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Northern Survival

Diane McGyver

4.57 · Rating details · 23 ratings · 7 reviews

Surviving the plane crash was the easy part.

Olive Tweed planned her trip for two years. She’d vacation at Summer Beaver, gather the research material needed to write the next book and spend a few days hiking the vast wilderness. When she is called home unexpectedly and boards a chartered plane, she never dreamt it would crash, leaving her alone with a man who knew nothing ...more

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Kindle Edition, 194 pages

Published August 24th 2020

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Sep 17, 2020 Barbara Carter rated it really liked it

What does a struggling writer from Nova Scotia and a wealthy movie star from California have in common?
At first the answer seems to be nothing. But put them in the right situation, such as being the only survivors of a plane crash in Northern Ontario and then see what happens.
It’s then that we soon discover John and Olive have more in common than just surviving.

I like survival stories. And this book is not only about survival, but also adventure, romance, and action. So never a dull moment!

At f ...more

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Nov 05, 2020 Sally Cronin rated it it was amazing

What a fantastic read. I found it difficult to book the book down and got fully immersed in this survival adventure featuring two people who in so many ways are poles apart. Olive and John do not have a great start to their relationship, and as a disaster throws their lives into free fall, there seems to be little chance it will warm up anytime soon.

Clearly the author has experience in the backwoods of Canada, and as the days pass and the weather and nature do everything in their power to stop t ...more

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Sep 12, 2020 Jacqui rated it it was amazing

In Northern Survival (Quarter Castle Publishing 2020), two strangers--Olive, a writer researching an upcoming book and and Johnathan, a movie star--are returning to civilization aboard a small plane when a large bird slams into the windshield and crashes the plane. Everyone is killed except Olive and Johnathan and they are stranded in the middle of the frozen Canadian forests. Conventional wisdom says to stay with the plane but nearby hungry wolves convince them they must leave. They have little ...more

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Oct 30, 2020 Cath rated it it was amazing

This is the story of a woman called Olive Tweed and the story she writes, to cope with a traumatic event, where she spent thirty four days in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, with the dashing star of Roads Apart and millionaire Jonathan Stone (53). Some two weeks after the event she is still suffering from her memories and her friend Marleen tells her to write it all down, to help her work her way through what she went through, even if she never lets anyone else read it. It will hopefully do This is the story of a woman called Olive Tweed and the story she writes, to cope with a traumatic event, where she spent thirty four days in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, with the dashing star of Roads Apart and millionaire Jonathan Stone (53). Some two weeks after the event she is still suffering from her memories and her friend Marleen tells her to write it all down, to help her work her way through what she went through, even if she never lets anyone else read it. It will hopefully do her some good. She manages to grab a seat on a small private plane, cutting her writing and trekking holiday short as her 91 year old mother had a bad stroke and she needed to get home before she died. She was away in Summer Beaver, doing research for her next book and enjoying exploring the wilderness. The plane is filled with Mr Stone’s gears and the pilot is a man called Al and Frank Kane who is Jonathan’s friend and business partner takes the other seat in the front, to allow Olive to get in the back of the plane next to Jonathan.

Half an hour into the flight, a sudden shout from the front of the plane and then breaking glass led to blood and feathers hitting them in the face and chest. Al the pilot and Frank were non-responsive and there was no one left to fly the plane. Luckily the pilot had eased Olive’s worries about getting into such a small four seater plane and told her the plane was equipped with a parachute, labelled as CAPS, which would help a damaged plane to float gently down to the ground, if it had any problems. Olive remembered this and pulled the lever by the back of the cockpit area. The parachute was fired by a rocket mechanism and opened up with a sudden jerk and Jonathan helped to strap her back into her seat. The plane floated down into a forested area and Olive saw them going past a river. They got hung up in the tress, by the parachute, until it ripped and the roll cage saved them from being crushed when it hit the ground.

