Avalanche Hardcover – November 29, 2016

A by the edge of your seat page turner. Scary, adventurous, sad plus more all in one book. A must read.

Once you begin reading, you'll be sitting at the edge of your seat. The author does a super job keeping the tension tight and the story line going. I know some people will wonder about a few of the animal scenes, but I live in a wilderness area, and the tenacity and strength of the mountain lion (cougar) in the book is NOT exaggerated. Parents, I would caution that you might want to read the book before your younger teens or preteens do. There are scenes that might not be sexually or socially appropriate for your child, but the book is great.

Read this for fun

Fast paced keep me interested hated to put it down.would recommend it to anyone who likes a clean adventure interesting story line and characters. Action packed belieable adventure.

This book was provided as an uncorrected digital proof by the publisher, via Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.Two groups of teens—those waiting to be saved and those doing the saving—are in a race against time and a battle against Mother Nature after an avalanche traps them in an isolated cabin in this chilling novel.“I promise it’ll be a weekend you’ll never forget.”A trip like that is exactly what Matt was hoping for—a fun adventure. A daring escape. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go cross country skiing in a thrilling but dangerous pass through the Rocky Mountains. The perfect way for Matt to forget about his disappointing father and maybe let loose a little with his best friend and a group of carefree adrenaline junkies.But then their guide takes them off-path…and straight into an avalanche. By the time they make it safely into an abandoned cabin, one skier is dead and another severely injured. Trapped with no heat, no water, and no radio the group decides to wait it out. Help will come. It has to.Until it doesn’t. And Matt knows if they wait any longer they’ll be dead—just another bunch of victims in Mother Nature’s twisted games. Armed with only a handful of supplies and his fierce determination Matt decides to goes head-to-head with the elements, battling hypothermia, frostbite, and even mountain lions in order to find help and save them all. That is if Mother Nature doesn’t kill him first.Avalanche is a quick and easy read. Once the nominal event occurs, the action is constant. There is no end to the deadly situations these kids can get themselves into. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but in the same way I enjoy an action movie; if it’s exciting, I’m on board. Some suspension of logic is required, especially after the second time Matt nearly gets himself killed by behaving recklessly. By the point that he should have been dead for a third time, I was beginning to wonder why Leah didn’t just do him in herself. Then Leah, levelheaded, mountain savvy Leah, does something that even a newbie like myself knows you’re not supposed to do, and nearly gets them both killed. The author could have easily written the scene without throwing one of her few sensible characters under the bus, but chose not to. That’s just bad parenting.Honestly, this isn’t a bad book. The reader can tell that Ms. Braun did some good research, and that is nothing to ignore; it’s the one feature that takes this from being a mediocre book to being a pretty good read. I would recommend Avalanche to readers 12 and older who enjoy action and adventure.

Stung by yet another snub by his professor father, this time because Dad’s 28 year old girlfriend is having pregnancy issues, Matt is eager to go from Des Moines to Colorado on a school break. Smart and having an eclectic mind, He’s not wise in the ways of survival or girls, two areas where skills will soon have plenty of value. He and his best friend Toby have been invited by Toby’s older brother Sid to join a group of college age kids on a backcountry skiing adventure. It’s an interesting group. In addition to Matt, Toby and Sid, there’s Dylan, wealthy and somewhat reckless, his girlfriend Julie, and Sid’s sibling roommates, Carter and Leah. Matt and Toby aren’t novices, but skiing at 11,000 feet, while going uphill as much as down tests them right from the start. When an avalanche hits, burying Dylan and seriously injuring Sid, everyone’s strength and mental stability are tested. The party must decide who goers for help (there’s no cellphone service at the abandoned cabin where they seek shelter) and who stays with Sid. How that’s decided and what happens to each group make for a fast and tension-filled read. You might criticize some of the decisions made at times, but unless you’ve been in an unpredictable and life-threatening crisis yourself, it’s easy to play armchair quarterback. I really enjoyed the book and think teen adventure junkies will as well. Yes, there’s strong language and drinking, but both are typical of college age characters.