Guns & Smoke (The Fools Adventure 1) by Lauren Sevier and Abbie Lynn Smith-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK:

In a world where safety is a luxury and honor is found only among outlaws, two people attempt to outrun dangers lurking around each corner and the tragedies that define them.

Bonnie is an outlaw on the run. Beautiful but dangerous; her dark past stalks her like the crater beasts that roam the desert. As the notoriously cruel outlaw Jones sends his henchmen to track her down and retrieve the gun she stole from him, Bonnie hopes she can stay one step ahead. Because if he catches her, a fate worse than death awaits.

Jesse always dreamed of leaving the farm to explore the ruins of the big cities he’d heard about his whole life. He just never imagined he’d be forced to flee after strange men burned down his rural mountain town and murdered everyone he loved. Responsible for his kid brother and searching for an uncle he’s never met before, he isn’t sure he can navigate the perils of life among con artists and thieves long enough to find him.

Their two paths collide as they find themselves thrown together on the adventure of a lifetime.

Together, they may just discover that life is about more than just surviving.

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REVIEW:GUNS & SMOKE is the first instalment in the new adult post-apocalyptic THE FOOL’S ADVENTURE series co—authored by Lauren Sevier and Abbie Lynn Smith focusing on Jesse, Bonnie and Jesse’s ten year old, younger brother Harry aka The Kid.

WARNING: Due to the nature of the story line premise, there may be triggers for more sensitive readers.

SOME BACKGROUND: Years earlier, The United States entered into a post apocalyptic era in the aftermath of an event known as ‘the culling’, when ‘greedy, entitled men had access to nuclear bombs’. In the years that followed, what remained of the American people suffered at the hands of assassins and killers, gangs and thugs in a lawless society governed by no one.

Told from dual first person perspectives (Jesse and Bonnie) GUNS & SMOKE follows the cross country journey of Jesse, Bonnie and Jesse’s ten year old, younger brother Harry aka the Kid, a journey in search of Jesse’s sole remaining family in Roswell, New Mexico. Bonnie likes to play the ‘con’ and Jesse was going to be her next target but Bonnie never expected to come face to face with the man with whom she would fall in love, a young man who was desperate to find the only other family he knew anything about. With the help of our heroine, Jesse and Harry head off on a dangerous adventure where the past is always one step behind, a past that is determined to take back what doesn’t belong. As Bonnie battles between head and heart with her feelings towards our story line hero, Jesse struggles to convince Bonnie his world would be better with Bonnie in his life.

GUNS & SMOKE reads like a cross between ‘The Walking Dead’ (sans the zombies) and the American Wild West. Cities and infrastructure no longer exist, encampments, towns and survivors are few and far between; food and water are a rare commodity, death and destruction, assassins and slavers are the way of the world. Few people remember a time before the culling, while those born after, know nothing about the time before.

Sevier and Smith take the reader onto a journey of what if: survival against the odds, against the elements, against humanity destroying itself. The premise is dark and gritty; the characters are desperate and determined. There is a romance and relationship developing between our leading couple, a relationship that will be sabotaged from outside and within. GUNS & SMOKE ends on a cliff hanger-you have been warned.

Copy supplied for review

Reviewed by Sandy