Can't Wait Wednesday #28: Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.  This week I've chosen what looks to be a debut book for this author, it is one I found on Edelweiss just recently, and it sounds really good!  Here is the blurb from Goodreads:

Ten years ago, a horrifying disease began spreading across the West Texas desert. Infected people—shakes—attacked the living and created havoc and destruction. No one has ever survived the infection. Daisy Wilcox, known as Willie, has been protecting her siblings within the relatively safe walls of Glory, Texas. When Willie’s good-for-nothing father steals a fortune from one of the most dangerous shake-hunters in town, she finds herself on the hook for his debt. With two hunters, including the gruff and handsome Ben, to accompany her, she sets out across the desert in search of her father. But the desert is not kind to travelers, and not everyone will pass through alive.

Western meets horror for this riveting story about survival, family, and inner strength. Tense, short chapters propel readers from one action-packed scene to the next, while Willie’s distinctive, introspective voice deepens the emotional stakes with every turn of the page. High concept and character-driven, Emma Berquist’s debut will satisfy fans of The Magnificent Seven, Rae Carson’s Walk on Earth a Stranger, and HBO’s Westworld.

Have you heard of this one yet?  Does it sound like you need to add it to your TBR list?  What book or books are you eagerly awaiting this week? 

Can't Wait Wednesday #27: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Can't-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Tressa at Wishful Endings to spotlight and talk about the books we're excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they're books that have yet to be released. It's based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine.  My pick this week is one I found on the Edelweiss website as an egalley.  The cover and synopsis both grabbed my attention, and now I am very eager to get my hands on it.  Here is the synopsis from Goodreads:  

A story of the undead like you’ve never read before, Justina Ireland’s Dread Nation is a fresh, stunning, and powerful meditation on race in America wrapped in an alternate-history adventure where Confederate and Union soldiers rise from the dead at the end of the Civil War.

Jane McKeene was born two days before the dead began to walk the battlefields of Gettysburg and Chancellorsville—derailing the War Between the States and changing America forever. In this new nation, safety for all depends on the work of a few, and laws like the Native and Negro Reeducation Act require certain children attend combat schools to learn to put down the dead. But there are also opportunities—and Jane is studying to become an Attendant, trained in both weaponry and etiquette to protect the well-to-do. It’s a chance for a better life for Negro girls like Jane. After all, not even being the daughter of a wealthy white Southern woman could save her from society’s expectations.

But that’s not a life Jane wants. Almost finished with her education at Miss Preston’s School of Combat in Baltimore, Jane is set on returning to her Kentucky home and doesn’t pay much mind to the politics of the eastern cities, with their talk of returning America to the glory of its days before the dead rose. But when families around Baltimore County begin to go missing, Jane is caught in the middle of a conspiracy, one that finds her in a desperate fight for her life against some powerful enemies. And the restless dead, it would seem, are the least of her problems.

At once provocative, terrifying, and darkly subversive, Dread Nation is Justina Ireland’s stunning vision of an America both foreign and familiar—a country on the brink, at the explosive crossroads where race, humanity, and survival meet.

What do you think?  Does it sound good to you?  I haven't read a lot of alternate history stories, but the ones I have read have been good!

If you're looking for a great challenge for September, click on the button above to join my September Sequel Challenge and maybe win a book of your choice! 

And only a few more days to help me celebrate my 8th blogoversary with a giveaway HERE. 

Review: Monsterland by Michael Phillip Cash

I was lucky enough to win a copy of this in a giveaway.  It was a very quick read, nothing really different from what I expected, basically exactly the type of story you'd expect from the title.  I feel there were some things that were missed that could have definitely added to the story, but it did feel just like a horror movie would be, the way the things were missing was like what might be missing from a movie compared to the book. 

There were parts of the story told from different viewpoints, but in a way, who I felt was the main character was Wyatt Baldwin.  He's a high school student, and he lives in the town where one of the new theme parks called Monsterland is getting ready to open.  The story takes place in a future when a disease has caused some people to become zombies.  It's pretty much contained, the zombies are being kept in detention types of camps.  And  now are being brought to be part of the different theme parks that are being set up all over the world.  But in this future world, they have also found out that vampires are real, and have been just kind of hiding out, on the sidelines of the human world.  And when the creator of the parks is out searching for a Sasquatch or Bigfoot, he finds that werewolves are real.  They capture the werewolves that they find, which is easier because they have really dwindled in numbers.  So this theme park has a section where people can see zombies walk around, from a safe distance/viewing area.  There is a jungle ride where they will be able to see the werewolves, again from a safe area, and the park uses artificial moonlight to get the wolves to change.  And the vampires, because they have been around humans all the time already, they just have caps put on their fangs, and then they have a little town where people can go mingle with the vampires and even watch them as part of a rock band. 

