Tag: zombies

Guest Review: Waking Up Alive by Emma Shortt

Posted January 22, 2016 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Waking Up Alive by Emma ShorttReviewer: Tracy
Waking Up Alive by Emma Shortt
Series: End of Days Love #2
Also in this series: Waking Up Dead
Publisher: Entangled
Publication Date: January 18, 2016
Genres: Post Apocalyptic
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

After surviving the zombie apocalypse for two years, Tye LeBow never expected to be saved from a hungry gang of zombies by a geek with a bad attitude and a penchant for explosives. Tye can’t quite work out why scientist Polly Parker saved him. She doesn’t want his protection, and she certainly doesn’t want his company. But Tye has no intention of leaving the beguiling geek behind.

Polly doesn’t want to leave her home, but when the wakers begin to show signs of a burgeoning intelligence, heading south is the only option. With a car packed full of homemade explosives, and Tye’s very large axe, they are ready for the road trip of their lives.

Bombs and blades aren’t the only keys to survival–they’ll need to rely on each other, in a way that neither could have imagined…

Tye has been holding his own in the zombie apocalypse. He met his friend Jackson two years after it began and they’ve stuck together. Unfortunately, they get separated when running from zombies while in Chicago and that’s when Tye meets Polly.   Polly is a mathematician and when everything started going to hell a couple of years ago she holed up in her office building and she’s been quite safe. She should have left Chicago a long time ago but fear has kept her in place. She doesn’t want to trust Tye but forces herself to see him as a good person and it manages to work out.

Tye and Polly end up leaving Chicago together to head to the survivors camp that is near Laredo Texas. When they get near to it they end up in a zombie horde and Polly gets bitten by a zombie. The doctor at the camp has been working on a cure to the virus that is causing the zombieism and with Polly’s antibodies he may have done it. That doesn’t make Tye happy that Polly is now a zombie and that he may never get her back.

The story of Tye and Polly was a good one. I think you definitely have to read Jackson and Luke’s story in Waking Up Dead before starting Waking Up Alive. I don’t think you can fully grasp the situation or the thoughts behind the virus or the doctor’s “almost” cure unless you do. The story was good but can’t, imho, be read as a stand-alone novel.

Tye and Polly were a sweet couple together. I really liked the first part of the book when they meet and start to fall in love. You can see it as two friends falling in love and though it happens slowly and in definite stages it was no less touching. Polly and Tye were opposites but meshed well. I liked how Tye helped Polly with her fears and he supported her ideas with respect. He saw her as brave when she didn’t see that in herself.

The second part of the book was a good but a bit disappointing in the romance department. It had Polly as a zombie and we got weird Polly-zombie dreams which were quite strange and Tye going out to kill zombies cuz he couldn’t be with Polly. That was all good and it worked well for the cure but it didn’t really work for enhancing the romance between the two. The end was sweet but didn’t quite make up for the lack of romance in the second half of the book.

Despite my issues with the romance I still thought it was a quite enjoyable read. The descriptions of the zombies was appropriately disgusting and the action scenes were well done. Overall a decent read and one you won’t want to miss especially if you’ve already read Waking Up Alive.

Rating: 3.75 out of 5

Reading Order:

Waking Up Dead
Waking Up Alive

three-half-stars

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Guest Review: Survive to Dawn by PJ Schnyder

Posted May 1, 2014 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: Survive to Dawn by PJ SchnyderReviewer: Tracy
Survive to Dawn by PJ Schnyder
Series: London Undead #3
Publisher: Carina Press
Publication Date: April 21st 2014
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

The zombie epidemic in London has been contained, but that's all the werewolf pack that protects the city has been able to manage. Danny, as pack medic, is concerned the epidemic isn't showing any signs of slowing down. And that the pack's Alpha is too focused on eliminating the deadly threat to consider working toward a cure.

When a team of American scientists arrive, talking of a vaccine, Danny is quietly hopeful.

Deanna thought she was prepared for anything. But an argument with the London pack leaves her research team exposed and alone, on their own against countless hordes of the walking dead. Within hours, her colleagues are slaughtered…and it's only because of Danny that she manages to get out alive.

Deanna unhinges Danny in every way, tempting him beyond reason. She also pushes him to face the one thing he'd been avoiding: his Alpha is wrong. Simply surviving isn't the answer…it can't be.

 

Tracy’s review of Survive to Dawn (London Undead #3) by PJ Schnyder

Deanna is a scientist from America and she’s traveled to London to A) try to figure out a vaccine for the zombie virus with her fellow scientists and B) find her twin sister who she fears dead. Deanna and her crew meet with the werewolf Alpha, Seth, but he doesn’t want them in the city. The scientists manage to get in with werewolf medic Danny keeping an eye on them. Unfortunately the scientists have no idea what they’re up against with the zombies and soon Deanna’s on her own. Danny helps her deal with the fall out of the situation and agrees to help her find her sister as well. While the pair are working together a romance begins forcing Danny into some hard truths he’d been willing to ignore til then.

This is the third and final novella in the London Undead series. The story was fun and interesting and quite enjoyable.

The two previous stories had couples falling in love quite quickly and this book followed the same formula. Danny and Deanna were drawn to each other, found comfort in each other and then slept together – quickly falling in love afterward. While I felt that Deanna and Danny were definitely a good match it was difficult for me to wrap my mind around the insta-love. IDK, maybe because it wasn‘t a fated mate situation? I hate to say it but that would have almost made it better for me as it would have explained how things moved so quickly. I have to say that with all the novella’s I’ve enjoyed the diversity in the couples. Book 1 – werewolf and human turned wolf…Book 2 panther shifter and half fae/half beserker…and Book 2 werewolf and human witch…it definitely made for interesting pairings. 🙂

The part of the story that had to do with Deanna’s sister was definitely the better part of the story for me. Finding out what happened to the twin and finally finding out how the whole zombie epidemic started in the first place was wonderful. I’m glad that we weren’t left hanging.

Overall this was a good story and I’m glad I read it.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

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.

three-half-stars

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