North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan is a doozy of a bookish adventure which practically had me shivering in anticipation for the next paragraph. As someone who lives north of Montana and is no stranger to trampling through deep snow in blizzards I felt I was right there, both stalker and prey.

Siblings Kristen's and Ryan's mobster father Boyd unfortunately knows where they are...and he is keen to get his hands on them. Their aunt Ruby knows her brother's capacity for evil and is desperate to keep them out of his clutches. However, Boyd has hired a professional which makes life a sickening dance. Rancher Nick knows what it takes to survive the demands of Montana, including the wildlife. Not only are there wild animals and blizzard conditions but non-stop action, flashbacks, fear and ingenuity.

Though not a fan of mob themes, the rest of the elements of the story had me in a vise-like grip the entire time. I adore books with enough power to evoke a huge range of emotions and look-over-my-shoulder moments. The feeling of being chased is excruciating yet exciting to the extreme!

Looking for an atmospheric white=knuckle thriller which is almost painfully suspenseful? This is it. My plan is to re-read it in winter darkness for an all-immersive experience.

My sincere thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this phenom!

*****Happy publication day!!!!******


Wow! Definitely no slow burn here, fast paced from the start and several great twists.

For the past 5 years Tony has been hiding Kristen and her brother Ryan on a ranch in Montana, knowing their father Boyd would stop at nothing to find them. The three of them go on the run once they know Boyd is in town, a plane crash in the mountains with an incoming blizzard proves to be a hellacious journey with so much unpredictability. Location matters in this book for sure and if the mountains, snow, wildlife don’t kill them as they try to get out there are very bad people hunting them as well.

My first by this author and loved it!!

Thanks to netgalley, Minotaur books and Allison Brennan for my electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I actually listened to this but had this as an Earc also-
I enjoyed this Cat and Mouse game that was played in this book. This was a well written thriller that as fast paced and had you guessing what was going to happen.
I enjoyed the little twist that Allison Brennan wrote into this book.
I would recommend it.

Allison Brennan has written a lot of books, and it’s obvious now that if they are anywhere near as good as North of Nowhere I need to read them all. This book was so exciting, so thrilling, so frightening, so totally, completely engrossing and satisfying that I couldn’t put it down, and I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The tension is almost unbearable. The story starts with a situation so impossible you can’t imagine any possible positive outcome. The anxiety, the fear, the dread just keeps building and building and building. You are introduced to characters you immediately like so much you are almost brought to tears by the idea of harm coming to them. There are characters you know you shouldn’t like, who you know have done terrible things and deserve the worst, but you are drawn to them, nonetheless. And there are many characters so loathsome you cringe when they enter a scene. It’s not clear who’s on our side, who’s the enemy, who’s turned – for good or bad – and who can be trusted. Who will let something slip and betray us unintentionally? It’s a high-speed chase, constantly looking over your shoulder, trying to keep up a plan on the run, knowing one little mistake could mean the end.

North of Nowhere is one of those books where you can’t stop turning pages because you must know what happens next, but at the same time you almost can’t bear it. You want to delay the inevitable as much as possible. The plot is logical, perfectly paced and full of twists, turns and surprises. The cast of characters is large: children, parents, spouses, sisters, brothers, good and bad actors. Those who want to do the right thing, those who have been involved in bad business for a long, long time, and those who just want to escape, who’ve already seen more than they can bear but know they must dredge up some more bravery and strength and carry on.

Thanks to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books for providing an advance copy of North of Nowhere via NetGalley for my reading pleasure and honest opinion. This story is fast paced, intoxicating and addictive. You’ll hold your breath hoping that Kristen and Ryan McIntyre will finally be safe and can be children again. Again, I can’t recommend this book enough. I voluntarily leave this review; all opinions are my own.

This was a first read for me by this author, and it was a pretty good read! A little predictable in some spots, but it did hold my interest all the way through. I would read another by this author for sure!

Kristin and Ryan are the heir’s to a crime syndicate and have been in hiding for the last 5 years. The man who has been raising them gets the kids out just in time by plane. However the plane was shot at on takeoff and the fuel line is hit along with the pilot. A huge storm is heading their way in the mountains of Montana, and with a crash landing their only hope to survive is to hike to safety.

A local farmer, his son and their Aunt are in a race to find them before the hired hunters find them first.

This is a cat and mouse game of survival with twists and turns and devious motivations. With the incoming storm to contend with it upped the intensity of the race to find the kids and keep them safe from their crime family. A thrill of a ride!

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart


Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Wow! I started this at bedtime and continued to read until I finished just after 3am. I couldn't put it down. North of Nowhere started off fast and just kept running. When I finished, my jaw was clenched and my whole body was tense. What a fight between good and evil, with children caught in the middle.

Kristen and Ryan have been hiding out with their godfather for five years. Tony has loved them as his own. But now their criminal father has found them. They take off to hide again but it's more than their father after them. And the approaching blizzard is not going to help anyone's safety.

Luckily, Kristen and Ryan have made friends at the ranch where Tony works. Nick and his son, Jason head into the wilderness to find them. He also called their Aunt Ruby, who is retired military, who comes to help with the search. Ruby left the family when she was about Kristen's age, for similar reasons.

