“Breathtaking… so much more than a thriller.” —Josh Malerman, bestselling author of Bird Box and Malorie“Hits the thriller trifecta: a natural disaster, danger around every corner, and compelling well-drawn characters.” —Heather Gudenkauf, New York Times bestselling author A one-more-page, up-all-night story about two strangers who need each other’s help to survive the night after a devastating … strangers who need each other’s help to survive the night after a devastating earthquake shakes Los Angeles.
Beegie is riding the bus when the quake hits. The teenager was heading back to her unhappy foster home, but then she’s thrown into a broken world. Roads crumble, storefronts shatter and people run wild.
Dessa, a single mom, is enjoying a rare night out when it strikes. Cell towers are down, so without even knowing if her three-year-old daughter is dead or alive, she races to get back across town.
As danger escalates in the chaotic streets, Beegie and Dessa meet by a twist of fate and an act of violence. The two form a fragile partnership, relying on each other in ways they never thought possible, and learn who they really are when there’s only one goal: just get home.
“A flat-out thriller [that is] also smart and insightful on timely, important ideas…. Heartbreaking and complicated in the best way… This is addictive reading that changes you as you turn the pages and stays with you long after you’ve finished.” —Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of This Is How It Always Is
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This is a very emotional story. What happens after a major earthquake and there are many people dead and you need to get back to your daughter. I love how the author handles this story. The author describes the shock and the horrors that might happen on the streets after a major disaster. I love the characters of Dessa and Beegie. This story shows some of what different people can go through after a disaster. I received a copy of this book from Harlequin for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.
JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley is a completely engrossing and unique suspense/thriller by a new-to-me author that I could not put down! Starting with “The Big One”, this story brings together two disparate characters who are trying to survive the lawlessness, chaos and devastation to just get home.
Dessa is enjoying a rare night out with her best friend and fellow bridesmaids. When her babysitter calls to let her know her three-year-old daughter is sick, she immediately leaves for home. Before she can get to her car, the earthquake hits. With all communication down, Dessa races to get home not knowing if her daughter is dead or alive.
Fifteen-year-old Beegie is riding a city bus to escape an unhappy foster home until morning when the earthquake hits. She has had terrible experiences in foster care and awakens to being pulled from the bus by two men. All she wants is to get to her foster home and hide.
Dessa and Beegie are thrown together on the desperate city streets and form a fragile partnership to help each other to just get home.
You will need to put time aside to read this book because once you start, you are not going to be able to stop. Ms. Foley has written two protagonists that come to life on the page. Completely realistic, and at times disturbing characters, situations and an emotional rollercoaster takes you from page one to the end. Ms. Foley does not shy away from the dark issue of rape during this lawlessness, an uncaring foster system and racial issues. None of this is handled salaciously, but with a realistic outrage against the perpetrators and empathy for the victims.
I highly recommend these unforgettable protagonists and this emotionally well written story!
Some of the events were unrealistic given the magnitude of the disaster. However I did like the main characters and wanted to find out what happened to them.
If you’re looking for a thriller about the aftermath of an earthquake, a book filled with suspense and action, you’ll only get that in small doses here. What you will get is a character study of how people with tragedy and how their behavior is affected. When civil society disappears in an instant, what happens and who survives? I felt that a few points were belabored a bit too much, which took me away from the “humanity” aspect of the situation. There are several uncomfortable parts that other readers may find difficult, including but not limited to assault, infidelity, and racial bias. They didn’t bother me as they added realism, but others may have issues. The blurb is right, it does contain weighty, challenging content. For a full review, please visit Fireflies and Free Kicks. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin (MIRA) for a digital ARC of the book.
An unfortunate and crazy series of events happen to two strangers after a horrific earthquake. As the story unfolds, these events will bind them together and forever change them. Just when I thought it safe to exhale, another potential life altering (or life threatening) encounter had me holding my breath once again. Great thriller, but, so much more.
Favorite Quotes:
Sometimes there is a recognition between two people that hastens their transition from strangers to friends. Like falling in love, but without the hormones.
It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.
What must it be like to have that power? To not be afraid, but to have others be afraid of you? Not just right now on this dark street, but on all the dark streets.
Beegie’d never thought of it before, but she realized most people sounded like animals when they laughed; Barb sounded like a donkey, brays with big deep breaths in between. And Eric sounded like a chimpanzee, kinda screaming and baring his teeth.
You know only white people camp, right? … Camping, hiking… all that is a white thing. Black people, Mexicans, Latinos, whatever, we don’t do shit like that… It’s rich people pretending to be poor. Sleeping outside. Eating on the ground and shit. Only white people are crazy enough to play homeless for fun. All ‘getting in touch with nature.’ Brown people, uh-uh. We don’t pretend. We don’t get in touch with nothing.
