Thank you to NetGalley, Brilliance Audio & Elle Marr for an audio galley of The Alone Time in exchange for an honest review.

I was hearing some buzz about this book & very excited to listen to the audio.

I was a bit disappointed. First of all, everyone surviving the plane crash is incredibly unbelievable. Second, the survival scenario they were in also seemed unbelievable. I never saw any convince evidence given as to why at least one of them could not trek down the mountain to find help. I believe this whole story was built up around the father's PTSD from war. I absolutely HATED the cannibalism aspect of the story. And then adding to the unbelievability was that the father also had multiple personalities and the "bad" personality (a female personality - I cannot remember her name at the moment) is what made him act weird and do the bad things, not the PTSD.

The story is told in multiple POVs - mom, dad and the two sisters and is supposed to tell the story of what all the sisters endured to survive until they were found and it did, but I think the focus was supposed to be the sisters coping with everything and I just didn't have that as my takeaway.

The entire story was poorly executed & the author was extremely tone deaf with the writing regarding PTSD & then a personality disorder.

It didn't work at all & I hate that I also have to feature this book on my IG for a book tour. I guess I'll have to figure out something nice to say.

Solid 3.5 stars

The Alone Time follows Violet and Fiona Seng 25 years after they survived a plane crash that claimed the life of their parents. Their father, Henry Seng, was piloting a Cessna, which crashed and he, along with their mother, Janet, died instantly, but somehow, the girls (aged 7 and 13 at the time), were able to survive for 12 weeks on their own until they were rescued. This is their story and has been accepted as fact until new details emerge regarding their father's secrets when his mistress begins making the media rounds with salacious claims to draw the reclusive sisters out and reveal the "true story". Violet has been trouble and is trying to get herself together. Fiona is an artist poised to make her name in the art world. This mistress is threatening everything they have built. Reporters, journalists, and filmmakers are approaching them and questioning their version of events.

There are multiple points of view--Janet and Henry in the past and the sisters in the present and past, including Violet's journal. Slowly, the details of what really happened are revealed. There are a lot of plot holes--the main one for me being HOW were there survivors of the plane crash and HOW were they able to survive in the wild. Without spoilers, even the POV from the past do not explain this in a way that was plausible. In the present, it is not clear why this mistress emerged 25 years later and why anyone cares.

The story starts out strong, drags in the middle, and the ending double twist was just a little bit too much. The depiction of a mental health disorder is not the best. A decent read but could be a little shorter--there was a lot of rambling to get to the point.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was my first book by this author. I wasn’t sure what to expect but wow!! That plot twist was not what I was expecting lol it was so good!! Very well written.

The Alone Time was definitely an intriguing read with an interesting premise, did it live up to it, unfortunately it did not for me. They're are so many inconsistencies in this story. So many things that just do not make sense and that I could not get over.

The mental health rep in this book was not good, it was described as multiple illnesses and then just chucked out to supernatural causes which honestly entirely destroyed the book for me. I had such high hopes for this story, it just fell flat for me.

The ending just left me entirely unsatisfied and possibly even more confused. I don't feel that it was a proper ending to this story. Also, at the end it triggered me that the author states Calgary is in British Columbia.. no no it's in Alberta.. I mean that's something that is easily researched or edited. This one just completely missed the mark for me.

🎧 The narration by Jennifer Aquino, Christina Ho, Naomi Mayo & Kenneth Lee was good. Janet & Henri’s characters I had a hard time with, I truly didn't feel any type of pull to, I felt their voices were a little boring. The others truly played their roles well and I could feel the emotions in their voices. It would've been a DNF if not for the audio production.

✨️ Thank you to @netgalley & @brilliancepublishing for my gifted ALC in exchange for an honest review.