1.5 rounded up to 2
In the first of a series, Derek Shupert show the length a man, woman and dog will go to get back to those they love:

Seina receives a call from her brother that he can no longer stand to be at home with his step parents, she is determined to go see him and set things right. Along she gets into an accident as the grid mysterious fall and now she has to travel on foot to get to him. In the forest she meets Ryan and his Dog Dutch and they want to help her to get back, get to her brother. No one knows what caused the grid to fall, but that it always the first step in the fall of civilization.

I'm a fan of dystopia and I do enjoy when I get there to be there from the beginning with the characters to see how they react and to see the fall of civilization with them. This what I thought was going to happen in this book. We have our two main characters that happen to find each other in the forest, and they realize all is not right in the world, but they do not know why or how the world has changed. And that is basically all the happens in the story. Literally nothing of interest happens in this poor. There is no suspense or terror. There is a slight mystery of how the power went out, emp would be the main guess but nothing about who the culprit was. There is an interesting aspect in the prologue but other than finding the drone, not knowing what to with the drone, there is no hint of who may be behind it. Normally there would be some sort of news report or Military official that would have one POV chapter to explain things but nope, nothing.

I'm not even joking that Nothing happens, it takes almost to 50% for them to lose power / cell service and before that the book is very much character driven, but i don’t feel really anything for the characters because for the majority of the book they are not in danger as NOTHING HAPPENS. I'm not even sure why we have Max's POV in the book, other than to make Siena a little more desperate to get to her brother, but his POV does not fill too much of a role of discovering things that Siena and Ryan could have discovered once they made it back to a town.

Dutch, the Dtuch Shepard, is the best part of the book. That dog is loyal to a fault.

This book was not for me. I think there are better dystopian books out there and even ones that use an EMP as the reason for it. I will not continue on with this series

Cheers!!!

Siena goes to help her brother Max from her step dad. But the wether hand other ideas. She ran off the road and totaled her jeep. But she was lucky enough to come across a long time friends from school Ryan.

Little did all three know that the country was going dark. No way to call or communicate over long distances. Cars randomly driving themselves, life was getting hard for them all. But Siena is determined to get to Max and Ryan and his faithful dog are going to help.

This was a big build up to the second book and it left a lot left to be said on how Siena gets to her brother.

Broken Horizons is billed as a post-apocalyptic thriller, but I’m afraid that calling it a thriller may be overselling it a bit. While there is nothing particularly wrong with the story, there is also nothing that truly stands out. Told from three POVs (none of the characters all that dynamic) we see how they try to survive when the power and phone service goes down. Exactly what happened…well it isn’t until nearly the 70% mark that someone even mentions the country might be under attack. For more than half the story you could just believe that there was a bad storm that took out the power and cell service. In most stories in this genre is tends to be much more action as society crumbles, but this just feels like dealing with the aftermath of a mild hurricane. Part of the problem is that most of the story is taking place in the day or two, so as I mentioned society hasn’t really begun to crumble. The audio narration is done fairly well, though I’ll be honest and say I’m not entirely sure why the decision was made to use a different narrator for each of the POV characters. Not that there is anything wrong with using multiple narrators, but in this case it just doesn’t feel like to adds anything to the experience. As I said there is nothing particularly wrong with the story, but this genre is just filled with so many better options. I’d like to thank Dreamscape Media and NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to an advanced audio copy of Broken Horizons.

https://www.amazon.com/review/R1AXAZOKATAWNB/ref=pe_123899240_1043597390_SRTC0204BT_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I went into this for a typical Doomsday style book. But honestly nothing really happen in book 1.
It took awhile before we lost power and services and such and when we did nothing happen. I'm hopefully in the rest of the series it will pick up and give more conflict. This follows a few people but nothing has happen yet.

Thank you NetGalley for this Audio Arc in Exchange for my honest opinions.

A slow beginning that slowly picks up traction and has you on the edge of the seat.
I really enjoyed the character driven in the story with Sienna, Max, and Ryan. Siblings they are separated by Sienna’s bad choices and Ryan who is an old friend of Sienna. All of these characters are very relatable and I almost cried with Max’s story.
As the world we know it comes it an end the tension ratchets up and I cannot wait to see what happens next. This one leaves you in a hook that leaves you wanting to know what happens next!!
I did listen to the audiobook which I thoroughly enjoyed. Narrated by Andrea Emmes, Nick Mondelli, and Trevor Wilson. I really liked Siena and Ryan’s voices. I felt like they were spot on and you can feel the emotions. While I felt the emotions and turmoil with Max’s narrator I didn’t feel like the tone was spot on. The voice sounded older for what I would have expected for Max but it didn’t take away from my enjoyment.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for the ARC of this audiobook for my honest review

I don’t think enough happened in this story and I barely know anything about what’s going on for the first book. So it’s not really making me want to get the next, but that’s probably my only critique. The characters were interesting and the writing was good. Just hopefully the plot thickens in the next book.

