My Rating ~ Five Stars

RELEASE DATE: 9 July 2020

Format: E-Arc

Pages: 384

Publisher: Stripes Publishing

Source: NetGalley

Blurb

Amber’s an expert when it comes to staying hidden – she’s been trained her whole life for it. But what happens when the person you’re hiding from taught you everything you know?

When a letter from her dad arrives, Amber knows she’s got to move – and fast. He’s managed to find her and she knows he’ll stop at nothing to draw her back into the extreme survivalist way of life he believes in.

All of a sudden the Rules she’s spent so long trying to escape are the ones keeping her safe. But for how long?

Review

Thank you so much to Stripes Publishing for sending me a copy of The Rules, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review!

Amber has finally started to fit in somewhere, when a letter arrives from her father. The father she never wanted to see again. The father who she knows will stop at nothing to track her down. Alone again and on the run, she knows how to survive – her father taught her how to survive, because he’s a prepper, and Amber always had to live by The Rules. The only problem is, her father knows the rules too, he created them after all.

The Rules was a fast paced and engaging book that had me reading late into the night. The father’s fanaticism was utterly terrifying to me – especially knowing there are actually people in the world who live this way. Seeing the toll it took on his wife and daughter, who were much more likely to be in danger from him than any perceived worldwide threat, made this a scary book indeed.

As the story follows Amber, she reluctantly allows the charismatic and optimistic wanderer, Josh, to tag along. Josh was by far my favourite character. His happy go lucky attitude, that masked his own rough path, was just as interesting as Amber’s story. With some relevant nods to recent world events – such a toilet paper hoarding and conspiracy theories – and an explosive conclusion, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend picking this one up!