Essential Beginnings

De: Kennedy Layne

Narrado por: Rock Engle

Change is coming....

Maverick Beckett took his much needed annual vacation up to Washington State to relax with his old friends from his years in the Corps. He also had every intention of extinguishing the fires that arose between him and a certain local woman he couldn't get out of his mind until the unthinkable happened.

Nothing is as it seems....

Henley Varano loved the simple anonymous life that her remote hometown provided. She'd had the wealthy existence of a fashion model and the fame that came with it only to find it lonelier than she could have ever imagined. Unfortunately, men only saw the fictitious person she appeared to be in the magazines and not the real woman she was - even the one man she's wanted for years.

Surviving is just the beginning....

An apocalyptic event changes the course of their lives when the massive Yellowstone Caldera erupts. Panic ensues among the small town, causing Mav and Henley to witness the best and worst of humanity. They must work as a team to create a new existence before the fallout of harsh and fiery elements overtakes their safe haven. Along the way, they might just find that they need each other more than ever.

©2015 Kennedy Layne (P)2017 Audible, Inc.

Great book! Glad I got it.

This was a great start to this series and I plan to listen to the other books too. Rock Engle was great as a narrator.

Loved this book!

I got really engrossed in the book as the story line was excellent and the narrator did a superb job. I could envision everything that was happening.

Engrossing!!!

I read this series in its entirety a while ago and loved it. Tried this first one on Audible and it’s AWESOME! Great narration - I just bought the remaining 4 books for only 1.99 ea since I already owned the kindle version, but I would have spent 4 credits if I had to - totally worth it. Fast paced story with great character development. Excellent!!!

And Yellowstone blew

Such a well written disaster book, and thank the lord it was something beside Zombies or EMP. Well researched, characters brought real by the writing and narrator.

The story draws you in, the characters become like family. I was unable to put the book down, and have already bought all the following books in the series that are currently available.

First time have run into a successfully combined disaster and adult content romance - neither side gets lost in the story line and both are extremely well knitted into a compelling story.'

Yellowstone erupts & they find love...

This post-apocalyptic romance story was a pretty good listen, though at times I felt it was just a tad slow to get on with the plot. The heroine was a former model/actress who returned home to her tiny town after having a breakdown. The hero is a military guy who is vacationing at a fishing resort where his old service buddy is the owner. They know each other but she’s been kind of standoffish toward him. When a natural disaster of untold proportions arrives it’s up to them to pull everyone together and plan for survival. But there are outside forces that are affecting that outcome. Narration was well done, but this isn’t my favorite narrator.

Prepper romance - both over and under detailed

Overall, this first book was 75% prepper story and 25% military romance. It takes place in the days before/after Yellowstone blows. Other than mentioning the other four MMCs who are making their way to join Mav and Tank (their former Sarge), this story takes place entirely in one small Washington town.

There’s a lot of detail explaining natural disasters, how folks behave under stress, what the town does to prepare for doom … and yet little detail about the rest of the country or the world. There’s also too much detail on unnecessary things, like when Mav pulls to the side of the road and we hear how he engages the turn signal, checks the mirror, pulls off the road, puts the hazards on, etc, just so he can have a conversation with Henley… all we needed to know was that he pulled off the road.

This was heavy on telling rather than showing, and the telling happened repeatedly. How many times are we told, through dialogue or inner thoughts how disasters bring out the worst in people? Enough times to make a drinking game out of it. If you live for apocalyptic, prepper details about generators or gun models or how much metric tons of ash would cause ten years of global cover, then this should satisfy.
Me? It felt like a bloated nature documentary rather than an apocalypse thriller (see the Hell Divers series for a better post-apocalypse series).

The too much / too little thing continued with the romance. The first five chapters was a slog of her assuming the worst in him, and him being a martyr, where if either one of them communicated like adults, they’d already be soulmates. Then, once they clear the air, there’s a twenty minute, two chapter long sex scene with the most overblown, ‘who says that’ dialogue ever.

Seriously y’all, Mav tells her “what I also perceive is a woman who’s independent, intelligent and passionate, with a dry sense of humor … I want to share in your vivacity for life …” Snork.
They’ve been estranged for three years and I’m supposed to buy they’re pausing for heartfelt speeches?
And then instead of finally breaking their three year dry spell with an exuberant bang, it’s the slowest, gentlest sex with them looking deep into each other’s eyes thinking “I feel comforted and cared for” and
it was an “unbelievable gift they’d given each other.”

Ultimately, I wanted more action and suspense on the apocalyptic side, and desperately missed an epilogue to explain what happened to the world/MCs in the months/years after. On the romance end,
I wanted a livelier romance between a hot soldier and a former model.

After this book, the rest fall into basic romance territory, where the apocalypse is just window dressing. All five books are set in the opening days of disaster and feature the same vanilla MCs: a white, loner man with only his band of military brothers for family pairing with a white, thin traditional American woman. They build off each other a little on the disaster thriller side, but you could also just hit this and book 4 and hit the highlights of both the thriller and romance parts of the series.

excellent

Loved it !! this story. the narrator is so fantastic it's like your really there!! good overall

Great Book - Highly Recommend!!

This book is a great start to the series and the others are just as great. The only downside to this entire series is the narrator. I do not feel that he captures emptions correctly, and can't do female voices to save his life. He makes the female voice in every intimate moment sound like a dying animal which really takes away from the story. If you can ignore that, you will really enjoy this book.

A Real Hit for Kennedy Layne

Kennedy did a great job with this kick-off novel to this series. Maverick, Henley, and Ernie are the main characters and I have to say, when the SHTF I hope there's someone on my team as put together and prepared as they are. Looking forward to Owen's adventure in the second novel of the series.

Can’t finish

I just can’t stand the narrator. He reminds me of Casey Kasem. Like too cheesy with a breathy voice. He also doesn’t say “didn’t “ correctly and it drives me nuts. I’m going to see if I can read the book instead and trade this audio for another