I loved this story of survival in the Montana wilderness. Nick, Ruby and Kristen are all really smart and capable. Unfortunately, there are several groups of bad guys. I was in terror for those kids. Kristen is 16 and Ryan is 11. Kristen was already traumatized by their initial escape when her mother was murdered.

Absolutely thrilling, I highly recommend North of Nowhere. There is some law enforcement but not all of them are good guys. We get the point of views from Tony, the godfather; Ruby, the aunt; Nick, the rancher; and Kristen mostly. I will tell you this is not a romance. It's a suspenseful thriller.

North of Nowhere is an intensely riveting drama which plays out in a small Montana town.

Tony Reed has been hiding in a small town with his "children." Every morning very early since they disappeared from the family compound in Los Angeles, Tony checks the town looking for strangers that don 't belong there. Yesterday morning he felt that things were different but couldn't find anything in particular. Today he sees several men looking suspicious and realizes he is a day too late. He races home to wake the kids to tell them they have to leave now, and they grab their go bags. They head to the plane that is owned by Nick Lorenzo in order to escape. But they soon find themselves under attack after Boyd McIntyre tells them to stop the plane and firing a warning shot. But a sniper shoots at the plane and they begin to lose fuel. Tony manages to crash land near the shore of a lake, but he has been mortally wounded. He convinces them to follow the plan they have in place in order to hide from their real father. Montana wilderness. The siblings hike deep into the woods, searching desperately for safety—unaware of the severity of the approaching storm.

Kristen the oldest at sixteen and Ryan, who was born deaf, sadly agree and follow the instructions from Tony. Meanwhile after receiving a call from Tony that he is borrowing the plane, Nick calls Ruby, Boyd’s sister and Tony's emergency contact, to let her know what is happening. Ruby, heads out to help find the kids. He also reaches out to the sheriff before he and his son head out to help locate Tony and the kids.

Meanwhile, a storm is being forecasted for several feet of snow and a blizzard which will put everyone in danger as the temperature and the drama escalates.

I really liked this story. It was a very intense story which occurs over several days. The only thing that I didn't like was, I couldn't picture the lake or the terrain. So, it made is hard for me to envision the location. I finally gave up trying to see it and just focused on the story. I don't think it took away at all, but I think most of us picture it as we read along.

I have read other books by this author that were great, but this is my favorite! I love the setting, and the author makes you care about the characters, especially the ranch owner and his son and the children. It is full of tense moments, and you want to keep reading so that you can find out what happens to everyone. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes a mystery/thriller. I give it a 5/5.

North of Nowhere by Allison Brennan is another one of her fantastic thriller novels. North of Nowhere is a story revolving around an evil mafia family, that has been looking for their kidnapped children. It has been 5 years, since Kristin and Ryan McIntyre were saved by Tony, who was a former member of the mafia family; both Kristin (16 years old) and Ryan (10 years old, also deaf) love Tony and call him Dad. They live in a small Montana town, close to the wilderness, with Tony working for rancher Nick Lorenzo.

Now, as the McIntyre family is closing in, they need to run, and Tony takes Lorenzo’s plane to escape, but he is shot by a member of the McIntyre family and he is forced to crash land the plane. An injured Tony forces Kristin and Ryan to run, especially with a major snow storm approaching, before Boyd McIntyre (the kid’s father) finds him. Tony calls Ruby, the kids aunt, who had also run away all those years ago, and asked her to help save the kids.

Ruby, a former marine, immediately goes to Montana to save the kids. Nick Lorenzo, is determined to find them faster, as he needed to understand why they were running. Kristen was strong and did all she could to take care of Ryan. Boyd McIntyre had a number of men, including a tracker, to struggle through the storm to find his kids, even though they never wanted to be found. This was a nonstop wild action thriller, with a race against time to find Kristin and Ryan; with Boyd and his group willing to kill those in the way. To say too much more would ruin the book, as you need to read this fantastic thriller.

"North of Nowhere" is a heart pounding gripping thriller that kept me unable to put the book down. I really liked Kristin, who was strong and determined. I also liked both Ruby and Lorenzo, who would do anything to save the children. North of Nowhere was so very well written by Allison Brennan. This was a great psychological thriller that had so much going on from start to finish; filled with blizzard, hostile conditions, family, escape, betrayal, murder, organized crime, and an evil grandmother. I wholly suggest you read North of Nowhere.

You have a crime family, two children trying to escape the horrors of their lives, and those who try to protect those children. Kristen and Ryan McIntyre are on the run in a wilderness after the plane they try to escape in is shot down. The nefarious and those with good intentions are attempting to find them.

Action packed, North of Nowhere will have you on the edge of your seat. However, there are a plethora of characters that are hard to keep up with. The action is enough to keep your attention, however, I think the characters could have been dwindled down to make the story a bit more exciting and suspenseful.

This is a standalone title, but Brennan has other series that I will be sure to check out. I do like her writing style.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press, Minotaur Books and NetGalley for the ARC. The opinions expressed are my own.