My Review:
Wow, this was a tense, insightfully observant, and all too realistic and disturbing revelation of the unchecked inhumanity and brutality once terror and lawlessness are unleashed following a natural disaster.
Dessa was socializing with friends on one side of LA while her toddler was at home with a new babysitter when an earthquake rips the town apart. The challenges from the lack of resources, destruction, and environmental hazards were a lesser impediment to her attempts to return to her child than the dangerous, surreal, malicious, and uninhibited cruelty and barbarism of the citizens she encountered along the way.
Bridget Foley ever so aptly captured the fractured underbelly of all levels of society while exposing their anxious inner musings, memories, biased observations, regrets, poor choices, and base natures. The storylines were fraught with distress and taut with angst and impending peril with each encounter. It was riveting, exhausting, compelling, and disheartening, and oh so shrewdly and cunningly paced. Ms. Foley is quite the storyteller, but her evocative words are not ones I’d want to peruse before heading off to the land of nod least I thrash in my sleep.
I love great action in my reading, and when I saw the blurb for this title I was definitely intrigued having read earthquake disaster books in the past. When an earthquake hits Los Angeles, two young women are left to their own devices to Just Get Home. If you’ve ever been in a situation where all that you need is suddenly cut off, I was expecting a tense and potentially dangerous situation for the two heroines in this story — and this story delivered on that.
Beegie and Dessa face some very serious situations as they try to get back home after the big one. As one might expect, this book might be difficult for some because of the content. There’s chaos and crime, rape and violence against women, so this tale is not for everyone. This sort of gritty realism is done very well in this book, but some readers may find it uncomfortable. Just a little word to the wise on that topic.
After a bit of a slow start, once the earthquake hits the story becomes harrowing, emotional and at times suspenseful. Told in dual point of views, Beegie and Dessa’s backgrounds contribute to the decisions they make today. The story really moves along nicely when dealing in the current time period.
This is a tale of survival — or maybe more accurately, a handbook for compartmentalizing the things in life that can take you down. There is almost an apocalyptic feel to what happens in this story and the action is what makes things move along nicely. I found Beegie and Dessa’s relationship interesting to follow as they handle the situations they find themselves in.
Overall, an exciting reading experience. If you are in the mood for a suspenseful disaster story with two strong lead characters, you might like Just From Home.
A complementary copy was provided for review by the publisher.
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley
Earthquakes in California are real…and there is always the underlying thought of, “What if this is the big one?” as the earth rumbles and shakes. Having been through a few and seen the damage they can wreak makes this story all the more real and…”earthshaking” to think about the “what ifs” should a HUGE trembler ever hit California. Two people form an unusual alliance as they make their way through devastated Los Angeles to reach safety and what they face is thought provoking, dark, and sometimes painful to read.
What I liked:
* Beegie: fifteen, orphan, in the foster system, hard backstory, a survivor, strong, resilient, and deserving of a better future.
* Dessa: single mother, conflicted, in a dead-end relationship, treading water, difficult relationship with her deceased mother, both parents deceased, loves her daughter, grew on me over time.
* That I found the story believable and could imagine finding myself in such a situation.
* The way the difficult situations were written
* Knowing the location well so being able to visualize where the two women were
* That both women were stronger than they realized and grew stronger as the story propgressed
* The alliance/friendship that developed between the two women
* Thinking about what the future for the women might be – hope it is better than their past
* Seeing glimpses of both of their lives before the earthquake
* That they both survived the ordeal and found a way forward…at least for awhile
What I didn’t like:
* Beegie’s rotten luck in life: mother, foster parents, social worker, what happened to her the night of the earthquake
* Dessa’s mother, the man who fathered her child, that she was a bit wishy-washy, and her reasoning was so much different than I wanted it to be
* Not knowing what happened later – an epilogue might have been nice
* That human beings in a chaotic situation can be so horrible to one another – opportunistic hedonistic and ruthless
Did I enjoy this book? I did but found myself skimming at times
Would I read more by this author? I might
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin-Mira for the ARC – This is my honest review.
4 Stars
An intense read. It read almost like a screenplay of a disaster movie. You know…one of those movies where each time you breathe a sigh of relief that the heroine has survived once again, another obstacle appears, once again leaving you holding your breath.
Dessa, a single mother, leaves her daughter with a babysitter to attend a party with her best friend. Beegie, a teen in an unhappy foster home, is riding a city bus. Then a massive earthquake hits Los Angeles. Dessa and Beegie cross paths and must depend upon each other to survive…to just get home.
It really took a while for me to get into the story. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it, especially the dual timeline aspect. But about 75% through the book it came together for me. I loved the relationship that developed between Dessa and Beegie.
The story is raw and has quite a few triggers, a rape scene in particular, so be forewarned.
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley is a thriller that held me in its grip even when I desperately wanted to run and hide.
