Travelers by Al Hess

Alright, I went into this 100% not knowing what to expect and I was immediately inundated with a very interesting world. Travelers is set in a post-apocalypse America, 150+ years after a virus ravaged the the entire Americas. I know a virus story, right now? Trust me, it doesn’t even play more than a passing mention/explanation and then it’s gone. The focus is all on the current time and our main MC, Owl and our hunky love interest Trav. 

Let’s start with Owl. I love her. She’s got some baggage and it’s clear she’s been through A LOT, which we learn about over the course of the story without it being an info dump. She’s cautious, independent, a little skittish, but determined. She’s not quite sure what she’s looking for but it’s got to be better than where she came from. Owl came from a farming town called Hawthorne and left in hopes of finding her brother and a better life. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen. Instead she’s on the run and finds herself in the desolate waste between settlements where highwaymen lurk behind every ridge and ramshackle hut. 

Trav is our Islander and loooovveeee interest. He’s sweet, caring, patient and most importantly, understanding. Literally, the perfect hunk. He saves Owl when she falls (quite a long ways) and gets injured. Owl assumes the worst of him, can’t blame her at all for that, but eventually over time the two bond and become close *wink*. He comes from a chain of islands off the coast where he doesn’t quite fit in either, as he is albino and is treated very differently for it. On the mainland, he isn’t treated much better so he spends much of his time before meeting Owl alone and being harassed by other survivors. 

Together they traverse quite a swath of land, saving each other multiple times, saving other people and meeting some very interesting characters. Sasha was probably my favorite of them (he gets his own story later in the series!), a Russian who flies drones around America investigating the different settlements and their population. His English isn’t the best and he is a raging alcoholic but you come to understand him along with Owl and Trav. In the end he even helps them escape and get back to the coast where Owl and Trav end up living happily ever after (sort of) on Trav’s island. 

After multiple encounters with highway men, trashdogs and unrelenting dystopia, the pair also have to contend with prejudice and harassment from almost every person they meet. Trav is an Islander and albino and is very misunderstood. Owl, when on Trav’s home island, faces the same thing from the other Islanders. 

I’m trying not to give everything away, which is so so hard, because I could just gush, but suffice to say things end up happy for all parties. This is a COZY apocalypse story after all. The plot was perfectly paced to keep me interested and lots of things happened that I did NOT expect. The character growth was beautiful and was completely natural and the love and trust that builds between Owl and Trav was well done. I completely loved this story and have already purchased the rest of the SERIES so I can read them all and learn more about this new world.