Wyatt and his friends get free VIP passes to the opening night of the park.  And, as you would expect from a story like this, something goes wrong, monsters will get loose, and chaos ensues.  As I mentioned at the beginning, it was really a lot like a movie would be. 

I do feel there could have been some more character development and explanations.  There was one of Wyatt's friends that everyone called by his full name, all the time.  I'm sorry, that's just weird.  It reminded me of the movie 21 and Over where they kept calling the one character by his full name, Jeff Chang, the whole movie.  Only, it could be something I missed as I read, but I'm not sure why they did that?  I do like what happened with his friend Melvin though.  We also had some drama with Wyatt's family, his mom and stepdad - who we also got some of his viewpoint, and then a surprising bit with Wyatt's dad even. 

While I get the point trying to be made about the detention camps, and that the big gate reminded them of the Auschwitz Concentration camp gate that said "Work will set you free", I feel like that may have stretched a little for the actual type of book this is.  To me the cover looked like the Jurassic Park gate, and yes, they did draw comparisons in the book to that, like they should have.  And really that fit the story much better, so they probably could have stuck with that.  Comparing zombies, werewolves, and vampires to real people who were in death camps seems a little bit in poor taste. But that's just me.  I could be overthinking it. 

All in all it was a quick, horror movie style read, interesting even while predictable for the most part.

Blog Tour - Review and Giveaway: Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace

BOOK DETAILS:

Shallow Graves 
Author: Kali Wallace
Publisher: Katherine Tegen Books
Release Date: January 26th, 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal, Horror, Zombies, Fantasy, Thriller, Contemporary, Fiction, Mystery, Supernatural
 
Synopsis:

For fans of Holly Black and Nova Ren Suma, a gripping, hauntingly atmospheric novel about murder, revenge, and a world where monsters—human and otherwise—lurk at the fringes.

When seventeen-year-old Breezy Lin wakes up in a shallow grave one year after her death, she doesn’t remember who killed her or why. All she knows is that she’s somehow conscious—and not only that, she’s able to sense who around her is hiding a murderous past. In life, Breezy was always drawn to the elegance of the universe and the mystery of the stars. Now she must set out to find answers and discover what is to become of her in the gritty, dangerous world to which she now belongs—where killers hide in plain sight and a sinister cult is hunting for strange creatures like her. What she finds is at once empowering, redemptive, and dangerous.

Tense, complex, and wholly engaging, Shallow Graves is a stunning first novel from Kali Wallace.

BOOK LINKS:
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22663629-shallow-graves
Amazon paperback: http://amzn.to/1PbAhkz
Barnes and Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/shallow-graves-kali-wallace/1121727672?ean=9780062366207
Book Depository: http://www.bookdepository.com/Shallow-Graves-Kali-Wallace/9780062366207
iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/shallow-graves/id985367604?mt=11
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/es-es/ebook/shallow-graves-8

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
 

Kali Wallace studied geology and geophysics before she decided she enjoyed inventing imaginary worlds as much as she liked researching the real one. Her short fiction has appeared in Clarkesworld, F&SF, Asimov's, Lightspeed Magazine, and Tor.com. Her first novel will be published by Katherine Tegen Books in 2016. She lives in southern California.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: http://www.kaliwallace.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6863587.Kali_Wallace

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kaliphyte

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kali.wallace.9

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaliphyte/

  


My Review:
I was lucky enough to get an ARC in the mail.  So you've read the synopsis above if you're that far down into this post.  This book was definitely a very unique story.  

It starts with the main character, Katie is her name-she goes by Breezy though, being dug up out of the ground by a man she doesn't know.  And when she touches him, she sees flashes of people, memories he has of killing these people.  And so, she kills him.  She can do it with a touch. Really when we join her in the story, she is kind of traveling across the country. She's gone to her home, where she realizes how long she's been dead, and that it probably wouldn't be a good idea to go and let her family or friends, know that she is back.  She's sure she's still dead. There are all kinds of signs.  And in her confusion and very acceptable depression, she does try to kill herself.  Breezy soon finds that every way she tries to kill herself, well, it doesn't work.  It doesn't seem like she can die.  So as she travels, she finds people who are killers, and she kills them.  Now, she doesn't know how she died, her last memories are of a fight with her best friend Melanie. 

