A to Z April: Z Reviews: Zach's Lie by Roland Smith/Zombie Blondes by Brian James

Can you believe it?  April is over!  And I completed the A to Z Challenge with this post!  And believe it or not, I found two books I read that started with the letter Z that I hadn't reviewed yet.  The other Z book I had already reviewed.  One of these is more middle grade, then the other is definitely a teen read.

First is Zach's Lie by Roland Smith.  It's the first in a two book series, that concludes with Jack's Run, about a boy whose family has to go into the witness protection program.  The main character is Jack, who becomes Zach in the program.  And of course as boys that age might be likely to do, he does something that gets his family in danger again.  I'm a huge fan of Roland Smith, he is probably one of the first authors I really got to meet when I started on my current quest of meeting all my favorite authors/rock stars.  Here's the blurb from Goodreads:
Jack Osborne's life changes forever the night men in masks break into his house, threaten Jack and his family, and ransack their home. Jack then discovers the reason these men have come into their lives-his father has been arrested for drug trafficking.

Jack, his mother, and his sister are then forced to enter Witness Security Program. Jack becomes "Zach" and moves to Elko, Nevada, a town in the middle of nowhere. There he meets Sam, the strangest school custodian he has ever encountered, and Catalin, a girl who might make Zach's uprooting worth the trouble. But just as Zach finally begins to piece together a new life, he finds himself in danger again-and this time his actions could determine the fates of everyone he cares about.

The second book I'm talking about today is called Zombie Blondes by Brian James.  I think this was one of the first YA zombie books I remember reading and really liking.  I think I also posted a review somewhere and even got a thank you from the author!  I just can't remember where.  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:
From the moment Hannah Sanders arrived in town, she felt there was something wrong.
     A lot of houses were for sale, and the town seemed infected by an unearthly quiet. And then, on Hannah’s first day of classes, she ran into a group of cheerleaders—the most popular girls in school.
     The odd thing was that they were nearly identical in appearance: blonde, beautiful, and deathly pale.
     But Hannah wants desperately to fit in—regardless of what her friend Lukas is telling her: if she doesn’t watch her back, she’s going to be blonde and popular and dead—just like all the other zombies in this town. . . .


Have you read any books by Roland Smith?  Are you a fan of zombie stories?  Will you try to read this one?  And while you're here, it's the very last day to enter my giveaway below!


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