Thanks to Netgalley for this eARC.

Heartbreaking novel about a teenager who is the only child of a loving couple, who goes missing, and the devasting wreckage and guilt experienced in the lives of the family and friends left behind.

Probably the most accurate account of what it would be like to experience such a loss you will every read in a fictional novel. Also, a powerful story about the missing young woman's father, and his doggeded dedication to searching every day for his daughter, even though she disappeared more than two years ago.

I listened to the audiobook back in February. The book chapters, although only eight in number, were long in length but the decent pacing and the narration by Jess Nahikian led me to finish listening to it in less than a day.

However, all the characters, with the exception of Hannah, were not completely likeable. As the story progressed we got to know that Megan whose disappearance was being investigated, wasn't a good person at all and somewhat deserved what happened to her. Even Hannah, with her inherent goodness, had her own personal demons to deal with.

Plus, there was a lot of bad language. Conversations were sprinkled heavily with the "F" word and after a short while it was very off putting to keep hearing the word being said again and again. So, although the narration was good, it was marred by the heavy use of cuss words.

I received an ALC of the book from the publishers No Buenos Publishing/IBPA Member's Audiobooks and the author via NetGalley.

Really enjoyed this book. It had just the right amount of suspense that kept my attention and had me thinking about it when I wasn't listening to it. I'm very excited to see it's the first in a series and look forward to the next one.

Thank you No Bueno Publishing and NetGalley for the audio copy.

This thriller takes place in the mountains of Colorado near Denver where Tom Floyd's daughter, Megan has been missing long time ago.
Marshall York, a private investigator and his assistant, Hannah are hired by Tom to find out what happened to Megan.

I really liked the pace of the story and enjoyed the narration by Jess Nahikian

Thank you #NetGalley #No Bueno Publishing for this audiobook

Thank you NetGalley for the audio copy in exchange for a honest review. A year ago Megan Floyd vanished. The search for her found no clues and has now become a cold case. Her father Tom hired private investigator Marshall Yorke. Marshall together with his assistant Hannah start to dig into the disappearance putting themselves into danger.

Tom and Lisa Floyd’s lives have been upended since their daughter, Megan, disappeared over 18 months ago. Their marriage has disintegrated, and their lives are on hold. A year later, Tom hires PI Marshall Yorke, a former detective, and his assistant Hannah Jacobs to find the answers he’s been unable to find. Their investigation reveals that Megan was not the sweet girl her parents think she was. She was living a dangerous other life, that may have proved disastrous for her.



The book evokes the deep cold of the winter, plonking us into the setting. The author delves deep into the lives of all the characters, including Tom, Lisa, Marshall and Hannah, all with detailed broken backstories. Since this is Book 1 of a series, the details are understandable. But it doesn’t really help, as not all these characters will show up in Book 2.

Except for Hannah, I couldn’t bring myself to care for any of the others. Incidentally, Hannah cuts herself. The portions of the narrative referring to this might act as a trigger for vulnerable individuals.

There is a lot of bad language, which I find very off-putting. The deletion of the f-bombs and their variants would have cut this book down by more than 200 words. Also, the recitation of the names of the tracks that various characters were listening to, and the names of the performing artistes were details that told us nothing more than the fact that the author is a huge music enthusiast. The action and the images conjured by the descriptions are rather disturbing.

What complicates our feelings towards Megan is that she is not the quintessential good girl. She is a drug dealer. I didn’t care for her at all. I wasn’t expecting someone perfect, but we barely knew enough about Megan to care for her.

The chapters are long. There wasn’t much of a twist. After a while, the book became a real chore to read. Even the resolution of the mystery was rather tame. Halfway through the book, the identity of the person responsible for Megan’s disappearance was evident. By this time, I had stopped caring about the characters at all.

The narrator did a good job over 7 hours and 10 minutes, although the male speaking parts were a drag.

The Fear of Winter by S.C. Sterling and Narrated by Jess Nahikian is the first audiobook in the new The Fear Of Series. It was full of good twists and turns that will have you interested in this book. On a frigid December night, Megan Floyd vanishes from the mountain town of Fraser, Colorado. The extensive search for her provides no answers and as attention of her disappearance fades, the case goes cold.

Megan's father Tom Floyd, will not give up on her and can't ever give up the hope of finding her or her body. He ends up hiring a private investigator called Marshall York. Marshall works closely with his assistant Hannah Jacobs, between them they will find out what happened too Megan. After a short while they start to uncover the secrets of Megan’s dangerous second life. Tom is guilt-ridden over a missing child case from his past, and Hannah is haunted by the unsolved murder of her older sister. This book is So good I really enjoyed it

The narrator Jess Nahikian was brilliant for this audiobook and really made this book enjoyable.

I highly recommend this book and looking forward to the next book in this series.

The plot was very unique. The solution seemed hopeless from the beginning and that’s what kept me turning the pages. I just had to see how it was going to be solved. Genius. Enjoyed this book immensely! Definitely some unseen twists and turns, and a little bit of sadness, but redemptive in the end.

Megan Floyd has disappeared. Through family, police and private investigation, they work to find out where she is and what happened to her. This is a thriller that I read via audiobook. I liked it. The book is character driven, which I prefer, and it held my interest.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Dreamscape No Bueno Publishing for a copy in exchange for an honest review.

A father who won't give up the search for his missing daughter, even at the expense of his marriage, and a private investigator's assistant who's also searching for her missing sister. Together they team up to bring a perpetrator to justice and perhaps find peace within themselves in the process and move on with their lives.

Losing someone you love is difficult, especially if there's no closure. It makes you cling to hope that maybe they are out there and just don't want to be in contact with anybody at the moment. Such is the life Tom lives after his daughter Megan disappeared years ago. He employs the help of a PI named Marshall and his assistant, Hannah.