She meets a boy named Danny at the first place we really start to get into the action of the story.  He gives her a flyer about a place that she can go if she is lost and needs help.  She ignores it, and goes on with the person she's chosen to take care of next.  But soon she decides she should go to this place, where  a man named Mr. Willow, a pastor or preacher of some sort, is in charge.    When she finally gets to this place, she meets a girl named Violet.  Now there is something familiar about Violet. And while at first Violet is very friendly and leads Breezy around to show her the place, at one point, she tells Breezy to run, not to stay.  But it's too late.  A man named Lyle helps Mr. Willow by chasing Breezy and bringing her back.  They knock her out, and when she wakes up she is in a cellar with another person.

That person is a woman named Rain.  And she explains to Breezy that they are being kept in the cellar by magic.  Soon they make a plan to get out, Rain tells Breezy she should go see a witch named Ingrid. Breezy doesn't know what she is exactly, is she a zombie?  And the witch can help her figure it out.  Rain calls someone to help them escape, and give them a ride back to where she's from.  His name is Zeke, and he is a ghoul.  Zeke and Breezy have a bit of a connection, and it seems he is only helping Rain because of a favor he might owe her or something.  He doesn't trust Rain, or the witch.  And he cautions Breezy about talking to her.

There are so many twists and turns with this, Breezy will find out what she is.  We will learn about other types of supernatural creatures and how they get by in the world.  We will learn what the bad Mr. Willow is hiding, and it will be something worse than Breezy can ever imagine.  My only complaint is that I feel like there were a few characters that were thrown in, yet their storyline didn't really go very far, and I could see that they might be something that could be in another story set in this world.  However as far as I know, this is a standalone.  It does end fine for a standalone, I was just left with a few questions about one or two characters and why we had so many details about them, when they really didn't do much for the story.  The main one that sticks in my mind is Ingrid's son.  

Overall a good story, creative, different, and many twists to keep you turning pages.

GIVEAWAY:

• Prize: Win (1) hardcopy of SHALLOW GRAVES by Kali Wallace (US Only)

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Book Blitz and Giveaway: Life After the Undead by Pembroke Sinclair

Book and Author Details:

Life After The Undead by Pembroke Sinclair
Published by: Booktrope Publishing
Publication date: October 27th 2015
Genres: Post-Apocalyptic, Young Adult, Zombies

Synopsis:
Seventeen-year-old Krista must quickly figure out how she’s going to survive in the zombie-destroyed world. The one advantage humans have is that the zombies hate humid environments, so they’re migrating west to escape its deteriorating effects. The survivors plan to construct a wall at North Platte to keep the undead out, and Krista has come to Nebraska to start a new life.

Zombies aren’t the only creatures she has to be cautious of—the other survivors have a dark side. Krista must fight not only to live but also to defend everything she holds dear—her country, her freedom, and ultimately, those she loves.

Join Krista in her quest to survive in this thrilling apocalyptic novel by Pembroke Sinclair.


Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26674459-life-after-the-undead

Purchase:
Will be found here come release day: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=life+after+the+undead+pembroke

AUTHOR BIO:

Jessica Robinson is an editor by day and a zombie-killer by night (at least in her books). Since the first time she watched Night of the Living Dead, she has been obsessed with zombies and often thinks of ways to survive the uprising. In addition to her nonfiction book, under the pen name Pembroke Sinclair, she has written YA novels about zombies and the tough teens who survive the apocalyptic world. She has also written nonfiction stories for Serial Killer Magazine and published a book about slasher films called Life Lessons from Slasher Films.


You can learn more about Pembroke Sinclair by visiting her at:
Blog:  http://pembrokesinclair.blogspot.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/jessicarobinsonauthor
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/PembrokeSinclai
Google Plus:  https://plus.google.com/102808614523341154478/posts
Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3522214.Pembroke_Sinclair

Excerpt:


-->

PROLOGUE

I will never understand peoples’ fascination with the apocalypse. Why would you waste so much time and energy worrying about something you can’t change? Besides, most of the time, it never comes to fruition, anyway. Remember Y2K? I don’t. I was too young, but I’ve heard stories. What a hullabaloo that was. People were so afraid of computers failing and throwing society back into the Dark Ages, they stockpiled supplies and moved into the wilderness so they could get away from technology. Why would they move to the wilderness? If technology was going to fail, wouldn’t they be just as safe in a city? I guess they were afraid when it did, everyone would go crazy and start killing each other. Either way, it didn’t happen. I wonder how those people felt afterward.

Then there was the whole 2012 scare. This one was supposedly based on an ancient prediction, so you know it was reliable. Are you kidding? Even the Mayans didn’t believe their own ancestors’ “vision.” What happened was there had been a tablet that had the Mayan calendar carved into it. The end was broken and faded, so no one knew what it said. Our culture, being the pessimistic lot we are, automatically assumed it was an end-of-the-world warning, but, again, nothing happened on December 21, 2012. Christmas came and went, and I think everyone everywhere, even the skeptics, had a little something more to be thankful for. Life went on as usual, and all those doomsayers faded into obscurity.

