LOVED it.
Higher than a 4...just not QUITE good enough to be a 5 star.
Horizon was a beautiful ending to the Aftertime trilogy. I thought it was the strongest book in the series and loved the direction Littlefield took with the story.

We pick up about 2 months after the end of Rebirth. Cass, Ruthie, Dor, Smoke, Sammi and the other pregnant girls have made it to New Eden, a safe community in California.
The beginning of this book was everything I loved about the other 2 installments, thrown right in my face. It was as if the author was shaking me, asking "do you still love the "reality" of this???"

There is no happy ending. Our little party may be safe - for now - but they are nowhere near Happily Ever After.
Smoke is comatose. Dor has shacked up with do-gooder-barbie. Sammi is depressed and angry. Cass is drinking again. Only Ruthie is healing in this safe place - loved by her mother and able to play with other children. Ruthie actually factors very little into Horizon, but I found that understandable. Her safety and happiness is still the motivation for everything Cass does, but this last book in the series is about CASS. Not her relationships, but the way those relationships effect her.

The Aftertime love-triangle continued to shine for all the things it was NOT - cheesy, superficial or filled with starry eyes and moist lips. This triangle is different.
First, the two men are both highly desirable...at least to me. Both are strong and smart and neither will wither away if Cass doesn't choose them. They are both possessive, protective and willing to kill for what's theirs. They are both natural leaders - in their element in this Aftertime world. Both are willing to make the tough, unpopular decisions when it's necessary. Those are their similarities.
The differences...Smoke makes Cass a better person. He expects her to be good, and so she is. He is good with Ruthie - a father to her. Smoke is also tortured by his past, determined to do penance for a sin he keeps secret. Cass fears he'll always choose retribution over her.
Dor is self serving and ruthless, but his "selfish" nature extends to those around him. Dor lets Cass be who she is - helps her accept herself - rather than making her strive to be something better. Dor is a good father, a good provider, a good lover...but he'll never be warm and fuzzy.
Either man would be a good choice for Cass. I've found my loyalties to these two men switching several times during the trilogy, but by the end, Cass made the choice I would have made, too.

I loved the progression of this book. I loved the journey our characters took, the revelations along the way. I loved the characters - old and new. I loved the pacing, it kept me on the edge of my seat.
Most of all, I loved the intensity.
I've read countless books where authors try to write intensity like this into their stories...and I've often gotten to the middle of the scene, realized it was supposed to be exciting, and thought that the book really would have benefited from a movie soundtrack - just a little background music to let me know something big was coming.
Little field didn't need any soundtrack. Not by a long shot.
I found myself holding my breath, flipping the pages as quickly as I could...terrified, dying to know what was coming next...
And she did it time and time again. And it never got old.

The ending of this book was like a big exhalation. Not a sigh of relief, mind you...because nothing is over. Much is just beginning. Just that huff of air you let out when you know you've got a momentary respite before even more is thrown at you.
LOVE.