I rather enjoyed this book and it kept me interested. Yes, a few of the characters made bad decisions but that's life, sometimes we don't do what's best.

I loved the narrator of this book and I hope I get to listen to more audiobooks narrated by her.

I love when I get excited about the premise of a book and it turns out to be as good as I hoped it would be and on top of that, the audiobook narration was superb! A gritty mystery/thriller that checks off all the right boxes.

"The Fear of Winter" by S.C. Sterling is a novel that I found difficult to get through, and ultimately did not finish. While the premise of the book seemed interesting, I found the level of gore to be gratuitous and off-putting, which detracted from my overall enjoyment of the story.

Despite this, I do appreciate the effort put into the audiobook narration, which I found to be well-done and engaging. However, I ultimately did not find enough redeeming qualities in the book to warrant finishing it.

Overall, while "The Fear of Winter" may be a good fit for readers who enjoy grit and graphic violence, it was not the right book for me. I give it 3 out of 5 stars for its interesting premise and decent audiobook narration. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.

The Fear of Winter by S.C. Sterling is a solid start to what will most likely be a longer series, but that's also the problem with it--it's a solid, well put-together mystery/thriller novel, but there's nothing that different about the story itself. It follows a lot of other basic mystery/thriller premises--girl goes missing, girl isn't found in a reasonable timeframe, parents are distraught and start hating each other, parents get divorced, one of the parents hires a private detective, private detective realizes there's more under the surface than first presented, etc. Even the 'twist' at the end wasn't that suspenseful, and astute readers will see it coming long before the actual reveal. Partner that with the death of a main character that felt almost gratuitous, and you're left with a story that feels familiar in the sense that it uses the same ideas and plot points that countless other mysteries/thrillers have used in the past. At the same time, don't get me wrong--S.C. Sterling writes very well, with his prose singing off the page, and he knows how to pace the story perfectly. It's just hard to become fully engaged when you feel like you've read the same story many times before, and some of those other stories have more unique plot twists and subplots to make you care about the characters in deeper ways.

I also listened to the audiobook version of this book, and it was narrated by Jess Nahikian, who does a stellar job on the narration. One thing to note about listening to the book rather than reading it is that it was hard at times to differentiate between the Tom and Marshall characters. Both have involvement with law enforcement, and both are down-on-their luck kinds of guys, with drinking problems and divorced wives and the like. The two characters seemed to melt together, at least while listening to it, so maybe someone reading it on the page, where they could go back and reread certain passages and get a more distinct sense of which character we're following at certain moments, would help differentiate some of the 'sameness' in the voice of the two characters themselves.

Thanks to NetGalley, No Bueno Publishing, and S.C. Sterling for the digital audio ARC of The Fear of Winter in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing and well concocted murder mystery thriller.

Tom's daughter Megan has been missing for months, causing him to put his life on hold and separate from his wife as his need to find her supercedes everything else. Hannah's sister has also been missing for years and her need to avenge her death has led her into a life of being a PI, working with the troubled yet talented Marshall.

Introducing a host of damaged characters, each with their own challenges and harrowing back stories, brought together by the need to solve this case. The story pieces together the events which caused the death of Megan and show that you never really know someone, even if you are related

A book packed with suspense, dark secrets, twists, and turns. We have several POVs in this story and we have to have all of them in mind. while reading/ listening. It is a solid debut novel that starts a bit slow but picks up the action towards the end. I liked that it has a lot of my must-haves in a thriller (cold cases, serial killers, violence, grief, Mental Health Issues...) The setting of the story was perfect, and the character building was well done, I was only lost from time to time when I wasn't realizing whose POV I am reading at the moment, so I had to go back and reread. All in all, I enjoyed the story and will read the next in the series since this is the first installment.
The narrator Jess Nahikian was excellent. She did such a good job and I enjoyed listening.

I finished it, but have to admit I just didn’t love it or vibe with this book.

I did love the narration but the story line and plot didn’t do much for me. I felt like the plot was the main character and I prefer books that have a strong plot with a character driven story. I just didn’t care about what happened because I wasn’t able to connect with the characters.

The pacing seems good though and it was easy to read. I think it was overall just a flat read for me.

Cannot get into this audiobook. I’ve tried for a week or so and it just hasn’t lured me in. It’s a DNF for me.

This gave me chills all over!
Really well set plot, characters and scenery!
Maybe it helped to have been listening it during a cold winter but oh wow it worked!

This a story of Tom Floyd that just won't give up, he will keep searching for his missing daughter Megan. He is willing to do anything it takes to find out what exactly happened to his daughter, even if his marriage is falling apart. Tom hires Marshal and his assistant Hannah, that soon discover that Megan had a dangerous secret life.
The story is told by different POV, we learn the context of every important character and what inner battles they're facing.
It's a thrilling and suspenseful novel set in a small town, full of twists and turns, with well developed characters. All plots and sub-plots have closure in the end, there's no cliffhanger with any character.
The only flaw I found was that the narrator made so similar voices to every character on the book, that many times got me confused because I didn't know which one was speaking.

Thank you so much to NetGalley for this ARC. The opinions above are my own and given freely.

When Megan suddenly disappears it causes devastation and the breakdown of her remaining family. Eventually, with no clue as to what happened to her, her father hires a private detective and the investigation begins... Mixed feelings on this book. I enjoyed the plot/ story and the narration but felt that it was very dark, with references to self harm, alcohol abuse, suicide, etc and quite downbeat. I wasn't particularly invested in the characters and found some of it slightly confusing. Thank you to Net Galley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.