The day the world did end was pretty nondescript. By that I mean there was no nuclear explosion or asteroid or monumental natural disaster. There weren’t even any horsemen or plagues to announce the end was coming. The world ended fairly quietly. I couldn’t even give you a date because it happened at different times depending on where you were. It was never predicted, and I’m sure a scenario no one even considered. Who really thinks the dead are going to rise from the grave and destroy the majority of the population?  No one but Hollywood, and we all know those are just movies, but that’s exactly what happened. Those of us who survived were left wide-eyed, mouth agape, trying to figure out what to do next.

There were a few who were able to pull their heads out and organize those left behind. They made sure the populace had food, shelter, and protection. They were saviors, the United States’ heroes. Life wouldn’t have gone on without them, and it was pretty difficult those first few years after the zompocalypse.

Sometimes it’s difficult for me to remember what life was like before the rise of the undead. I was a teenager, though I hesitate to say normal. I wasn’t deformed or anything, but my classmates thought I was strange. I had a fascination with the dark, the macabre, although I wasn’t a Goth or Emo. I read books and magazines about serial killers. I didn’t idolize them or want to be like them—hell no—I was fascinated with how evil and black a human’s soul could get.

I wanted to be a psychologist and work with the criminally insane, maybe figure out why they did what they did. Apparently, when you’re fifteen, your friends think you’re weird if you have desires to help someone other than yourself. While they were worried about becoming popular and getting the right boyfriend, I tried to figure out how to make society better.

Of course, those dreams will never come true. Society doesn’t exist. Everything I once held dear is gone. I lost my parents to the horde, like a lot of kids. Unlike some of the others, mine weren’t taken by surprise or in some freak accident. They were taken because of their own stupidity. Some days I miss them a lot, but others I believe they got what they deserved. I might sound callous and uncaring, but what about them? Why would they abandon their fifteen-year-old daughter? It used to keep me up at night, trying to find the answer to that question, but I’ve given up asking it. No reason wasting time on things that could’ve or should’ve been.

As I stare out the passenger side window of the semi, I’m reminded how bleak the future has become. The truck rolls down a once heavily traveled highway that has been reduced to a cracked trail. Gas stations and towns dotting the landscape have been abandoned and are crumpling into the weeds that are taking them over. There are a few areas that still resemble pre-zombie destruction, and these are the military outposts set up along the road, used for protection and refueling. I use the term “military” loosely because there is no formal military anymore. It’s a rag-tag group of men and women who were lucky enough to get guns. I chuckle to myself. It’s been two years since I was last out in the world, and a lot has changed since then. I still remember the day the zombies attacked. It’s as clear as if it’d happened yesterday.  

Giveaway:
Blitz-wide giveaway (US only) - ends November 5th

•  Paperback copy of Life After The Undead 

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Review: Sweet by Emmy Laybourne

First, thanks to Feiwel and Friends, along with Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this title.  Now, I could have sworn that I had this downloaded a ways back, but maybe I had just picked it as a Waiting on Wednesday book one time, and was mistaken about that.  Then it was published, and I figured I'd have to wait to get a copy to read.  But it showed up on Edelweiss, at least I found it, and downloaded it.  I was really excited to read this one, not just because the synopsis sounded really good, but also because I really enjoyed the Monument 14 series by her as well.  While Sweet isn't a post-apocalyptic book really, I would definitely have to say that this author knows how to write a good "teens in a deadly crisis" story.  And in a way, both stories have their own zombie type of people, again, without being actual zombies in the most well known definition. 

The story is told in alternating chapters by two main characters.  One is Laurel, a pretty normal girl.  You might call her a bit of a wallflower.  Her favorite clothes include boots.  Nothing really dressy or trendy.  Her best friend, Viv(actually her rich, divorced father), got them tickets to be on a really big cruise event.  The premiere of a new weight loss fad.  It is as diet sweetener called Solu, and it is supposed to be a miracle, possibly solving the obesity problem by helping the user drop a ton of weight in no time, with really nothing else needing to be done!  Laurel isn't really worried about losing weight, she's find with her curves, and once the ship gets started moving, there's no way she can take it at first, because she's experiencing seasickness to an extremely embarrassing degree.  And that's where our 2nd main character comes in.

