The Line Between by Tosca Lee ~ Book Review

When Wynter Roth was a child her mother took her and her older sister to a live with a group called New Earth in order to escape their abusive father.  But little did they realize that their Mother unknowingly was trading one form of abuse for another. New Earth in reality is a doomsday cult and, keeps its members in line through harsh, manipulative disciplines while preaching apocolyptic end of the world messages setting themselves up as the place of salvation.  Wynter has never really fit in and has received discipline throughout the years for being rebellious.  When she exhibits the ultimate rebellion the result is banishment out of New Earth.  With her "salvation" gone, Wynter tries to adjust to life outside living at her Mother's old friends house, a strange outbreak of dementia characterized by violence is turning up in America .  Could Magnus have been right after all?  Now Wynter is living in the very apocolyptic world that was driven into her for 15 years.  When her sister shows up at the door carrying a mysterious package that she wants Wynter to give to their friend who is an epidemiologist, Wynter is thrown into a role she never wanted.  But in order to save her sister and her niece she must dig deep for courage.  As life in America becomes chaos, Wynter along with a former military man she meets, work their way across the country to get the package of samples to a lab in Colorado in the hopes this pandemic can be stopped even while those who do not want the package to be delivered and discovered are hot on their trail.

This story had a lot going on!  Cultish elements, prion pandemic, cyberattacks, bioterrorism, survival,  love story.  It didn't stop for a moment.  Though the beginning was a touch slower than the second half as the author built Wynter's world of life within a cult it was still a story that was gripping and thought provoking especially during this time we live in.  I really was drawn in when Wynter tried to make sense of what was happening in the world compared to what was drilled into her for many years within the cult.  The psychological and spiritual tension and conflict going on within her was well done.  I found it interesting that the author also chose cyberattacks during this pandemic in the story as America lay vulnerable which is kind of a nerve wracking reality.   It did have a few flaws for me, also, though.  Some parts seem quite shortened up and moved on quickly.  Because of this a couple of the characters, to me, could have been fleshed a bit better but I understand that is hard to do with a novel that covers this much.  All in all it meshed into an interesting story of survival in more ways than one that kept the pages turning.  Interesting thing, this book was published a year before the COVID pandemic.  There is a second book that continues with Wynter's journey.

Funny note about this book is that it had a character by the name of Enzo.  Not a common name by any means.  And yet the last book I read, A Desperate Hope by Elizabeth Camden, also had a character named Enzo.  I had to pause a few times to sort their two different characters out in my mind.

I gave it a 7.5/10

Read Your Shelves Reading Challenge - February:  Read a book with red on the cover or spine