Review: End Times by Anna Schumacher

Title: End Times
Author: Anna Schumacher
Series: End Times, Book 1
Genre: Young Adult (Post-)Apocalyptic
Release Date: 20 May 2014

Carbon County, Wyoming is like a current running through Daphne’s heart.

When life gets too tough to bear in Detroit, Daphne flees to her Uncle Floyd’s home, where she believes she’ll find solace in the silent hills of her childhood summers. But Daphne’s Greyhound bus pulls over in downtown Carbon County and it’s not silence that welcomes her. It’s trumpets.

Daphne’s desire to start again in simple country comfort is instantly dashed as the townsfolk declare that the End Times are here. And incredible occurrences soon support their belief. Daphne does all she can to keep her head down and ignore the signs. She works a job at the local oil rig, helps around the house, hangs out with her pregnant cousin Janie and gets to know Owen, a mysterious motocross racer and fellow roustabout at the rig. But soon a startling discovery shatters her resolve and calls into question all her doubts and fears.

Daphne landed in Carbon County for a reason. She only has to read the signs—and believe.

Bored. I can sum up my entire reading experience in one word. I gave this book more than enough time, and I just - finally - couldn't take it anymore.

You probably want some more though. Okay. This book is told in alternating third-person POV with three main characters (so far): Daphne, her cousin Janie, and Owen. Owen's the only one that's remotely interesting to me, and that's not saying much because I'm not real interested in him either. Daphne has potential, but she's so busy trying to fade into the background that I'm bored with her. Janie's ... pregnant. Apparently that's the sum of her personality. That and she "loves" her boyfriend who's an obvious asshole.

42% I read, and I didn't even get to the part of the blurb where the "townsfolk declare that the End Times are here." Trumpets are sounding when Daphne gets into town, but after they stop (later that night) they're pretty much forgotten. Life goes on. I get to read about boring day to day life stuff. Then Daphne is apparently Jed Clampett and black gold comes bubbling up out of the ground. More boring day to day stuff. More boring. More. More. More.

The writing feels pretty simplistic, too. That's not always a bad thing, but here there was nothing that made me want to do anything other than skim. The dialogue also felt really forced and not at all like how people actually talk.

Finally, there's shaping up to be some sort of confrontation between the (Christian) God-loving folk of Carbon County (which despite its name is actually a town) and the Earth Children - children of the Earth God apparently. Honestly, I'm just not interested. The Christians in this book felt like caricatures, and then there was the free-loving "hippie" vibe of the main "Earth Child" that we've met so far. Meh. Stereotypes aren't awesome.

The one good thing I can say is that - despite being bored - the book reads fairly quickly. It took me a couple of hour to read nearly half of it, and I kept pausing to do other things.

Grade: DNF

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Review: One Thousand and One Nights by Ruth Browne

Title: One Thousand and One Nights
Author: Ruth Browne
Series: N/A
Genre: Post Apocalyptic Fiction
Release Date: 30 September 2013

Sheri spends her days fighting zombies and her nights chained to a wall, earning her every breath by telling stories to her captor Aleksy — stories that make them both forget the ruined world. Sheri could put up with the conditions — at least she knows her sister is safe in the community Aleksy leads — until she realizes she’s falling for him...even though he wants her dead.

When Aleksy allowed Sheri and her sister into his compound, he didn't know about the zombie bite on her back. It's only a matter of time before she turns into one of the rising dead and threatens their existence, but Aleksy has a secret need for Sheri and her stories. For everyone's safety, he chains her to his bedroom wall, hoping for just one more day. But how long will the community allow Aleksy to ignore his own rule: always kill the infected. Always.

I'm not even sure where to start with this. I requested this book for review because I loved the idea of a Scheherazade retelling. Sometime between when I requested it and when I opened the file on my Kindle tonight, I forgot it was in a post-apocalyptic setting with zombies because I was very confused at first. My own fault though, and quickly rectified when I glanced at the blurb again.

I'm going to start with the biggest problem for me: Aleksy's been keeping Sheri CHAINED in his bedroom, by the throat, for nearly FOUR months! One time, in the book, she's chained so tightly that she can only squat near the wall - no rest for her legs, knees, back, ankles, feet - and anytime her head droops with sleepiness, the collar chokes her. And she's attracted to this guy?

I kind of get the caution - she's been bitten, and the bite's still healing, maybe she's going to turn and then she's a danger to everyone. But she's not mindless yet, obviously, because she's telling you stories. Why the ever-living-heck do you have to treat her like garbage? Water but no food, chained day and night, punished for the most minor things.

But Sheri keeps coming back. That's right, she gets let out of the compound to go look for more stories. Granted, she does have her sister there, but honestly she gave up hope of the people ever trusting her, and she hardly ever got to see her sister - she was kept secluded from her. So what's the effing point??

