Ashen Winter (Ashfall #2) by Mike Mullin

It’s been over six months since the eruption of the Yellowstone supervolcano. Alex and Darla have been staying with Alex’s relatives, trying to cope with the new reality of the primitive world so vividly portrayed in Ashfall, the first book in this series. It’s also been six months of waiting for Alex’s parents to return from Iowa. Alex and Darla decide they can wait no longer and must retrace their journey into Iowa to find and bring back Alex’s parents to the tenuous safety of Illinois. But the landscape they cross is even more perilous than before, with life-and-death battles for food and power between the remaining communities. When the unthinkable happens, Alex must find new reserves of strength and determination to survive. 





In the first book of the series, Ashfall. The supervalcano has erupted and Alex is left alone, as his parents had been visiting family in Iowa. He has no choice, in his opinion to leave the house and try to find them. Enduring some very exhausting travels and experiencing troubling acts of human behavior he is able to travel far and meet new people in a very gripping story.


Now in book two, he still has yet to find his parents and decides that it has been too long and they have not returned. He must find them, and Darla refuses to let him leave alone.
Now that some time has passed, the states and it's people are trying to regain some sort of formed societies. But there is still huge danger with the rebel groups and so much death, fighting and starvation. Alex and Darla each experience turmoil and separation. Meeting new people, and visiting again with characters from the first book.


Parts of this book are very intense, High tension situations and at times a glimpse at humanity at it's worst. The books carry a theme that love, family and a little hope can go a long way.

4 stars

These books do contain acts of violence, some rape (not graphic).
Amazon Link to Ashfall Trilogy