This We Will Defend: The Continuing Story of a Family's Survival

Book Two of the What's Left of My World Series

By: C.A. Rudolph

Narrated by: Kevin Pierce

Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

For a brief period after the world changed forever, the self-reliant community of Trout Run Valley managed to avoid conflict. They practiced subsistence, and found safety and security within their numbers. As the post-apocalyptic timeline moved forward, it began to spiral downward. Takers had made their presence known, and their malevolent intentions clear, transforming the once benign community into a violent battleground.

In What's Left of My World, a precarious surprise attack had left the community in a state of repair and reevaluation. Even now as the community rebuilds and continues their livelihood, a new, more sinister enemy is lying in wait, and it poses a threat more dangerous than anything the community has encountered before.

A fight is coming to Trout Run Valley, and every person living there knows it. Previous encounters with their new enemy had foretold the tale. Before the collapse, Lauren Russell had learned many skills necessary to fight and to survive. Her father had made certain that she'd been trained to be a warrior. In This We Will Defend, in order to preserve her way of life, along with the lives of everyone she knows and loves, she will have to become one.

©2017 C.A. Rudolph (P)2017 C.A. Rudolph

A Story of Growth

4.5 out of 5 stars

For the first part of the book I had a hard time figuring out who was who and trying to remember who these people were and why I cared about them (sometimes it’s hard to know if you should put a “previously in ___” in books like these. Depending on how long it’s been since people read book 1 to book 2 it can be troublesome. But, after I got into the book and figured out who was returning and who was new the story picked up the pace for me.

Rudolph is a great storyteller and this story was a breeze to read even being a lot longer than the typical post-apocalyptic fiction I read. He was able to switch between stories without causing much confusion. And he is able to make you care about these fictional characters in a way that other authors should envy.

I like to try and write out about the different characters when I can but there were too many to list here, but know that Lauren and her growth as a person and a character is central to this story. Thankfully, she’s easily one of my favorite characters in any story, so that made this book really enjoyable for me.

Overall, This We Will Defend was a good story with a little more meat on its bones than the last book. I would bet that more people are happy about the longer runtime (or book size) at the end of this since Rudolph is able to really fill this book with character growth and a good story arc.

Kevin Pierce, as always, does a wonderful job on the narration and brings life to these characters. Male or female — listening to Pierce’s narration of the world ending just has the perfect ring.

I received a free copy of this book. It has not affected my review of my opinion.

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✫✫ 4 Stars ✫✫

Book 2 was better than book 1 because it was fast paced and we get a little more story on some of the community members. There was a lot of jumping around to other character's story lines which was hard to follow at first but once I knew who they were it all fell together and I realized some of it was preparing us for upcoming story lines. I found myself rooting for the good guys and cheering when the bad guys were losing. I really like that even though this book is about the community, Lauren is still the main character. She really is a great character and I love that she is so young. I will be jumping into book 3 cause I need to know what happens next. So many things hanging that I know will come to light if I keep listening.

The narration was great, glad the author sticks with the same narrator throughout the series.

Great continuation of a good storyline

I thought book 1 of the series was a good read and couldn't wait for the follow up. Well, book 2 didn't disappoint! Enjoyed some of the twists brought out in this book and the storyline through both books is well thought out and entertaining. Looking forward to other works from C.A. Rudolph. I also hope the collaboration with Kevin Pierce is continued. His reading of this series as well as others is on point time and time again. Highly recommend this series to others.

Totally Enjoyable and educational too

The second helping of Lauren and company leaves you yearning for more. I loved the first installment and loved this one too. I know I'm going to tune up the iPod for a second listen. Narrated by the best voice around, Kevin Pierce does his job to perfection! The language is a bit tough at times, but then so are the characters.

I really enjoyed how the story gives a hint of history of the characters in bits. You really have to pay attention to catch Sasha and others. The beginning at the end is intriguing as well.

The story is one that could easily play out in "real life" and just may someday sooner than we want to think. There's good tips to be gleaned.

Anxiously awaiting book 3!

great read one of the better in this genre

loved this book and will be listening to the rest of the series to follow this story line fer sure

conservative agenda

I love dystopian and apocalyptic novels. and usually I can adjust my expectations and come out enjoying any book. This one was pretty hard to enjoy. I understand and respect and even admire that this man is trying to leave his daughter an instruction manual. The plot and characters have great potential. But they're flat and everyone has been pigeonholed into a label. Ppl are a lot more messy and complicated. With a good author, you would never be able to distinguish the writer's personal views. But this book is basically a set of flat characters set up to represent this author's ignorant fears, discrimatory views and fear of the fall of the patriarchy. And he dresses it up as a liberal government out to get Christianity and the good'ol white man. He even managed to make the strong female lead a dumb girl half the time. The characters all sounded alike as if it were the same person speaking.
And it's quite ironic to see it in print today, with the current POTUS. Seems like conspiracy theories that hinged on corrupt liberals blew up in your face there. Meanwhile, if something like this ever happens, it won't quite go down the way you imagine it. The younger and progressive generation may suprise you. They will be the ones who adapt the quickest. I hope through publishing this series, receiving comments and paying attention to what's happening in the world, your awareness and perspective have grown.

I wish this had been better organized

I love the book and the directions it goes. This story jumped around to before, during and after the first book and kept throwing me off. People were introduced at such a pace I gave up on figuring it out. I'll listen to the next one for sure and will be giving the feed back to chad.

Pretty Good Book

I'd recommend it but it does suffer some from what seems to be the author's desire to simply make a longer book. There are whole chapters that deal with some emotional, drawn out conversation between two characters that could've been covered in maybe two paragraphs.

Then there's the odd inclusion of the woman preacher putting her blessing on homosexuality. Not sure why that was even thrown in there unless it's purely some personal thing the author felt she needed to put in there.

still with the language

The book is great. The language is awful. I think it is very distracting and would have given 5 stars if there was less cussing.

among the better TEOTWAWKI series

this is an outstanding and brutally realistic series. focusing more on character interaction and survival tactics, the author builds a convincing storyline of family, friends, and neighbors' struggles to survive. A great follow-up to the first in the series. I'll definitely get the third one. The narrator continues to improve, vocal inflections and tone makes a big difference in keeping the listener locked in to the story. only one minor factual error in this book: mention of "Sarin" as a biological agent; Sarin is a chemical agent. but this doesn't distract from the storyline; it was just a minor error. The tactical-level battles that are fought are intense and well played, if not brutally vivid and realistic in my mind; provides some excellent stimulation for my own family preparedness to think about. you will not be disappointed.