Tom Forelli is a former child star.  He's now trying to get his career going again after a horrible movie choice, as well as trying to get out from under his child start personal of "Baby Tom-Tom".  He was a chubby kid, but now he's grown up and has really started taking care of himself.  He eats right, and works out every day. All according to what his personal trainer, and best friend, advises him to do.  His publicists booked him the gig of being the host for this cruise, interviewing the passengers, promoting the Solu, etc.  He also doesn't really try the sweetener, as it doesn't really fit his eating plan, since it is in the desserts on the boat, ones that he doesn't really plan to eat.  While the plan is for him to "hook up" with a beautiful celebrity reality star, think Kardashian with a little exotic-ness thrown in, he feels a tug toward the cute, normal girl, who he meets when she throws up on his shoes.  You guessed it, that was Laurel. 

The two will meet again in a few mishaps, and then seek each other out as they both are attracted to each other, as well as feeling that the other passengers taking the Solu begin to get a little wild.  Not just a little wild, but obviously addicted in a short time to the substance.  It all goes horribly wrong with the Solu, leading to deaths, and even killing just to get more.  And once Tom finds out it isn't all it was hyped up to be, he wants to do an expose report, even against the advice of his publicist, who is herself addicted to the Solu.  All of this has to be done, hoping that they can survive the mass hysteria and melee caused by the Solu addicts. 

It was a fun story, funny, yet suspenseful. Some surprises on where it would go, and what was actually causing the problem.  I didn't even get what was the final turning point at the end ahead of time, and I like it when an author can surprise me like that.  I highly recommend another Emmy Laybourne book, a standalone I would think this time. Even though there is that little comment at the end, that makes you say, "uh-oh!"

Waiting on Wednesday: Bits and Pieces (Rot and Ruin #5) by Jonathan Maberry

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases that we're eagerly awaiting.  I've chosen a book that is novellas for a series that I am a fan of that have been grouped together to make one book that will be put out in print.  I also have a bit of a personal connection to the stories because one of them I named through a contest on Facebook, Tooth and Nail.  The ebook has a thank you to me at the beginning of the story, and I'm hoping to see it in print now as well!  If you are  zombie fan and haven't read this series by Jonathan Maberry, you need to pick it up.  I haven't actually read the last book yet, so I don't know how it will end, but I have loved all of the books so far.  Here is the blurb about this book of short stories from Goodreads:

Return to the zombie apocalypse wasteland that is the Rot & Ruin in this short story collection from Jonathan Maberry.

Benny Imura’s zombie-infested adventures are well-chronicled in the gripping novels Rot & Ruin, Dust & Decay, Flesh & Bone, and Fire & Ash. But what else was happening while he was on his quest? Who were the others navigating the ravaged landscape full of zombies?

Bits & Pieces fills in the gaps about what we know about First Night, surviving the plague, and traveling the land of Rot & Ruin. Eleven all-new short stories from Nix’s journal and eleven previously published stories, including “Dead & Gone” and “Tooth & Nail,” are now together and in print for the first time, along with the first-ever script for the Rot & Ruin comic books.

So, have you read this series yet?  I'm so excited for the 11 short stories, especially ones I have not read yet.  What book are you eagerly awaiting this week?

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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Review: Undead With Benefits (Eat, Brains, Love #2) by Jeff Hart

I was lucky enough to get this ARC and also meet the author this summer at BEA.  This has been a great series, but I am left hanging a bit at the end of this book.  I don't know if there will be a 3rd book.  Technically, it did end in a way that it could be the end.  But it also ended in a way that we could go on with the story.  And I wouldn't be disappointed if they did!  It's almost fun to try to think of what the name of the 3rd book could be if we continued in this trend.  Again, if you haven't read the first one, there will of course be some spoilers here.

When we left our main characters from the last book, Jake and Amanda, and Cass, there had been a huge debacle at a farm house.  Cass had thought she'd killed the evil boss, Alastaire, but no, he lived.  And even though he'd been demoted in the NCD, Necrotic Control Division, he wasn't done with what he wanted to do.  So he goes to Cass's mom and kind of takes her hostage, and then contacts Cass telepathically, telling her how she can get to where the supposed cure is, Des Moines, Iowa.  If she gets that for him, he will help her get in, and spare her mother from anything bad.  Cass is now with Jake and Amanda, and has been slowly gaining their trust for the most part with a promise of helping them get into Iowa.  But hasn't had much luck until she is contacted by Alastaire.  So she must in a way use their zombie-ness to help her get in and get the cure, and then get back out safely.  And both Jake and Amanda want the cure too.  But they get separated once in Iowa.  And this leads to many issues for all of them.  The cure may not be quite as it seems is what Jake finds out from the leader of the zombies.  Amanda is worried about Jake being lost when he goes full zombie for a bit.  And then she worries that maybe he has left her, and she knows that Cass has a crush on him.  Cass must figure out how to get out alive, be honest with Amanda and Jake, and still save her mom.