What I Liked
The intensity of the story is absolutely incredible. Human predators and animal predators abound in this epic survival tale of the aftermath of a natural disaster. The horror of the LA earthquake is described so well that I felt like I was there experiencing it with Dessa and Beegie. At various points, I didn’t know if I could take it anymore. The story wouldn’t let me turn away, though. I sped through the pages hoping that there was a light at the end of the tunnel that I was in – a rat-infested, quickly filling with water tunnel.
I loved how well the characters of Dessa and Beegie are developed. No aspect of their persona was left unexplored. It resulted in two characters who inspired empathy and a determination to survive. The many layers of bother characters are raw and tragic, and I want to say their plights were unbelievable. Still, I know they are both genuine for people in our society. My heart bled for both of them as their stories unfolded. They found each other during such a tragic time.
This story has all the violent triggers – including sexual – so readers need to know they are picking up a graphically intense tale. If they have any problems with triggers, they need to proceed with caution. I felt like I almost developed triggers where none existed from the power of this tale. I don’t often include trigger warnings, but I think they are needed before entering this novel’s world.
I’m leaving this review relatively short, as there are so many spoilers that I do not want to give away, but that is in no way reflective of how much this story holds between the covers. I could write pages upon pages about it if I did include spoilers.
To Read or Not to Read
If you can handle the power of a survival story that feels disturbingly real and offers so much to take away, this is a novel that you won’t want to miss!
This book was emotionally charged. As a mother, I was in a state hoping Dessa finds her way home to her daughter and my heart broke for Beegie.
Set in California after the big one hits these two women on a chance encounter team up to get home. Though danger lurks around every corner the women learn to focus and move forward.
I was on the edge of my seat throughout this book. The author did not leave one emotion untouched from fear stemming from assault and natural disaster to the love of a mother for her daughter. I was an emotional wreck reading this book.
The author did a brilliant job capturing the emotions and relaying them through Beegie and Dessa. As a mother, I could not imagine having to go through what Dessa did to find her way home. Nor could I even have dreamed a child could suffer as Beegie did.
This book is worth a read but be prepared to take a huge rollercoaster ride through your emotions.
Just Get Home by Bridget Foley is a highly recommended heart-pounding thriller of a disaster novel.
“All that stuff about making sure you have enough bottled water and a bugout bag? It’s horse pucky. Propaganda to make it seem like the people in charge can do anything about it. Just wait patiently, Good Citizen. Help will arrive.” She saluted, the cherry tip of her cigarette making an arc through the air. “When it happens… It will be chaos for days. Weeks. There will be looting. Riots. The earthquake isn’t the real disaster, Dessa. The disaster is what happens after.”
Dessa is a single mom living in Van Nuys, California, who is having a rare girl’s night out. She has her three-year-old daughter, Olivia, all ready for bedtime when the new babysitter arrives and she heads to downtown Los Angeles to meet her friends. She is leaving the restaurant/bar where she met her friends when the ground first begins to shake. Beegie is a young teenage girl who is escaping her current foster mother by riding the bus. She returns to her previous foster home to collect her things that the sexually abusive older son took from her and then gets back on the bus, planning to ride it all night. Beegie is on the bus when the earthquake hits.
These two women end up helping each other survive after the Big One hits Los Angeles. Dessa has one goal – to get home to her daughter and make sure she is okay. While trying to get home, Dessa witnessed Beegie being raped. She hid, uncertain how to help the girl and then didn’t see her afterward. Beegie, however, finds a way to stop the man she saw attacking Dessa. Dessa recognizes her purse and knows she is the girl she saw, although she does not say anything to Beegie. The two travel together, trying to get home, as the streets become increasingly dangerous.
Both Dessa and Beegie compartmentalization their lives. Sure, they are compartmentalizing very different things, and live very different lives but they share this approach to life and the challenges they face. This probably helps them as they work together to get home, although if home is an answer or safe or there is a question always present. Foley does a great job developing these two characters, making them individuals but also showing their inner thoughts and a basis for their friendship through the trauma and ordeals they both experience.
The pace of the plot moves quickly through all the different challenges and encounters the women face in this natural disaster novel of the predicted Big One finally hitting California. This is a survival novel featuring two females overcoming the disaster and fighting their way through insurmountable odds to find their way to safety, or, for Dessa, back home to her daughter. Obviously, Dessa displays a strong example of the maternal bond and how mothers will try to overcome all odds to make sure their children are safe.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of MIRA Books in exchange for my honest opinion.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/03/just-get-home.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3911780806
JUST GET HOME by Bridget Foley hits the thriller trifecta: a natural disaster, danger around every corner and compelling well-drawn characters who unite to survive the most harrowing journey of their lives.
Foley effortlessly weaves together the voices of Beegie and Dessa to chronicle a night filled with devastation, terror, heartbreak and ultimately hope as they try to make it home after a deadly earthquake. Inventive, emotional and addictive, JUST GET HOME is not to be missed.