The Road to Winter (Winter #1)

By Mark Smith

**Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review**

For the first few chapters I really did not think I was going to enjoy this at all. I think it was just the style of writing that put me off but the book as a whole ended up being quite good.

The book starts off telling us about the virus that hit the world and wiped out most of the population, and how the main character, Finn, survived after losing his parents. One day whilst surfing on the beach he meets a young girl, Rose, who is on the run from a group of "wilders" who are wreaking havoc throughout the country. Finn agrees to help her try and escape them and find her sister, who she lost a few days before whilst on the run from them. I won't say much more than that but the pace of the story really picks up from that point and is where it starts to get more enjoyable.

The two things that I make a book really enjoyable are the characters and setting. I loved every character in this book, even the villains. Finn was a strong lead who had been through a lot and I really liked him, along with Rose and her sister. Ramage was a great villain, who, despite not having much at his disposal like antagonists in other similar novels, still managed to be quite terrifying. It was maybe because you don't see him a lot in the novel, but hear a lot about him from Rose, and so he never really seems to disappear and you always know he was hot on the characters' heels. The setting was good, but with the descriptions given I often found it difficult to build up images in my head, and I felt with a little more description this could have been better. Not much detail is given to the mysterious virus and this is something I would have liked to have known a little more about.

As I've said, the writing style wasn't the best but the characters in this book really sold it for me. The novel ends on a cliffhanger and sets things up nicely for a second instalment, which I'd definitely be interested in reading.

Date read: March 2017
Rating: 7/10.