Book Review: Premonitions by Diana E Anderson (The Farm #1)

Denise Armstrong is a nurse, mother, widow, and military veteran. Raised by prepper grandparents, she learned at an early age to watch national and world events closely. She has been paying close attention to the economy, both around the world and at home. As she sees signs in her own community of the slowing of the economy, she begins to experience premonitions of a cataclysm to come. Denise decides to use the resources available to her to help her friends and family weather whatever crisis she KNOWS is coming. When Tom VanZant, a dear friend, confides he, too, is experiencing feelings of an impending catastrophe, they both realize it is time to hunker down to survive the storm about to occur. 

While they prepare, economic instability accelerates, violence escalates, and infrastructure deteriorates. Terrorist acts across the country and horrific brutality close to home further complicate this precarious situation. While safe (at least for the moment) on Denise’s farm, Denise, her family, and friends can only wonder: Have they prepared enough to let them survive?

My Review: 
Denise inheritated a large farm outside a North Carolina town. She has noticed the economy struggling with her fellow nurses being laid off or losing hours. Fearing that a disaster is coming, she asks her sons and their wives to move out to the farm with her, and hopes that her closest friends will do the same. As they start to gather supplies and build extra space for new arrivals, society starts to fall apart and violence comes to their town.

I found Denise to be quite likable for an MC. She is living a comfortable life at her farm and doing her job because she loves it, not because she needs to. She is in the process of building a new wing on her house so that her sons and their wives can move in with her, and was brought up as a prepper. When her hours start getting cut, she is already concerned about the amount of local businesses going under and decides to just quit and concentrate on getting the farm ready for the trouble that is coming. She finds out that Tom, her old friend and the contractor taking care of work at the farm, has also been getting the same worrying premonitions about disaster coming and she asks him to get work finished on her property so the farm is self sufficient and ready to house everyone she cares about. 

I liked a lot of the other characters too. Tom is a good character. He is kind, hard working and organised and it is clear that he and Denise have an unspoken connection that remains in the background through the book, but fits nicely. I was kind of rooting for them as a couple because they already had an established relationship as friends.We get to see them as the group start to have meetings about joining forces if the worst happens. There is also the backdrop of the financial collapse as places in town close down and her friends start losing their jobs, causing them to decide to move out to the farm before everything collapses. I liked seeing the gradual deterioration to start with and then the rapid collapse of everything. I think that might be how it would happen in real life.

I always enjoy seeing how the characters prepare for a disaster like this. I enjoy the tense supply runs and the run ins with people who want to take what belongs to our heroes. There is a gradual build up of the tension until the real bad guys sweep into the town and start to take over. There is also the background of the problems going on in the US and the terrorist attacks that are fuelling this financial crisis. Planes are being shot down, credit cards become useless and the farm continues to work hard to be ready for anything that comes. I've read a lot of books with this type of plot-preparing for the disaster, gathering loved ones before the disaster and final supply runs, followed by defending the property from the usual gangs of psychos. I admit that however many times I read that scenario, I never get tired of it and that is what made me pick this one up. I actually liked it more than I expected to based on the Goodreads reviews that I looked at.

Some reviewers have commented about things coming too easily for the main characters but I didn't really feel that myself. Denise already has the farm and the building work is advanced when she and Tom decide to get the hammer down to finish it. Tom has plenty contacts he can still get materials from and I doubt that many in the local area had the money to buy wood and DIY supplies so I'm not really surprised that the things they needed were available. The group were also stocking up before the main collapse hits so that did give them time to get things done. I do wish that the tradesmen we get in were as hard working and reliable as Tom and his team as they really got things done quickly which might be a tad unrealistic!

I've seen complaints in reviews about right wing anti-liberal rants but I honestly didn't find it that bad compared to a lot of prepper books that I read. Yes the characters were right wing so I expect them to be protective of their guns, untrusting of Democrat politicians and view liberal policies with open dislike. Most prepper books are like that and I'm used to ignoring a few of the more extreme opinions in the genre, as long as I find the story entertaining. While the author has sympathy for the 'Trump' character President at times, she is clear that she doesn't always like his tone and words, and is unhappy that he is in hiding instead of dealing with the crisis. She rightly thinks that fake news is used too often by both sides for point scoring. It is liberal snowflakes that her ire is mostly directed towards and I can understand that viewpoint. I found it a bit more balanced than reviews led me to believe.

I've already got hold of the second book in the series and look forward to catching up with Tom and Denise and the whole posse! 

Read January 2019
4 stars?