Like the stories Scheherazade told, there are tales within tales in this book. We jump back in the timeline more than a few times to learn more about Sheri and Aleksy and how they came to be the people they are at the point of the true story. Unfortunately this usually just irritated me and I ended up skimming. Also, I got irritated when I had to keep reading the stories that she was telling Aleksy. I wouldn't have minded small bits, but there were pages and pages of them - I've read Sinbad, I've read the Brothers Grimm tales, I don't need to read them again.

And this is completely nit-picky, but I seriously can't stand it when people include guns in their novels and they either don't know how they work or don't know how to describe it properly. There was one point where Sheri's shotgun made a "click-click" noise - I'm not sure why - and had a leather holster - most shotgun holsters aren't leather. Then there's the time when she takes the same shotgun, after they're in zombie territory, and loads it - pumping it to eject the empty shell. Why wasn't it loaded in the first place? And pump action shotguns don't make a clicking noise, that's too tame a word for it. Like I said, nitpicky.

There was a point, at about 45% into the book, that I was starting to get into it. I was invested in Sheri's life and how things were resolved for her. I was ignoring the things that bothered me, and hoping the resolution to Aleksy keeping her caged would be redeemed. Then I hit the end and it all went to hell. After a quick sex scene we're treated to her giving an ultimatum - I leave or you let me live without the chain - and no answer from Aleksy but him thinking she'd already stolen his heart.

Give me a freaking break.

Grade: D-

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Review: Viral Nation with Shaunta Grimes

Title: Viral Nation
Author: Shaunta Grimes
Series: Viral Nation, Book 1
Genre: Post Apocalyptic/Dystopia Young Adult
Release Date: 2 July 2013

After a virus claimed nearly the entire global population, the world changed. The United States splintered into fifty walled cities where the surviving citizens clustered to start over. The Company, which ended the plague by bringing a life-saving vaccine back from the future, controls everything. They ration the scant food and supplies through a lottery system, mandate daily doses of virus suppressant, and even monitor future timelines to stop crimes before they can be committed.

Brilliant but autistic, sixteen-year-old Clover Donovan has always dreamed of studying at the Waverly-Stead Academy. Her brother and caretaker, West, has done everything in his power to make her dream a reality. But Clover’s refusal to part with her beloved service dog denies her entry into the school. Instead, she is drafted into the Time Mariners, a team of Company operatives who travel through time to gather news about the future.

When one of Clover’s missions reveals that West’s life is in danger, the Donovans are shattered. To change West’s fate, they’ll have to take on the mysterious Company. But as its secrets are revealed, they realize that the Company’s rule may not be as benevolent as it seems. In saving her brother, Clover will face a more powerful force than she ever imagined… and will team up with a band of fellow misfits and outsiders to incite a revolution that will change their destinies forever.

Somehow when I was reading the blurb for this book before I requested it, I totally missed that there was time travel in it. That wouldn't have affected my request, but it would have likely made me understand a bit better more quickly. Time travel is a difficult concept to include in nearly any medium and handling it well is even more so. Viral Nation does a pretty damn good job of it. And it acknowledges the inherent issues with time travel - namely the time-loops that get created by knowing what's going to happen and how that can create inconsistencies in the timeline. I appreciated that, and it made me buy into the concept even when I didn't completely follow what was going on or how people knew what they knew.

This is a fascinating world. A virus has decimated the world - or perhaps just the US, it's not entirely clear - and there is now only one city in each state in the USA. The Company controls everything, and they're tyrannical. People are convicted of crimes they haven't yet committed and executed. There's a nightly curfew; the Company decides who does what and when; everything is rationed in no fair way. And the kicker? No one rebels against this. Just 16 years after living in this United States and I have a hard time believing that people would so easily accept this kind of rule. At least I want to hope that people would have a hard time accepting this. Even from the Company that saved their lives.

West and Clover were fantastic main characters. Even while I was frustrated with not understanding what was going on, or why certain things were rules, these two kept me invested and pushing through the book to find out what happens to them. I love how the two of them care for each other, are able to question and learn, and grow as people. They may have believed certain things their entire lives, but they aren't afraid to start questioning the truths they've always known; not afraid to admit to themselves that they might have been wrong.

Viral Nation was a strong start to this series. I admit I still have quite a few questions, but I'm so beyond interested in where things are going that I'm going to continue reading just as soon as I can get my hands on Rebel Nation.

Grade: B+

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Review: Three by Jay Posey

Title: Three
Author: Jay Posey
Series: N/A
Genre: Post Apocalyptic?
Release Date: 30 July 2013

The world has collapsed, and there are no heroes any more.

But when a lone gunman reluctantly accepts the mantel of protector to a young boy and his dying mother against the forces that pursue them, a hero may yet arise.