I thought the premise sounded really good, but I ended up not finishing the book at 1/3 of the way through it.
There wasn’t anything really wrong with the book, it just didn’t draw me in. I felt that it would make a better movie than a book.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martins press for the copy of this eARC.

For five years, the former enforcer for the head of a Los Angeles crime family has lived in hiding in Montana with the children of his former boss. Tony took the two kids and fled after children’s mother was murdered. For five years Tony has raised them as his own while trying to keep the kids safe and hidden from father and cruel grandmother. Their luck runs out when Boyd and his henchmen finally track them down. Tony and the kids escape into the Montana wilderness as Boyd closes in. As a blizzard moves in, the danger ratchets up.

This was an entertaining, but messy mix of crime fiction and wilderness survival story. I say messy because there were so many tangents to the story. Crime boss Boyd’s estranged sister literally parachutes into the Montana forest to help find the kids. An LA police detective with his own agenda turns up on the scene. It was a lot of work keeping track of all the characters and threads to this story.

Thought there was a little too much telling and not enough showing with this story and book. We hear how terrible the grandmother, but it’s quite awhile into the book before we see any examples of her cruelty. I thought the sense of urgency to find the kids during the blizzard was mitigated by how much time all the adults in the woods spent standing around talking. I had trouble overlooking the fact that Tony never changed his last name and even registered the kids in school with his last name. 🤦‍♀️ And if you don’t want anyone to find you, maybe don’t send the kids to school on picture day? I thought the story ran a smidge too long and could have been tightened up to keep the story moving.

This book had be hooked from the beginning! This story follows 16 year old Kristin and her younger deaf brother. They are running through the wilderness of Montana during a snowstorm to escape their dangerous father who they were taken from 5 years earlier. Their biological family is a mafia family that they want no parts of. What will happen in this game of cat and mouse and who will win?

This highly addictive thriller is a must read! Thank you Negalley, the publisher and amazing author for my ARC!

Tony knows he has been found. His main goal now 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 be 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!

The only reason for the 4 stars is there are a lot of characters to keep up with. And this slowed the story down some for me. However, I loved Kristen, Ruby, Tony and Ryan.

Need a fast paced, exciting thriller…THIS IS IT! Grab your copy today.

I received this novel from the publisher for a honest review.

This book was an unputdownable thrill ride from beginning to end as two children are in a race for survival against their crime boss family and even the elements themselves as a snowstorm barrels in. The story is intense and action packed and I was racing through the pages to find out what fantastic twist would happen next. This is my first book by this author but it definitely won't be my last!

Bone-Chilling Survival With Lots Of Moving Parts. This is one of those excellent lost in the wilderness/ lost in the blizzard survival tales that also happens to be a chase tale that is actually a story about family and breaking generational problems. So clearly, there is a LOT going on here, and a LOT of moving parts. And the non-moving parts - the wilderness and to a lesser extent the blizzard - are given their own fair respect here as well, both in the area natives' respect for them and in the out-of-towners' disrespect. One of Brennan's most complex stories I've yet come across after working a couple of her other series over the last few years, this is truly an excellent tale of a different type from her, with her usual excellent execution in all aspects of the story. You're going to *feel* the impacts here, from the coldness of the wilderness - and the coldness of some of the characters. Which is great, for a summer release during several consecutive days of "Excessive Heat Warning" events. :D Very much recommended.

What an action-packed story! The action starts immediately and keeps going all the way to the end. I liked that the story was told from multiple characters points of view. You couldn't tell who to trust or what anyone was going to do. The anticipation was intense. I enjoyed the story and was happily satisfied with the ending. I received an advance copy from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Allison Brennan's new standalone North of Nowhere is a read worth reading. I have not read a lot of her books ,but enough to know that she writes great stories that keep you engaged as a reader. I couldn't pass up the book by reading the description and knowing the authors writing.
The plot draws you in from the first page. Two kids ,Kristin and Ryan, on the run from their family who happens to be a crime boss syndicate. Hiding inn a small Montana town with their godfather who raises them as his own. They are discovered and the hunt is on! Plans in place with a back up to the plan they go on the run again. An accident brings the kids to the wilderness, alone, but very skilled from previous training. An aunt Ruby who would do anything to save them and an evil grandmother who will do anything to get them back. There are many characters in play ,and at times the story does seem to "getaway",but not to the point where you don't want to know how it ends.
The cat and mouse theme always keeps me engaged. Allison knows how to draw a reader into a story where you are going right along with the characters .A high paced thriller that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys a great story and an ending that leaves you satisfied. Kudos to Allison Brennan for another fantastic read! Thank you to NetGalley and St.Martin's press for providing me and ARC.
#NetGalley
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This thriller will have you on the edge of your seat from the beginning to the end. There is plenty of family drama, a crime family, betrayal on multiple levels, a snowstorm, and the wilderness. There are quite a number of characters involved in the story, but the author did a great job of introducing them into the storyline. I loved how the chapters moved between the characters with occasional flashbacks as needed. There were also plenty of twists and turns - some of which I was able to guess at, others that were a surprise. I love stories where even though some of the characters would be considered a "bad guy" on the surface, they turn out to be multi-dimensional and exhibit some good characteristics.