A great story, we learn a lot more about the outbreak, well kind of.  We learn about what has mostly happened in Iowa, and how the outbreaks have spread, Florida for one.  Cass must struggle with her crush on Jake, who while they are very similar, he is definitely in love with Amanda.  And she is in love with him, even with the last ditch effort Cass may make to steal Jake.  While it pretty much turns out good in the end, there are still loose ends, and things that to me need solving!  So Mr. Hart, hint hint, third book?  Pretty please?

Me with Jeff Hart

Review: The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone By Graphic Novel by Robert Kirkman and Tony Moore

I ordered this book into the high school library where I work because I figured we needed more graphic novels, and surely this would be popular.  Of course we didn't get it until the end of the school year, so I'm hoping to see it get more use next year.  I have watched the show from the very beginning and love it.  And I'm not really much of a comic or graphic novel person.  I mean, I love all the novels that go with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but wasn't able to keep going with the Season 8 comics.  However, I decided to check The Walking Dead out over the summer and read it for myself.  It was a quick read, and so I asked my friend who owns the first Compendium if I could borrow that next, so I'll be reading that too.

I won't talk a lot about the plot, because if you've seen the show you know it.  But I guess the comics/graphic novels basically follow Rick, the sheriff.  So of course there will be many characters either left out, or changed from the tv show.  As I've been informed, sadly, one of my favorite characters on the show, Daryl, is one not in the book.  But the story is pretty much the same to start.  Rick gets shot, then wakes up in a hospital all alone.  He finds the zombies, but doesn't have any idea what is going on, as he was in a coma for quite a while it seems.  He goes home, and finds his wife and son are gone, but then gets hit on the head.  When he wakes up again, he is with a man and his son, who tell him about what is going on.  Soon he decides he must go find his wife and son.  There are many scenes that are the same from the show.  Rick riding into Atlanta on a horse.  Walking with Glen through Atlanta with zombie body parts draped all over themselves as a disguise to be able to walk through the zombies and get supplies that are needed back in town.  But, and big SPOILER ALERT, Shane, Rick's co-police officer, dies at the end of this.  Whereas in the show he stayed around much longer.  But I'm totally okay with it, as I wasn't a huge fan of Shane.

I can't wait to read on, and see what else is the same and what is different.  From what I've heard, they've stayed a lot closer on plot and such compared to another tv show I like that is based on books, True Blood.  So I'm sure reading on I'll eventually get to where I recognize things that are coming up.  Like people did with the Governor, as well as now with Terminus. 

I definitely recommend these graphic novels and will be stocking up on them for my school library, and for the students to enjoy.

Review: Eat, Brains, Love by Jeff Hart

This is a book I added to my library request list when I got back from BEA a few weeks ago.  I was lucky enough to get to meet the author and get a copy of the second book, Undead with Benefits, so I figured I'd better go ahead and read the first one.  It also came in right before I was going to have surgery.  So I picked it up, and it was my next physical book read after I finished another e-galley.  This was definitely a fun zombie read.  And I guess I am loving that during my recovery time, I'm able to read about a book a day, which is what most books are meant to be read in. Well one sitting, but that's about impossible in life these days.

There are 3 main characters in this book.  Jake, who is kind of a loser type of guy, or maybe you'd just call him a stoner.  He's so out of it, that when the school takes their standardized test that is supposed to help them figure out what career they would be good at, he ends up not having any show up that he'd excel at.  Amanda is the next one. She is "the" beautiful, popular girl.  And then Cass, a girl who is a psychic, and the secret government organization, NCD, Necrotic Control Division, uses her to help find out who the zombies are and where they've gone.  You see there are zombies out there. But the government is able to catch and kill them before they get too far.  Usually.  It is a disease, but not like when you get bit you turn.  Not the normal zombie disease.  In fact it seems to be passed on like an STD in this book.  And it is kind of weird.  It seems they don't just change into brain eating, slow moving zombies.  Once they've eaten, humans, or maybe other animals occasionally, they heal and turn back almost to normal.  So when Cass gets into Jake's thoughts, she sees a normal teenage boy.  One that she thinks she could have been friends with.  Maybe even develops a bit of a crush on as she keeps going into his thoughts.  But on the road, Jake and Amanda may be developing a bit of a romance themselves.  They see that the high school where they kind of went crazy and ate there friends has now been named a school shooting site.  And then they see that supposedly they've been captured?  Which totally isn't true as they are still on the run.  Cass finds out this organization she's been a part of may not be all as good as she thinks it is.  The main boss, a scary nerdy guy wearing a bow-tie, seems to have some alternative plans for what to do with these zombies.  And it seems he has his own telepathic powers, and they are strong, and he can use them to basically do what he wants. 