DNF at 21%.

I just can't anymore.

Some reasons I quit:

1. I have no idea what's going on. What kind of world this is, how it got this way; what kind of people these are, how they got this way. Where it is, when it is, how it is....I've got nothing. This is best as I can figure it.

We're in some vague science-fiction world; maybe earth, maybe some place else. Weirs populate the outside (and it took until 18%ish to get a name/idea of what they were). FYI: They're zombie like creatures with glowing blue eyes that track based on a multitude of things, including characters 'linking (I'll get to that). I have no idea how they came about though. Because of the weirs, humanity has closed themselves up in cities that are locked up tight after dark - apparently the weirs only come out at night? And it's got to be full dark, none of this partial-dusk, mostly dark crap. Also, they apparently communicate with screams and/or screeches.

The characters have some sort of 'link to a central 'net? They can link and find out their global positioning, have access to internal time, get information, and track based on use of this. I don't know why, or how this came about.

There are weird drugs (chems) that people can take to become super strong/fast/smart - but they become addictive to the point where you need them to function later.

2. Characters act in ways that are inconsistent with the world-building.

Enter Three. He's a mercenary? I guess. That was what I imagined him to be considering he was claiming a bounty on someone when we first meet him (unless that's him in the prologue - but I don't really know who that was to be honest). Then he randomly decides to save this woman and child. Next, he continues to help them for a really long time, protecting them despite the woman being an ungrateful person who berates and yells at him for not doing enough (apparently). Also, I have no idea why the mother was in the bar with her son when she first meets Three, and asks him for help. Obvious authorial hand here.

Additionally, Three can kick weir ass. Yet, the rest of humanity can't band together to find the weir and fight them or eliminate them. They're all weak cowards, I guess.

3. Characters that piss me off.

Enter Cass. Previously mentioned mother. She's a quint (the previously mentioned chem) addict with a special son (you know the type - the ONE). She alternates between helpless, bitchy, ungrateful and downright mean. Not to mention that she apparently can't really do anything for herself, and allowed herself AND HER SON to get into a very shady dealing. Though now she is on the run, so at least I can give her that for getting her kid out of it - though he is SEVEN so it took her long enough.

About the time she slapped her son because he wasn't able to find the way out to save them, yes, she needed her son to save himself and her, I lost all interest in her as a character and pretty much came to hate her.

And that pretty much ended my ability to read this. I was going to keep trying to go, but when my whole weekend went by without me picking up my Kindle because I just couldn't make myself. Time to just stop.

I do think this has potential, and that it's probably going to work great for others. It just isn't working for me.

Perhaps I'll come back to it at some point. Right now I doubt it, though.



Grade: DNF

Review: Defiance by Stephanie Tyler

Title: Defiance
Author: Stephanie Tyler
Series: Defiance, Book 1
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, New Adult, Romance
Release Date: 10 June 2013

Rebelling against her legacy as the MC's princess, Tru Tennyson escaped the ruthless, male-dominated culture of the Defiance motorcycle club. Three years later, her newfound freedom is ripped away, thanks to a massive hybrid storm that killed millions. Now, in the post-Chaos world of semi-darkness and near-total anarchy where gangs rule, she discovers the dangerous world of Defiance may be the one thing that can keep her safe.

Tru is at the MC's mercy when she's dragged back to her former home … and to the only man she's ever pictured a future with. Caspar is the bastard son of the club's leader, her safe haven when life got rough — and her onetime lover the night she left. When Tru refuses to trade sex for power and be claimed by a rival club leader, she also dares to announce she wants Caspar instead, throwing the MC into turmoil.

Tru's brazen revolt could start a gang war and destroy the club from within. Now both Tru and the MC must wait for Caspar's response … and the inevitable fallout.

Motorcycle Club books are everywhere these days – at least they’re filling up my Goodreads feed. It seems like all my friends are reading and loving them. I know some people in motorcycle clubs in real life, but haven’t ever spent time with them in that capacity, nor do I watch Sons of Anarchy. So this is my first experience with this type of extreme setting. And it is extreme.

It’s also incredibly interesting. This book does a lot. Not only is it a MC (as they’re frequently called) book, but it’s New Adult – both characters are in their early-twenties – and it’s Post-Apocalyptic. I have to say I was a little concerned it was trying to take on too much. That the book would be spread so thin that the story would be lost and garbled. I was most definitely wrong.

The world has suffered a cataclysmic series of events. Ash covers the sky, governments have pretty much collapsed, and the only law is the one you’re willing to enforce yourself. In this time the Defiance motorcycle club is surviving fairly well. Prior to the apocalypse they were well-prepped, with bunkers, firearms, provisions, and a well-built compound with plenty of space to defend and keep. Survival of the fittest seems to be the rule of the game here. Whatever it takes, is a close second.