I'll be publishing my review on Goodreads and StoryGraph 29th November and on Tik tok most likely will add to a monthly wrap up post with review the beginning of December.

тιтℓє: Broken Horizon
αυтнσя(ѕ): Derek Shupert
ηαяяαтσя(ѕ): Andrea Emmes | Nick Mondelli | Trevor Wilson
ℓєηgтн: 8h 8m
яєℓєαѕє ∂αтє: November 12, 2024
яαтιηg: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

му тнσυgнтѕ:
A post-apocalyptic survival thriller centered around Siena, who’s trying to reach her brother, Max, the younger brother who needs help, and Ryan, who’s just trying to run from a dangerous loan shark.

Siena was VERY relatable.
She was just trying to survive the normal world when everything went tipsy turvy.
The love she had for her brother was amazing.
Ryan was a perfect example of what we’re all going through now.
Struggling to get by.l and doing what he can along the way.
Max is Siena’s younger brother and my heart ached for him.
The fear he felt around his adopted dad tore me up.
The impending loss of his adopted mother.
Gah.

The plot is set.
While we’re far from a conclusion, we’ve got no power, no phones, looting, a blossoming little romance, and a hook.
The entire story is so realistic it’s terrifying.
I’m intrigued to find out about the cars without drivers.
And I’m curious to see what happens with Max.

ηαяяαтιση:
I feel like Andrea was perfect for Siena.
Her voice fit the character perfectly.
Ryan’s narrator was also perfect.
But Max is a 15 year old kid and while the narrator tried to sound younger, his voice was too manly.
Other than that, I really enjoyed the narration!

𝙄 𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙚𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙥𝙮 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙪𝙙𝙞𝙤𝙗𝙤𝙤𝙠. 𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣. @dreamscape_media

3.5⭐️

Bright Horizons delivers a gritty look into the early days of a post-apocalyptic world, where Ryan, Max, and Siena navigate both external dangers and the weight of their own past decisions. The story tackles themes of survival, family bonds, and redemption, with each character tied together by history and hardships.
While I enjoyed the character-driven focus and the emotional depth, the pacing felt slow in places. That said, the cliffhanger ending definitely left me curious about what’s to come in book two.

The narration was a bit of a mixed experience. Siena’s voice felt off to me, which made it challenging to connect with her at slower speeds. I ended up listening at 1.75x, which helped& is about my normal listening speed. However, the male characters’ voices were spot-on, adding nuance and making them feel even more engaging.

All in all, Bright Horizons is worth a listen for fans of character-rich post-apocalyptic stories, but I found myself wishing for a bit more momentum along the way.

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this ALC. this is my honest review

This book was enjoyable but was very typical in plot. There was nothing overly surprising and I felt a little underwhelmed after finishing. Maybe I have just read too many post apocalyptic books in the past but this one seemed kind of boring to me. I wouldn't go so far as to call this bad because it is entertaining but ultimately forgettable for me.

I entered this book with no real idea of what I was to find, and I did enjoy it, Siena did some wrong choices when she was young and for that reason she isnt really allowed to meet her younger brother that is being taken care in a foster home, but his foster mother is in the hospital waiting to die, and he is kind of ignored or better, maybe a stronger word would be correct here, but thats for me to know and for you to read along and find out… going back to the story, when SHTF, Max had just called Siena to ask for help, she doesn’t get to know what’s going on, but she decides to go to him, and things really don’t go well. We also have the story told by Max, Siena younger brother, and by Ryan that will eventually cross paths with Siena and work with her.

We have some tense parts, and I must say that I am really glad that I got to listen to the audiobook, we have 3 different actors reading the book and that feels like a full cast, because all of them try to make all the voices in their points of view, and bring all characters to life. The book/audiobook ends in a cliffhanger and truth be told, I really want to know what will happen next.

Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media | Dreamscape Lore, for the free AAC and this is my honest opinion.