A good story, you root for the zombies, and you also see a government secret, definitely one for fans of The X-Files, which I definitely am.  And the humor, the sarcasm of the characters gave me some laugh out loud bits.  One at the very end, I have to describe.  Jake and Amanda were hiding in an abandoned farm house, one that seemed haunted to Jake. At this point Cass has decided to go ahead and help the NCD catch them so she can go back to her old life and forget all this.  Jake and Amanda are starting to take their relationship into a more physical stage when Cass's crew catches up to them.  The front door slams open with a bang, and Jake can see a huge silhouette in the doorway, and he shouts:  "Angry ghost farmer!".  Okay, maybe call it out of contest where I've talked about it, but it still cracks me up.  That's my kind of silly humor I guess.  This could be a fun movie I think.  If they did it right, with both the right amount of blood and gore and seriousness, but also the right amount and kind of in your face humor, we know this is crazy.  Just like the book does. 

Can't wait till I get to my copy of the 2nd one from BEA now to see what happens next.

Review: Dark Metropolis by Jaclyn Dolamore

First I have to say thanks to Disney-Hyperion for sending me an ARC of this title when I requested their Summer of Chills titles.  While it was a pretty good read, I find it interesting that this was the one I was most excited about receiving, yet the other 2, Don't Look Back, and Far From You, I actually ended up liking a lot more than I really liked this one.  But don't let that change your mind about this one if  you are looking forward to it, it was still a fun read.

The main character is Thea Holder.  She's only 16, but she has to work because her mother has what is called Bound-Sickness.  When people used to get married, they often would be bound, a type of magic spell.  And what that means is that when one was away, they missed them physically.  Thea's father died in the war.  The place she works is called the Telephone Club.  They have musical shows like a cabaret, and famous or rich people often come in and eat there.  Her best friend is named Nan.  She meets a handsome boy named Freddy at the beginning of the story when he is dining at the club.  He's very intriguing, both personality wise, and also looks, as his hair is white, yet he is about the same age as Thea.  At one point, Nan disappears.  Then, Thea's mom gets so bad, and it is noticed by those people around them, and so she is taken away to a mental health center to help her get better.  But someone in the city is reviving the dead people.  Including Nan.  We catch up with Nan when she wakes up from being dead.  She is now underground, and is working.  She can't remember quite who she is, or what happened.  And there is some serum she is supposed to take or else supposedly she will die again.  And they even see people in cages that are being punished by not getting the serum.  And those people turn into basically blood thirsty zombies.  All the main characters, Thea, Freddy, and Nan, must figure out their own part of the mystery, and do what they can to survive.  Even Freddy has a secret that will be a big shock to Thea, but can also help to solve some of the issues.

An interesting story.  I'm going to be ready to read the next one to answer some questions about this world.  The magic is there, almost like it is just an every day normal thing.  so is this a future of our current world?  Or a whole different world altogether?  I hope to learn more in the next book, and as I said, look forward to reading it when it comes out.

Review: Sea of Shadows (Age of Legends #1) by Kelley Armstrong

If you follow me, you know the drama I've had about this book.  I won it in a contest probably 2nd week of April.  Had hoped/assumed that it would be to me by the time I got to meet the author on May 8th.  It wasn't.  So I ended up buying a copy that night.  And actually, although I'd never read any books by Kelley Armstrong before, after hearing her describe it, I was extremely excited to read it, even though I'm not truly a fantasy fan.  And I had heard this was high fantasy.  Not sure if it really would be considered that or not though.

It was a pretty good story.  Ashyn and Moria are twin sisters who are the Seeker and Keeper for the village.  Ashyn is the Seeker, and the Seeker is used to find the bodies of the criminals that are taken into the Forest of the Dead, near their village.  She is supposed to help quiet the souls of the damned that die in the forest.  Her sister Moria is the Keeper.  And I'm not completely sure on what exactly she does, other than she is more of a warrior, but she can also talk to the spirits.  They each have an animal that is their, familiar, I guess you'd call it.  It is a wildcat, that Moria has named Daigo, and a giant yellow hound that Ashyn has named Tova.  The twins live with their father.  This year will be the first year they do the Seeking on their own.  And of course, as you'd expect, it doesn't quite go as planned.  A boy that Moria ran into before he got left in the forest to die is named Ronan.  Ronan's plan is to somehow find a weapon, and be able to live the year that they are expected to survive if they want a pardon.  Another character in the book is a boy named Gavril Kitsune.  He is from a warrior family, but when his family was disgraced, and his father sent to the forest, he was given this unwanted job of being a guard for the town.  After  the seeking, many,  many things go wrong in the town.  The adults are killed by what are called Shadow Stalkers, basically zombies.  The children are all kidnapped.  Several men, mainly Ronan and his uncle, have survived the year.  Soon Ashyn and Ronan, and Moria and Gavril are on their way to find the children in a nearby town called Fairview.  They must cross the Wastes, a horrible landscape, where they run into monsters that were only thought to truly exist in the fairy tales that Moria told the children to scare them.  The two pairs are separate on their way to Fairview, but they meet up there.  And from there they must journey to the emperor for help.

