This book took me by honest surprise, I don't normally gravitate towards stories with guns and blasters, it just doesn't grab my attention. But bounty hunters and mercenaries and the like, do grab my attention. So the premises of following a bounty hunter had my interest. I am so glad I didn't read the synopsis for this, and just went on title and cover alone, because boy was this a fun, fast paced, and action packed story.

Right from the start we are just thrown into the bounty hunter world of Joe, there is no wait or build up to him being a bounty hunter, this is a man who has been doing this job for some time now and that's where we start his story at. When you met him you just know Joe is going to be that protagonist who just gets involved in others business for it to only go sour, and he does not come up short on this aspect. The action is nonstop throughout this story, which makes for a compelling atmosphere, it pulls you in and makes you want more. Aside from Joe
the cast of characters does not come up short, there was honestly way more characters then I was expecting.

Through the story we met an array of characters from other bounty hunters, a town sheriff, to some adorable as heck kids, and everything else in between. The cast is large but well balanced, the story never loses its focus on Joe being our main leading man, But I wont lie, Kit and Rex won my heart over.

While I appreciated the large cast I will say one of the major things that bothered me was the conversations, specifically ones between the bounty hunters. These guys are suppose to be ex-military (some not all), rough, gruff, no nonsense, shoot first ask questions later kind of guys, but their conversations with each other felt like 13yr old boys bantering back and fourth, my mind pictures early to late 30ish for most of these guys, so the childish banter kind of killed that. Now I'm not saying they needed to be full of swears and nastiness but I mean a little rough language flavor would have sold me a bit more on their rough "personalities", especially Rex, I had expected him to be abit more on the fowl side with the way he is described.

The world-building was a lot smaller in comparison to the characters and plot, From what I am hoping I understood, its a world in the distant future where a ton of wars just laid waste to lands and now people struggle to get by in what is pretty much the Wastelands. The world building is minimal but I do think that is do to the amount of work that was put into all the action, Joe didn't have much time to stop and take in the flowers, if you know what I mean, but this did make it a bit hard at times to understand what possible location style I was suppose to envisioning in my mind.

The only other thing that I wasn't particularly fond of was the mutant story-line. That was so odd and felt so out of place, It just kind of snuck up and then it was gone. So unless this will be touched upon more in later books, right now, it just felt strange and left me confused.

I will be continuing this series, as I really like the characters, and frankly I am a nosy person when it comes to background stories, so a girl can only hope she will learn what happened in Westown! ( )

Like so many many others

Bounty hunters have been the stuff of adventure novels for a century or longer and moving them into the future does not automatically endow them with originality. This is The Mandalorian from the dark side and really is not very good. Same old stuff.

I received a review copy of "Bounty Hunter: Lone Gunfighter of the Wastelands" by Rachel Aukes from Waypoint Books through NetGalley.com. ( )

I was provided this book by the author free of charge for reviewing purposes.

Bounty Hunter is a light yet fast paced and entertaining novel, at 330 pages it's a relatively quick read that once started is rather hard to put down. Set in a war torn post apocalyptic/dystopian world I couldn't help but picture Fallout or Rage imagery in my mind as I was reading which made it all the more rich a reading experience as a fan of such.

It was really quite the enjoyable western style romp through the wastelands as we follow Joe Ballast aka "Havoc" through his role as a bounty hunter who diligently tracks down those with bounties outstanding. Whilst the initial impression is a rather uncaring ex-soldier as the story unfolds we see he is anything but that as he fights for those he cares about and against those that impinge his moral framework. A rich background is painted for not only Joe but the surrounding characters involved in the story which makes each relatable in their own way. I would definitely recommend this to fans of post apocalypse & modern western adventures.

I eagerly await the release of the next book in the series to see where the adventure takes Joe & his cohort. ( )

Bounty Hunter: Lone Gunfighter of the Wastelands
by Rachel Aukes

What a fun way to escape today. Well, perhaps escaping to a post apocalyptic world while in the midst of a real pandemic might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it really worked for me. Instead of being locked in during a lock-down I escaped to a ruthless world filled with interesting characters and earth as I hope to never see it in my lifetime. With greedy evil men trying to take over the world, people just trying to survive, bounty hunters out to get their wo/men, not enough for everyone and violence and death a daily occurrence this book made me think...what if? I mean, what would I do if I lived in that time and place? What would I be willing to do to survive? It also made me consider what a hero really is. I can definitely see this as a graphic novel or movie and can’t wait to read more by this author.

What I liked:
* Joe Ballast – Havoc – Bounty hunter who gets his man and doesn’t think about the man while doing his job. He does, however, think and care about a few people and takes in strays from time to time.
* The way the story was written – felt I was there and all of my senses were engaged
* The backstory that set the stage
* Sara and Nick – they gave Joe a reason to care and made him a bit more human
* Romy – plucky young girl
* Champ – a canine survivor
* T-Rex – he made me smile...kind of a brute but an interesting one
* The crafting of the world in the story with guilds and cutters and all the rest
* Being able to relate to the people in the story and the situations they found themselves in
* Val – a good woman that I would like to know better
* Kit – an interesting character
* The feeling that Val, Kit and Joe might be a bit like the three musketeers in the next book as they continue with the story but would that make T-Rex D’artagnan?

What I didn’t like:
* The evil men… but then, I wasn’t supposed to like them!
* Having to wait to find out what will happen next

Thank you to NetGalley and Waypoint Books for the ARC – This is my honest review.

5 Stars ( )

Summary
Havoc (Joe) is a veteran of 3 wars. His ideals and morals were forced on vacation by his need for money. Thanks to the Sloan brothers, his ideals and morals are need by a lot of people. He, an old war buddy, and an annoying bounty hunter co-worker must kill the brother before the brother takes over the government, kill them, and their loved ones.
My opinion
The writing starts slowly for the first five chapters, but it picks up quickly. The slow start is needed for the amazing world-building that made this book great. The characters feel real and they have full personalities. The combat scenes are amazing as well. They were in fact pace and well written. ( )