Amber is settling down in a new place after being in many foster care homes. She is liking the new place until she gets a letter from her Dad. Her dad is a survivalist or prepper (his words). Amber had to follow strict rules under her Dad as he prepared for the worse. Amber decides to run and try outwit her Dad. While she is on the run she meets Josh who was in a foster care home with Amber. 

The author gives a warning at the start of the book about certain topics that are addressed in the book. 

The book is told in past and present. 

Amber has been through a lot in this book. She has lost her Mum and is terrified of her Dad. Amber is a smart character though and uses what her Dad taught her against him.

I liked Amber and Josh’s relationship. They both have different outlook on life but end up working together. It was good Amber had someone she talk to about her dad. Their  relationship doesn’t automatically turn to a romantic one and I don’t think it needed to. 

This book is fast past with a strong plot and very well written. 

I received a ARC from Netgalley and Little Tiger Group

Thank you so much to Stripes Publishing for sending me a copy of The Rules, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review!

Amber has finally started to fit in somewhere, when a letter arrives from her father.  The father she never wanted to see again.  The father who she knows will stop at nothing to track her down.  Alone again and on the run, she knows how to survive - her father taught her how to survive, because he's a prepper, and Amber always had to live by The Rules.  The only problem is, her father knows the rules too, he created them after all.  

The Rules was a fast paced and engaging book that had me reading late into the night.  The father's fanaticism was utterly terrifying to me - especially knowing there are actually people in the world who live this way. Seeing the toll it took on his wife and daughter, who were much more likely to be in danger from him than any perceived worldwide threat, made this a scary book indeed. 

As the story follows Amber, she reluctantly allows the charismatic and optimistic wanderer, Josh, to tag along.  Josh was by far my favourite character.  His happy go lucky attitude, that masked his own rough path, was just as interesting as Amber's story.  With some relevant nods to recent world events - such a toilet paper hoarding and conspiracy theories - and an explosive conclusion, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend picking this one up!

Amber has, for as long as she remembers, been prepared by her father to expect the unexpected. As a survivalist he insisted on teaching her how to prepare for the worst. Her key rule was to ensure she followed his rules.
We’re not sure what happened, but we see Amber is in foster care. She is in the UK, and we learn her mother has died. A letter from Amber’s father has arrived from America and it immediately puts Amber on alert. She realises she will have to leave.
We follow Amber on her journey to try and learn more about her father’s plans. She doesn’t trust him, and journeys to familiar places in her attempt to learn what she needs. 
For someone who is meant to be so well-trained she seems to make some silly mistakes. She places her trust in another person who used to be in foster care with her, and this results in some crazy decisions being made. Before too long, Amber’s father catches up with her and we start to glimpse for ourselves the extent to which one man’s delusions can impact on the lives of those around him.
Throughout the story I got a sense that things weren’t quite what we thought. Amber made some strange decisions, and the details of her past indicated there may be more to the story that she was telling us.
When we get to the rather explosive finale it seems to justify what Amber had told us, but it also suggested that perhaps Amber was better prepared than she wanted to let on!
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this, and I’m curious to see how this goes down (particularly in light of recent events that may have led people to question the extent to which they are reliant on others).

A tense plot based around a teenager trying to avoid and outwit her father, a self-trained survivalist or prepper, to use his phrase. An interesting probe into rules and how we apply them and family and friendship bonds. Original and thought-provoking: a book that will haunt me for some time to come.

The Rules is an interesting and original look at the "Prepper" culture, those who prepare themselves tor major catastrophes like the world ending. It's about survival. The book follows a 17 year old girl whose been taught this way of life by her father.
The novel feels very relevant and current, exploring themes sensitively, maturely and very realistically.

“What tips someone from the rational to the irrational?” (p. 234)

Amber knows how to survive. She’s 17 and is trained to outwit and outlast anything and everything. But the one who taught her everything is the same person she has to run away from.

