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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: The Tower, the Rifle, and the Man Who Shouldn’t Have Survived
Chapter 3: Before the Plague: The Boy Who Wished It Would End
Chapter 4: The Tower’s Hidden Truth and the Night She Escaped
Chapter 5: Baptism, Then Horses: The Pastor Who Chose the Wild
Chapter 6: A Camp, A Confession, and Three Brothers at the Helm
Chapter 7: The Rebel’s Drive and a Perilous Truth
Chapter 8: Discovering a Home on the Island
Chapter 9: Medicine Run, Peach Halves, and Finally Surrendering
Chapter 10: Clearing the Riverbanks and Shattering Old Rules
Chapter 11: The Pastor Who Desired a Wife Beyond the Pulpit
Chapter 12: Among Brothers and the Labor of Survival
Chapter 13: Two Mutants, One Kiss, and a Barricaded Road
Chapter 14: The Rescue and a Different Kind of Decision
Chapter 15: The Collar Is Removed
Chapter 16: River Reeds and a Brand-New Rule
Chapter 17: Rapunzel Drops the Ladders
Chapter 18: Trading, Raising, and Speaking the Words
Chapter 19: The Final Mutant and the First Child
Chapter 20: Celeste and the Tomorrow We’re Creating
Description
When the Blighted Plague turns people into flesh-hungry shells, the Tower becomes the only refuge left—at least that’s what Rue has always been told. She mends wounds, reloads rifles, and follows orders…until she stops a Mutant with a spear and drags a battered survivor named Dexer back from the brink. What begins as a rescue becomes a revelation: the Tower isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a laboratory, and Rue’s mother is creating the monsters that keep everyone trapped in fear.
Pulled from the chaos by three brothers—Dexer the hunter, Keenan the former pastor, and Blaize the rebel—Rue finds a new kind of home on Brookhaven Island. Together they turn a fragile camp into a fighting chance: clearing the riverbanks of Blighted, trapping Mutants, trading for medicines, and navigating attraction that refuses to fit old rules. When Rue uncovers the truth about the Tower, she and the brothers plan a raid that feels like a fairy tale turned inside out. Rue, the one they call Beauty, kicks down rope ladders like golden hair in the wind and climbs into her past to cut the cord for good.
This story is raw and tender, violent and hopeful. It’s about what you do when the old world collapses—who you save, who you love, and how you decide what your new rules will be. Above all, it’s about building a future in a place that was never meant to be safe, and choosing love without apology.
Who Should Listen
- Fans of post‑apocalyptic survival with strong found‑family dynamics
- Listeners who enjoy high‑heat romance with courage and consent at the center
- Readers who like fairy‑tale retellings turned gritty and hopeful