The previous books in this series were pretty good. Seem to be written for a younger audience I think, but ok none the less. However, towards the end of the last book, and throughout this book, something has changed. Not sure if the author had something happen, or if someone got in his ear, or what, but suddenly instead of these books being about things actually happening, it’s 80% about the lead charachter’s thoughts and emotions. It’s literally paced like 20 minutes of his thinking and 3 minutes of action. Then back to him constantly being a huge baby about every decision he makes. What will my kids think? How are they coping? I wonder if I’m being too hard on them? We are living in a post apocalyptic hell, but sure, I will let my kids leave and go fishing at sunset in an unfamiliar forest, after already repeatedly seeing that animals are behaving much more aggressively. And then when it all goes wrong, and I barely yell at my kid for messing up, I will spend the next ten minutes wondering if I was too hard on him. Holy moly. I really got to like some of the characters, and want to keep listening, but I’m constantly yelling at my car stereo because of this ex Army ranger who can never manage to “get a shot off” before some random loser gets there gun up first. And who (Spoiler Alert) won’t shoot at a rabid bear that is feet from his children’s tent because he apparently ‘doesn’t want to kill a bear’. This author either doesn’t understand how a man/veteran/father would act in a situation like this, or maybe he went woke and has to constantly justify and apologize for behaving in a way that is completely normal and expected for the situation. So frustrating. I want to know what happens with the couples and if they end up together but I can’t stomach all the bleeding heart thought monologues.