Olive went to check the two men, but Jonathan asked her to move and he checked out his friend Frank first, then the pilot, both of whom were obviously dead from the bird strike, before the crash. Olive still had a few supplies in her backpack, which had been prepared for a three day hike, so also had a map of Northern Ontario. A paper one, since she was old school and had a brick for a mobile phone. She worked out where she thought they were from the amount of tie travelled and showed him where she guessed they were. He didn’t believe her, not for the last time, and used his fancy phone to get their GPS location, but had no signal for calls. She was right! She offered a choice of two possible paths to get out. One was north and over harder terrain and also into colder temperatures. The other was to head south and around a large lake, until they reached a highway. He wanted to go north as it was supposed to be the shorter route, but she insisted on going south. Being a typical bull-headed and opinionated male of privilege, he wanted her to go the way he said, but she had far more experience in this area and stripped their packs of unnecessary items and started off, going south. He soon gave up and followed her.

When she stopped for the night, he had used up all of his water and most of hers as well. She tried to warn him not to drink too much, as they would be on limited food for however long it took them to get out, but he didn’t want to listen. She made a shelter and fire each night and tried to find other food sources, while he was pretty useless and out of his comfort zone. He ignored her warning about water, until he fell ill and collapsed! She looked after him until he recovered and he returned the favour later on, when she became ill from frostbite and another time when she was knocked unconscious. He started to learn from her, how to set up a shelter, gather wood and start a fire safely, and even to fish and collect berries! They had to learn to put their differences aside, in order to survive, but he was certainly opinionated in many matters, especially when it came to her. They must rely upon each other for strength and determination, whenever one of them was struggling or ill, or feeling the loss of their past.

Olive had been in an abusive relationship with a man that never married her for over twenty years, until she finally got the courage to leave him. She has two grown up kids left behind and had saved for two years to get the chance to take her trip to Summer Beaver! Not the ending of her holiday that she expected. He is rich beyond his needs, having gotten married not long ago to a woman half his age that he didn’t even love and has three grown kids left behind from his first marriage. The biggest loss for him, is the loss of his best friend and partner Frank, who has been with him every step of the way in his career, from a no-body to a worldwide famous actor and heartthrob! He has changed a lot from this experience, but whether he will ensure the changes and lessons he learnt are carried into his future life are yet to see. She has grown in her self-belief and her ability to tell a man what is important to her and not allow herself to be walked all over. Something she struggled with for two decades. To only have a future with someone who loved her for herself!

A great story of adversity and survival in harsh conditions. The fact that this book is based partly on the story of a pilot in Northern Quebec who filmed his own plane crash, which he survived only because he had a CAPS parachute system built into his light place. It took him a few days to reach safety, so nothing like the length of time out two main characters took. But there is definitely a lot of wild and sparsely populated areas in Northern Canada. Areas of untouched wildlife and land, beautiful but also deadly if you don’t treat it with due respect. A well written book, that just pulls you into the story and the characters survival in harsh conditions. Lots of useful experience is passed on in the telling, with natural remedies and details on the perils of wet feet and clothing. The ending was a perfect one, taking place about a month after they were rescued. I didn’t see any mention of them restocking the cabin that saved them with its supplies and warmth. Loved the other touches that were done at the end. I can’t wait to read another book by this author, this is my first and left me wanting to read more! I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
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Nov 30, 2020 Lynne Stoppard-jones rated it it was amazing

I looked forward to reading it each evening

Thoroughly enjoyable adventure about how two of them survived in the Canadian mountains following the crash of their small plane. It is the best book Iv read for months. A page turner, exciting and practical. I liked the way the characters were different and their true selves revealed slowly throughout their hard walking travels to find safety and rescue.
It’s so good to read a book that doesn’t take half of it to get into it. Their histories were concis ...more

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Nov 21, 2020 Anita Babb rated it it was amazing

Thrilling story.

This book really kept my attention from beginning to end. I’d love to read similar stories where people overcome great hardships to stay alive. Characters were flawed but believable.

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