“Who was the monster? Me or him?” (p. 278)

The Rules piqued my interest because of its premise. I’ve never read a book about preppers, the people who prepare for the absolute worst, for the ending of the world. And boy did this book deliver!

We’re introduced to Amber, a 17-year-old, kind of your typical teenager. During the first chapters of the book you come to realize that Amber isn’t your typical teen with the typical teen problems. She’s been trained by her father to be a prepper, to be ready for anything.

Amber loves school, loves the normalcy of her days. She’s been in and out of foster families, but is now settled in a school, she even has a friend. Well, sort of. Her days are predictable, and she likes that. But everything is turned upside down when she gets a letter from her father, the only person she doesn’t want in her life. So she utilizes her training and goes into hiding. And then the SHTF.

There are more people to this story than just Amber and her father, but in the end they are the only ones that matter. 

“There is no one else.” (p. 271)

I read this book almost at one go. It’s captivating and fast-paced, and well written. It hits home with the situation we’re in right now, with the mentions of toilet paper hoarding, killer flu and even Greta Thunberg.

There are quite a list of trigger warnings for this one, including domestic violence, emotional abuse, shooting, fatphobic commenting, and so on. So keep those in mind and read with care.

'The Rules' is described as a a gripping thriller for fans of One of Us is Lying, We Were Liars and A Good Girl's Guide To Murder so, after giving all three of those books 5 stars, I had ridiculously high expectations for this one. After reading the summary, I wasn't entirely sure what to expect in terms of how close this book would be to those and whether it would be completely in my comfort zone, but I knew that it had the potential to be a new favourite, and it absolutely didn't disappoint. 

Amber is a young girl who has spent her teenage years making her way through care homes and foster homes, after running away from her somewhat delusional, prepping-for-the-apocalypse father. When she finds out that he has tracked her down, she makes the immediate decision to run away from the first place she has ever felt settled in order to self-preserve. What follows is a story of intelligence, planning and survival instinct, both on her part and on her father's, as we get an insight into just how troubled he is and just how much that has scarred Amber.

I enjoyed every aspect of this book. I liked both Amber and Josh as characters and I loved that, despite their very different outlooks on life, they both found themselves at least a little dependent on one another throughout the story. There was no forced romance at all but it was beautiful to watch their relationship develop as they both figured out what they were doing on their journey and how they ended up together on the run.

As well as having strong characters, I found the story to be so compelling that I just couldn't put the book down. The chapters are very short and abrupt, and I found it incredibly easy to keep going and get through this book without even realising it. The story is fast-paced and permanently exciting, with both the flashbacks and the present day constantly building up tension and setting the reader on edge. I knew throughout this entire book that it was building to a grand conclusion, and I wasn't at all disappointed with the ending.

A combination of likeable, strong characters, an intense plot, and an enjoyable amount of twists and turns made this book one of the best YA thrillers I've read in years, and I will absolutely be grabbing every Tracy Darnton book I can get my hands on from now on.

Thank you to @NetGalley_UK for allowing to read this ebook in exchange for an honest review.


CONTAINS A SMALL SPOILER!! 


WOW. 

This book was absolutely incredible from start to finish. I was on the edge of my seat, always wondering what was coming next, right up until the explosive ending.

Amber is a very relateble character in one way or another, as is Josh. They make an excellent pair and bounce off of one another perfectly. I love that it didn't turn into a boy-meets-girl situation like a lot of stories do. It's refreshing to have a family dynamic instead.

This whole book was a delight to read, and one that I'll absolutely read again. From the very beginning I was hooked and wanted to know exactly where this was going to go and how it would turn out. I audibly gasped in parts and could not put it down. Its a brilliant read that would be enjoyed by us old adults as well as young ones.

I feel like I need to take a few deep breaths after reading The Rules by Tracy Darnton having been swept up in a tight knot of anxiety since the very first chapter. 