I admit that I had my doubts about the MC being this organized, prepared, and well-stocked. But as soon as I accepted it for what it was, and accepted that this was how the MCs operated – there was more than one – I fell right into this world where might makes right.

The characters were my favorite part though. Tru was running from a truly horrible childhood before the disasters, but when hard times hit it became too dangerous. Pretty soon she ends up back with her “family” and now they have to figure out what to do with her. I liked Tru, she’s not perfect. She has some serious flaws, like always thinking of running first, but she is willing to recognize them and try to fight for what she wants. Even if it’s herself she’s fighting against. When she decides to go and declare her intention to ‘bond’, and by that I mean basically marry/mate/commit etc. Whatever you want to call it. She becomes someone’s old-lady, in their vernacular, gets tattooed and falls under his protection. Anyway, when she declares that she’s going to bond with the bastard-son of the MC leader – all hell breaks loose.

Casper isn’t sure whether to be happy or pissed when Tru comes back. And when she calls on him to bond with her, it demands a lot of maneuvering and preparing. When Tru left years ago, Casper was barely acknowledged as accepted. Now he’s an Enforcer of the Definance MC, basically the second in command. He’s helping to run the MC and keep things working well for them. Can he accept Tru as his old-lady, save her, and still maintain the safety of the MC? Especially when there’s a rival MC calling for her blood.

As Tru and Casper decide how they’re going to make it not only work, but excel they both learn a lot about themselves and each other. I can’t get too much into the overall story, because I have to admit there are some twists and turns. And a lot of double-dealing, so it seems. I’m, honestly, not sure how anyone trusted anyone else, thought it made for one hell of an exciting ride!

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. My first foray into the MC stories that are popping up everywhere. I do admit, that being a pretty big outsider to this kind of culture, some of the references, talk, and slang flew over my head. There are some words that I still don’t know what they mean, but it wasn’t enough to seriously detract from my enjoyment. I’ll definitely be grabbing the next one in the series as this one ended with a BANG! I can’t wait to see what happens next with some of the other characters I really came to enjoy.

Rating: B

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Review: Unlikely Protector by Nicole Sheldon

Title: Unlikely Protector
Author: Nicole Sheldon
Series:
Genre: Post Apocalyptic Romance
Release Date: July 15, 2011


The Mayan Calendar was right. The world ended, as we knew it, on December 21, 2012. That was the night the Supers - supernatural creatures - came out to play. Everything from dragons to dark wings (ravens that turn into men) to zombies and a whole lot more. As Moira says, the only hope was that you were eaten alive by a quick eater.

In this world, with death around every corner, surviving is the first and last thing on everyone's mind. Moira managed to stay alive for days in the urban wilderness of the world before Luke saved her from the closet she'd finally had to hide in and took her to a safe refuge.

When things start to go crazy again a few months later, Moira and Luke are thrust back together - with some intersting feelings and desires to mix it up. Can they survive long enough to find out what they have together?

Moira is a great character - smart, strong, and just a touch of vulnerability. She clings to life, almost stubbornly, even when fear is riding her hard.

Luke is silent, brooding, and stubborn. He can't survive if he cares about anyone else in this world, so he tells himself he doesn't care. But he shows so much more than that. He won't leave people behind, won't give up, and protects at all costs to himself. When Moira pushes past the barriers he's erected between them and shows him what is possible. Oh boy, do the sparks fly.

This is a fantastic story, set in a desolate, post-apocalyptic world that still manages to show the hope that can always flourish. Wonderful characters, that are layered and, quite frankly, people I'd like to know, take us through this world. They made me care, and made me want to know more.

If you're looking for a fantasticly built world, and a strong romance, you can't go wrong with Unlikely Protector. Quite simply it was a joy to read, and I eagerly turned the pages looking for more. I highly recommend it and will definitely be looking for more from this Ms. Sheldon.

Grade: A+

Book Link | Kindle | nook

Waiting on Wednesday: Unlikely Protector

Waiting On Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine which
spotlights eagerly anticipated upcoming releases!

This WoW is by a debut author, Nicole Sheldon, and I'm really excited for
it's release on this Friday!

Title: Unlikely Protector
Author: Nicole Sheldon
Series:
Genre: Post Apocalyptic Romance
Release Date: July 15, 2011


Book Description (from author's blog):

What would you bring to the plate if the world ended? Moira is finding that her knowledge of wine and club clothing isn't much help in the end of times, but her ability to problem solve has landed her a job at the camp she and a few other survivors live in. But she can't seem to solve the problem of her ever constantly growing sexual tension for the man who saved her life and brought her there.

When their safety is threatened and the camp has to move, will Moira find new safety and solve her biggest issue in the process?