You know your life has hit rock bottom when you’re living off cooked rats and showering once every few months—if you’re lucky. But for Jackson Hart things are about to get a whole lot worse. When her best friend, Tye, disappears hunting for food, kick-ass Jackson’s ‘head south to safety’ plan looks like it’s dead before it’s even begun. But then she meets ex-mechanic Luke Granger, who takes her to his bunker, feeds her with non-rat based food, and offers her protection against the zombie hordes—not that she needs it. She knows how to use a machete and isn’t afraid to.

Jackson was tempted to stay in the city with her rescuer. Food, shampoo and the possibility of finally getting laid, what more could she ask for? But the flesh eaters are getting smarter and the bunker is compromised, so Jackson and Luke have no choice but to make the journey south.

Luke and Jackson team up to find other humans in a road-trip romance for the ages. They travel for thousands of miles with zombies shadowing their every move. They must utilize every resource at their disposal…and then some. On the way, they discover that even if flesh eating zombies are knocking down their door, there’s always time for sex and even love.

It’s been 2 years since zombies started taking over the world. Jackson is one of the ones who has survived and she’s done that by taking all emotion from her life and doing what she needs to do in order to live. She met Tye and they had been traveling together and landed in Chicago. They get separated and Jackson ends up meeting Luke who has had it pretty good as he found an underground bunker early on. Luke and Jackson stick together and when Jack tells Luke that she’s headed to a survivors camp in Laredo, Texas that she heard about he decides to go with her.

As they travel they become closer and basically fall in love although Jackson’s not about to admit that and let emotion rule her. When they arrive near Laredo and find more than what they hoped for, Luke thinks that life can be “normal” now but it might have been too long that Jackson was on her own and she might not be able to handle “normal” at all.

I’m the first to put my hand up when anyone asks who likes/watches The Walking Dead on tv. I love that show! What I like so much about it is the interpersonal relationships between the characters and how they treat each other, react to different situations and of course, deal with zombies. When I saw Waking Up Dead on NetGalley I grabbed it because I was hoping that it offered the same kind of thing and it certainly delivered!

Jackson and Luke are wonderful together. No, they didn’t fall into each others arms right away although I could tell there was attraction there. They dealt with each other well but as much as Jackson tried to keep emotion out of her life it was there whether she wanted it to be or not. Luke had had it pretty good with living in the bunker for so long and he hadn’t been walking/traveling for two years like Jack had. He was good for her in that he forced her to look at life differently and while she didn’t like that she allowed it. I loved the communication between the two and I loved watching the blooming romance between the two.

The end of the book was exciting and action-packed (as is the rest of the book) and quite touching. I loved the end scene(s) and can’t wait to read the next book, Waking Up Alive, when it comes out.

If you are one, like me, who loves a great post-apocalyptic romance then this book is definitely one you’ll want to pick up. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Rating: 4 out of 5