Such an original plot, based around Amber, the daughter of a fanatical end of the world prepper as she tries to evade her father. The story is incredibly powerful and intense and I was thrilled when we met Josh and his happy go lucky antidote was added to the boiling pot that is the relationship between Amber and her father. 

The ending truly did not disappoint if anything the at times shocking finale was my favourite part of the book which is very rare at the moment when a lot of books seems to start off fabulously and then fizzle out. 

Thank you again to Net Galley and Tracy Darnton for the opportunity to read. A definite 5 stars from me!

First, an admission: there is an unwritten law of the universe that, given that there are so few of us, if your surname is Darnton you and I are related. I’m not sure whether Tracy Darnton is aware of this, especially as we are only relatives through marriage, but nevertheless it is true, and it is also true that I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up had it not been for her surname. It is a long time since I was active in the world of children’s literature and I’ve rather lost touch with what’s now being published. The Rules makes me regret that reminding me, as it does, that the best of YA literature deals with complex and important issues.

Approaching eighteen, Amber Fitzpatrick finds herself, perhaps for the first time in her life, in an almost settled situation. Having worked her way through several foster placements, she is now at a boarding school and studying towards the qualification she hopes will give her a place at university. However, her fragile piece of mind is shattered when her social worker, Julie, tells her that they have received a letter from her father.

Amber’s father is a Prepper: that is somebody who prepares themselves for the disaster that they are certain is just around the corner. This could be anything from an alien invasion to nuclear warfare, perhaps an enormous natural disaster or even a pandemic. Such individuals stockpile not only food but also medical supplies, water purification tablets, lighting systems, the list could go on. They also, in many cases, have a list of draconian rules and, until she breaks free, it is the rules that her father has established that have controlled Amber’s life and destroyed that of her mother. Terrified that her father is about to lay claim to her again, Amber strikes out on her own and makes for a Northumberland holiday cottage owned by a couple who once fostered her. Here she runs into her complete antithesis, Josh, with whom she once shared a foster placement. If Josh has a rule in life it is to have no rules. All these rules in society we’re meant to follow, to know our place, I don’t have to do it any more, he claims. Together they set out to find Centurion  House, established as a survival outpost in case of whatever cataclysm might first strike. Here, Amber hopes to find supplies and money that will enable her to out run her father, whom she is sure will try and take her back into his custody. 

The irony, of course, is that it is the very rules that her father has taught her and the skills that she has learnt in preparation for disaster that enable her not only to survive but also, for a considerable time, to outrun both him and social services. Indeed, it is in part because she ignores her own instincts and allows Josh to take her to hear her father speak, that she is eventually tracked down.

Had I read this novel a year ago I would now be discussing as the central theme the idea that we all live by rules of one sort or another. As Amber comments when the police and social services ultimately try to pick up the pieces, they’re following their procedures, their rules. What matters about any rules is the ultimate goal of those who devise and implement them and who, consequently, benefits as a result. However, it’s impossible now to read this book without doing so in the light of the current pandemic and I suspect that how readers react to it will to some extent be defined by their response to the rules laid out by governments around the world in their reaction to the Covid-19 crisis. What is more, any individual’s understanding of the novel might well change from day to day. What struck me most forcefully today was the distinction that Amber draws between the Preppers in England and those in America. However, I finished this book at the very beginning of May on a day when I both read about the general consensus in England that for the moment some form of lockdown needs to continue and listened to protesters in Michigan demanding the right to be allowed to go out and do precisely what they want now, this minute.  By the time you read this, and I’ll post it to coincide with the early July publication, there may well be other, more immediate parallels that I would want to draw because, if the novel makes clear anything, it is that we simply don’t know from one day to the next what we might be called upon to face and that there are times when, at the very least, being prepared for the unexpected is not a bad idea.

With thanks to Little Tiger Group and NetGalley for the review copy.

Not my normal genre but I absolutely loved it . A great coming of age story that I’m sure allot of teens can identify with !! It was written beautifully and allot can be learned from this story !!