The Hunter's Daughter

By: M.F. Lorson

Narrated by: Jolie Wilder

In the rodeo town of Pendleton, Oregon, 17-year-old Maura lives with her sister and single father, Mike. When her father’s diabetes threatens to take his foot, Maura is left to care for her younger sister while Mike spends his final steps hunting in the Blue Mountains.

Meanwhile, Maura's teenage neighbor, Alex, is spending the summer babysitting his alcoholic grandfather and fending off a hardcore crush on her.

Though nothing about their summer has been easy, it becomes far more challenging when Mike’s return date comes and goes with no sign of him. Determined to bring Mike home and win Maura’s heart in the process, Alex takes Maura on a three day expedition into the wilderness.

A sweet romance for fans of Kasie West and Huntley Fitzpatrick.

©2017 Jennifer Costley (P)2018 Jennifer Costley

enjoyable teen young love

A beautiful and well written teen romance. It is written with dual POV including suspense, laugh out loud moments, giving a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and including dysfunctional families, romance, and sarcastic teenage wit in a smooth flowing storyline. The characters are realistic,interesting and relatable with a slow built up of friendship, chemistry and their own set of baggage as they journey towards a unexpected twist at the end. The narration is done well giving added life to an enjoyable story.

Thought-provoking and suspenseful…

I found the budding romantic relationship between Alex and Maura to be sweet in that Alex was convinced he’d found the love of his life and he was going to stick by Maura’s side through all the turmoil presented in the plot.. The relationship Maura had with her father was quite sad, but I could understand the fatalistic attitude of her father—as he was someone with diabetes wanting to typically ignore the facts that their body was failing them. The setting of the small town with small-town life and happenings also enhanced the story line. The ending was quite sad, but if you pay attention to the final entry in that journal, you’ll understand that what happened actually WAS an accident and was NOT supposed to happen. The narrator did a good job in bringing this story to life. I received this audiobook at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

WELL WRITTEN DEPICTING REAL LIFE SITUATIONS

WELL WRITTEN AND EASY-TO-FOLLOW DEPICTING REAL LIFE SITUATIONS.
ONLY ACCEPTABLE FOR A MORE MATURE AUDIENCE PG-13 ADVISABLE.
DRAMATIC TEEN SITUATIONS DEPICTING ABDUCTIONS, ASSAULT AND SUCH. THE NARRATOR WAS GREAT AND EASY TO FOLLOW.
THE STORY DOES FOLLOW REAL LIFE SCENARIOS BUT STILL HAS FUNNY REAL INTRIGUE AND A THRILL SENSE OF EXPECTATION THAT KEEPS YOU WAITING TILL THE END. STORY DOES FOLLOW THROUGH AND ENDWELL.

Growing up, fast

Maura has a difficult life, living with Mike, her father, and her little sister. She needed to assume responsibilities beyond her age, but she manages her life and school.
When her father decides to go on a hunting trip, leaving her and her sister under a drunk neighbor's watch, she meets Alex, the neighbor's grandson, and sparks fly.
But life can always get worse,  Mike doesn't come back from his trip, no one can find him, so Maura and Alex decide to go looking for him.
This book is a trip into the characters minds and personalities. You'll feel all kind of emotions as we see them struggle to find their strength and resilience to go on.
I liked Jolie Wilder narration, she makes you feel the emotions the characters are going through, and they are a lot!

Great Read

The Hunter’s Daughter was another great read by M.F. Lorson. Maura lives with her younger sister and single father until her father leaves his kids to fend for themselves. He has diabetes that is threatening to take his foot and wants to take his last steps hunting in the mountains. Maura’s elderly neighbor takes in his grandson, Alex, and Maura starts to fall for him. Maura and Alex decide to venture into the mountains to try and find her father. I enjoyed reading Maura and Alex’s story and can’t wait to read more by M.F. Lorson.

The Hunter's Daughter

Maura and her younger sister live alone with their diabetic father Mike, whose disease is threatening to take his foot. Rather than take the advice of his physicians, Mike choses to spend his days alone in the woods hunting. Alex, who is sent to spend the summer with his alcoholic grandfather, is drawn by their neighbor Maura. When Mike does not return on his scheduled date, Alex sets out with Maura to search for him.

It was nice to watch Alex and his grandfather grow closer and to witness the budding relationship between Maura and Alex. I did, however, have a hard time understanding Mike's attitude. Knowing that his disease was progressing, he did little to control it. While his diagnosis was unpleasant, it was not as though he was given a short time to live. At a time when most people would want lean on their loved ones for comfort, Mike choses to isolate himself and to leave his minor children home alone with only an alcoholic to check in on them.

I liked the relationships between the characters and their friends, my favorite was the relationship between Alex and his grandfather. Other than my frustration with Mike, I enjoyed the story. Julie Walker did a good job narrating, although there were times that the narration was a little stiff.

I was given this audio book at my request and am voluntarily leaving this review.

Sad, realistic

The author has a way of pulling you into the story and keeping you guessing what will happen. It is sad but bitter sweet at the end. Not so sad that I cried. The author tells the story without being so in depth that you can’t stop crying. The Narrator did a great job and was east to follow her voice changes for different male and female characters.
*I received this audiobook from the author for free and willingly gave this review.

Gritty but good

This is a story with some pretty realistic characters from the grimmer side of life - children out of wedlock, abandonment, alcoholism - and yet surprisingly positive within its context.

That said, the characters do talk & think a lot like you might expect in real life (well, actually in real life it would most likely be far worse), so it's definitely PG-13, parents.

Maura and Alex are attracted to each other & become the emotional support for one another that the adults in their lives are failing to provide. They're aware of sex but also aware of its potential consequences.

It's touching to see a secondary character that had effectively given up on life begin changing for the better as he recognizes the kids' need for him.

The ending is a bit abrupt, but after rereading it, I found it satisfying. I believe that it's the best happy ending the author could give (& don't mistake me, it is happy just not traditionally so) without being blatantly dishonest to the story.

*Clean romance level: sweet kisses, fairly frank teen level talk about sex but no details and nothing graphic, secondary character tokenly comes out as gay

*Religion: secular with several unfortunate instances of using God/Lord/Jesus/Christ's Name in vain - realistic perhaps, but not necessary or considerate of readers

*Language: a couple of f-bombs, a handful of d*mns, & several dozen sh*ts & h*lls

*Parents: clearly discretion is advised here, but for your older teens, it's a great opportunity to talk about some major heavy real life issues, material as well as spiritual, within a relatively positive context

[The narrator is well suited to the teenage voices and does a very good job with the story!]

Good Read!

This is a new author for me and I did enjoy the book. This is a sweet story with young love. What the father is going through is really rough with his diabetes. They set off to find her father in the mountains which just follows that life has been very difficult. This does get quite sad but the story is really good. #AudiobookObsession Reviewer

Emotional and Sweet

I didn't like this as much as I was hoping for. It's not a bad story, but I think it's just not for me. I really liked how it started, with the father's diabetes and his struggles with coping. I actually would have liked to see more of the relationship between Maura, her sister, and father. He's referred to as a good dad throughout the story but I didn't see it, especially after he left his 16 and 8 year old kids home alone for so long. The relationship between Maura and Alex was cute and very first boyriendy. Their relationship moved faster than the rest of the plot. The ending is a bit open which was worked for me.

Overall, it's a pretty good read. A little emotional and sweet with different family dynamics.

Jolie Wilder's narration was pretty good, she had a great voice for teenage leads. I couldn't always tell who was speaking or which POV the chapter was in which threw me off a few times. There were a few times where the volume would briefly change.
#AudiobookObsession