book, but I think this was a narrator issue and not the author's writing. Eventually I had no problem keeping up with all of the characters and story lines. My favorite character was Nick Lorenzo, who is levelheaded and intelligent. There were also several characters to hate, but I will not mention them as I do not want to give any spoilers.

All of the blizzard talk had me feeling chilled, even though it was hot and humid outside as I listened to the book. The chill could have also been from the cold blooded McIntyre family drama. Oh my!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for my copy of the audio book in exchange for my honest review.

North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan
Narrator Eliza Foss
This was a mistake for me because I had never read this author before and expected something different from the description. i thought this would be more of serious thriller. Instead it is the kind of thriller that Sandra Brown writes. I had to DNF so don’t know if there is a romance like there is in Sandra Brown books. Just could not hold on long enough to find out. It was just not for me.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

Wow! Just wow! This book was so intricate and suspenseful. I loved how much was packed into this book because it was a wild and crazy ride. The mystery and intrigue throughout was great. Kristin was one of my favorite characters and I really liked her chapters. The theme of family being above everything was very intense and well done because this family was messed up and crazy with their crime empire. I loved this whole book and could not wait to find out what would happen in the end.

Kudos and special thanks to #NetGalley #MacMillanAudio and #AllisonBrennan for the chance to read/listen to "North of Nowhere" in exchange for an honest review.
While marketed as a thriller, "North of Nowhere" took me on a relentless ride through a series of high-stakes action scenes more akin to an adrenaline-fueled action movie than a traditional thriller.

This story centers on a relentless pursuit, where the line between hunter and hunted blurs as the characters find themselves in a constant chase. However, this very pursuit that forms the backbone of the narrative also leads to one of the book's drawbacks. The repetitiveness of the chase scenes and the unrelenting cycle of injuries suffered by the characters left me feeling a bit fatigued at times. The constant tension, while undoubtedly exciting, also became somewhat predictable.
Despite this repetitiveness, Brennan's storytelling talent is undeniable. This narrative is crafted with a masterful touch, keeping readers engaged even through the moments that might seem overly familiar.

North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan is a fast paced thriller set mostly in the wilds of Montana. Over a 48 hour period the story unfolds and family, either by blood or by choice becomes pitted against family in a race to find two missing children under dire circumstances and conditions. A host of great characters adds to the suspense, and drama, that covers loss, deceit, remorse and the power of love in this well written story.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC to review.

Thank you @Minotaur_Books and @Macmillan.Audio for the #gifted ALC/ARC of NORTH OF NOWHERE!

Phew this book is nonstop, heartstopping action from the very first chapter.
Set over the course of 24 hours, NORTH OF NOWHERE is the story of the McIntyre children, Kristen and Ryan, who have been living in hiding in Big Sky, Montana with their quasi-father Tony. Who are they hiding from? Their gangster father and drug queen-pin grandmother.

When Tony gets word that Boyd McIntyre’s men have been seen in town, he flees with the children in a small plane. The plane gets shot down stranding the McIntyre children in the middle of nowhere Montana right as a massive winter storm is rolling in.

On top of surviving the elements, Kristen and Ryan must evade their father’s men who are hunting them in the woods. There are others searching for them as well but it's hard to tell who can be trusted.

This book is fast-paced and difficult to put down. It was like reading a tense action movie. I loved how strong and stubborn Kristen’s character was. She would do anything to protect her little brother. It was touching its ferocity.

My one complaint about this book was the sheer volume of character POVs we get throughout the book and who was tracking who in the woods. I was tempted to create a flow chart or something so I could keep track!

NORTH OF NOWHERE is out now!

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5137705812
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CvxMkQCLkKG/

It's been awhile since I read a Allison Brennan novel, so I happily picked up her latest standalone - North of Nowhere - in audio format.

Teenager Kristen and her little brother Ryan are the two heirs to a Los Angeles crime dynasty. They want nothing to do with their family and have been in hiding in Montana with a former member of the 'family', that they now call Dad. They knew that there was a good chance they'd be found eventually - and that time is now.

There are many characters to keep track of in North of Nowhere. And it's easy to know who's 'good' and who's 'bad'. (A couple of them are quite evil - I'm talking about you Frankie!) The storm that envelopes most of them from the get go is also a character. High up on the mountain it's life or death for anyone.

Brennan knows how to engage the listener and keep them eagerly engrossed for 'just one more chapter'. There's lots of actions, dire situations and cliff hangers (literally in some cases!)

The outcome won't be a total surprise to the listener. It's the journey to those last chapters that holds the listener's attention.

I chose to listen to North of Nowhere. The reader was Eliza Foss and she did a great job interpreting and presenting Brennan's novel. Her voice is clear and easy on the ears and she enunciates well. Foss provides recognizable voices for all of the characters, making it very easy to know who's speaking. She easily captures the action, danger and more with her voice. A great performance.

Wow! This one left my head spinning!
Kristin and Ryan are brother and sister. We begin the story with the tale of the two of them being woken up in the middle of the night and RUNNING! But, they have been preparing for this moment…because five years ago they ran away from the life they had…in order to live!
They now live in a small town in Montana, where everyone knows everyone else. And Tony, their ‘Dad’ has been watching, waiting and protecting them since the day they arrived.
But the time has come, and they flee! And Tony seems to have prepared for anything that might arise…but then again, look who he’s up against! 😮
There are horses, and planes, and cars, and trails, and snow, and snowstorms, and snowmobiles, and murders….and police, and mobsters, and trained killers… and family…and friends…and strangers.
Have I piqued your attention yet?
This is a very fast moving, edge of your seat, kind of story with very high UPS, and very low DOWNS…
I grew to love MANY of the characters! But it is largely based on the siblings who are only 16 and 10…and Ryan is deaf…so it makes their escape all that much harder…
They say blood is thicker than water. Hard to tell with this one!
Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC of the audiobook!
It was released yesterday, so you can find it on shelves now!
5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me!

4.5 Stars
I don't read thrillers that often and maybe that's why I rated this higher than those who do. The action and suspense in this audiobook kept me wanting to listen every minute that I could.

Just the thought of someone hunting kids in the Montana wilderness during a massive snow storm would have set me on edge, but the number of people and the different reasons for those hunting the children in the storm was almost more than I could handle. Then just when I'd think the story was about over and going to wrap up, it would go in a different direction.

The author definitely got my attention and held it. A very well thought out plot. The narration by Eliza Foss was fantastic and lent itself very well to the story.

Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the gifted audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

It took me a while to get into the story, but once that happened, it was hard to put it down. I especially enjoyed the way the storm and the wilderness forced the groups to break up and come back together and have each other's back even if they were on opposite sides.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for sharing an audiobook arc of this thriller. I am a huge fan of audiobooks, but for this particular novel, I'll recommend picking up the print version.

thank you MacMillan for North of Nowhere! this is a really well narrated action thriller that is a great option for a road trip or maybe even for a hike/walk since this is a survival action story blended with family and crime/corruption story.
As note to other possible readers, I really enjoyed this story once I got into it, but at times it felt a little YA to me with the storylines with the teens, and I will admit this wasn't quite what I expected after listening to some of this author's previous audiobooks/mystery thrillers... but it was a fast paced and engaging action audiobook and a great one for my summer walks and cleaning chores! So go in looking for a change of pace for the author, in my opinion, and enjoy.