When technology stopped working, the world as they knew it ended. In a secluded cabin, John and his loved ones have survived. He should feel grateful. But his family is in his face 24/7, he has to watch his best friend, Arden, and brother, Gabriel, flaunt their love, and as a techie in a Luddite world he's pretty much useless. The cabin is brimming with people, but he feels utterly alone. Until he catches Mr. Tall, Blond and Gorgeous raiding their garden. Mykhail is an astrophysics student, he makes John's gaydar ping like crazy and he thinks he knows what caused the devastation. He's on a journey to his university to find answers, and John invites himself along. Partly to get out of the house, and partly because he can't let Mykhail go without acting on the mutual attraction that's so obvious even John's mom is playing matchmaker. The closer they get to campus, the more Mykhail lets down his walls. But with answers come secrets both devastating and deadly, and before they can save the world, they'll have to save themselves.

Tracy’s review of Signal Boost (Off the Grid #2) by Alyssa Cole

In book one of the Off the Grid series we met John Seong. He’s a computer nerd who comes from a loud and loving Korean family. John and his best friend Arden had made their way to his parents house from New York after the what they considered the apocalypse and definitely hit some problems both along the way and once they arrived. Now life has pretty much fallen into a routine but John is feeling pretty useless. He feels like he should be doing more to figure out what happened to the electricity and how the world could get it back.

Mykhail is from the Ukraine and is an “almost” astrophysicist. He is caught by John when he attempts to steal some veggies from the Seong family garden. John is immediately attracted to Mykhail but Mykhail doesn’t always seem receptive. Mykhail states that he’s on his way to Burnell University to see his old mentor because if anyone has figured out how to get the electricity up and running again it’s his old mentor. John decides to travel with Mykhail as the man obviously gets lost a lot. Once on the road they start learning more about each other and John starts to fall in love. Mykhail, however much emotion he feels for John, keeps pushing him away but not for the reason that John thinks. When they eventually get to the University all is not what it seems and soon Mykhail and John are working even harder to get life back to normal.

The second book in the Off the Grid series was just as good as book one. I loved both Mykhail and John for completely different reasons and with them being so different it made a great case for opposites attract.

John was the type of person who knew what he wanted and went after it. He hadn’t always been like that but he’d learned that in the new world they lived in that the couldn’t afford to let opportunities pass him by. I really loved his sense of humor and most definitely his sense of honor. He was a wonderful person and I loved reading about him.

Mykhail was a strong character as well but he didn’t believe himself to be so. After the world had pretty much come to a standstill he had become a caregiver for those he loved but it hadn’t been enough to save everyone. He was hurt tremendously by his past actions and believed himself to be a dark and horrible person. He was perfect for John but couldn’t see that until John forced him to open his eyes about himself as well as accepting Mykhail for all of his past.

The story was very good and I really enjoyed reading about the men’s relationship as well as all of the details about the apocalypse. I’m not sure if there will be more in this series but I certainly hope so. Cole does a great job of world building and she makes me want to read more about the world she created.

Rating: 4 out of 5

This title is available from Carina Press. You can buy it here or here in e-format. This book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.