theliterateleprechaun's Reviews > The Last Stars in the Sky

I’ll be honest with you, I saw the author’s name and didn’t read the synopsis. I knew I’d enjoy the story regardless of the topic because I’ve loved all 9 previous books I’ve read by this author. When I began reading and discovered that it was speculative fiction, I almost stopped reading and I had to remind myself why I chose this book. Full disclosure: I LOVED it. This goes to show you that an author with amazing skills can make you appreciate a different genre in ways you hadn’t considered before! WTG, Kate Hewitt!

What you are going to get: a story about a family’s survival in the wilderness after a nuclear holocaust.

Daniel and Alex, their 11-year-old daughter, Ruby, and their 14-year-old daughter, Mattie - an ordinary family from Westport, Connecticut - are in desperate need of a reset, so they head to Alex’s parents’ ramshackle cabin in rural Ontario, Canada for six weeks. Knowing that the cabin at Lost Lake has been uninhabited for 7 years, they realize that they have their work cut out for them. It’s nothing, they presume, compared to the challenges they’ve faced this past year; the losses of Daniel’s jobs, the negative pull of social media, their toxic friends, the lies, shame and the desperate attempts at getting their teenage daughter’s life back on track after she was suspended from school.

Not long after arriving at the cabin, they discover that while they’ve been isolated and without wifi, the world has experienced a nuclear disaster and that martial law is in full effect. Worried about their son enrolled in Clarkson, College in upstate New York, the unanimous decision is made for Daniel to bring him home. What follows is a harrowing and traumatic experience for both Daniel and the family he left behind.

I appreciated seeing how the experience changed everyone and how priorities changed and the superfluous ‘stuff’ fell aside allowing them to focus on what really mattered. Desperate and dangerous circumstances reveal what we are made of - and in Daniel and Alex’s case, it showed the extent of their love for their children.

This is one of those books that I’ll be recommending to everyone I meet! I cherished the opportunity to read something outside of my comfort zone and came away with the desire to value (1) the little things and (2) the extent of my parent’s love.

I was gifted this copy by Storm Publishing and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.