The ending had a pretty good twist, and now I'll be looking forward to book 2 to see what will happen next.  While there was a lot of what seemed to be Japanese type stuff in it, I felt it wasn't just limited to that, and that may be what did draw away from it a bit for me.  I don't know if I assumed it was just a Japanese type world.  But I guess not, it had other types in it.  The twins are blond I believe, which talks about being from the North in the story.  Still, a pretty good read, I would recommend it to fantasy readers.

A to Z April (last post!!!) - Z: Zombies!!! (and last day for giveaway)

Well, this is it.  My last post for the A to Z Challenge, and I'm pleased to say I did it!!   And I'm excited to get to finish with one of my current favorite topics to read about or watch on tv or in movies, zombies.  So below, you can see 5 of my favorite zombie books/series.


1.

 

I am a huge, huge fan of these books.  And the author, as I even got to help name one of his recent e-novellas (short stories) for this series.  Really great teen zombie series.  He also writes adult novels like this, I just have yet to read them.

2.

 

I actually liked this one, and while I'm not quite sure how close the movie was or was not, since I haven't read the book in a while, I liked the movie as well.

3.

 

Another of my favorite teen zombie series.

4.

 

This is a Stephen King book that I think would have made an excellent movie, and I also feel you don't hear much about this one, but I really liked it.

5.

 

And yet another of my favorite teen zombie series.  This one, as well as the Rot and Ruin series, is made up of very large books, like 400-500 pages.  I feel they are well done, and not boring at any point, but just a heads up if you're going to give them a try.

Those are my top 5 zombie books.  I love the tv show The Walking Dead, but actually have yet to read any of the graphic novels it is based on, or the new novelizations, so couldn't include them in my book choices, as I'm doing ones I've actually read.

One more day to enter my 900 Bloglovin follower giveaway HERE, and there aren't many entries, so you have a good chance!

 

 

 

 

Review - The Curiosities: A Collection of Stories by Maggie Stiefvater, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff

This review is a long time coming.  I received an ARC of this book back at BEA in the summer of 2012.  I kept it somewhere that whenever I had just a bit of time to read, I could pick it up and read.  Which makes sense as it is a collection of short stories.   These are three authors that are kind of favorites of mine.  Maggie Stiefvater I knew from reading her book Shiver for one of the Missouri state book awards, and then loving the whole series.  When she visited Kansas City, the first time I saw her, the other two, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff both just happened to be at the signing as well.  I had read an ARC of Brenna Yovanoff's first book, The Replacement, and really enjoyed it.  Unfortunately, not knowing she would be there, I didn't bring it to get it signed.  I hadn't heard of Tessa Gratton until then, but as she lives in Kansas, right by Missouri where I live, she was there, and they had her book, Blood Magic, for sale, so I bought it and got it signed.  Of course I got my picture taken with all of them at that time, I believe that was fall of 2011.  Then they were all three signing this book at BEA the next summer.  So once again, I got all their signatures, and pictures with them.  The even cooler thing about the picture below?  Well, I was contacted and paid to let a publishing company use this photo in a biography for Maggie Stiefvater.  I'm still on the lookout to find a copy of it.

So, my review.  Well, these stories really made me wish that I could be a part of a writing group like this.  It seems like such a great way to pull out your creative side and just write.  And what was even more fun was all the little doodles and extra writing on each page by both the author of that story, as well as the other two often adding their own thoughts.  And some of the stories either went on to be full length books, or more likely were kind of inspiration for a future novel by one of the three.  The stories were definitely a great way to kind of get a good feel for each of the authors' writing style or voice.  I'm going to pick one favorite story from each author to tell a little bit about.

1st is the story by Tessa Gratton that led to The Lost Sun, the United States of Asgard series she is now in the midst of.  The title of this short story is:  Berserk, which of course has to do with Viking warriors.  The story tells the tale of a young girl who watches as her family is killed by trolls.  A berserker comes along and finds her burning the house, as well as her family, as the culture does with their dead.  And while he wants to take her to safety, she tricks him into following the trolls and helping her to get her revenge.  One of my other favorite stories of the book is also by Ms. Gratton, Date with a Dragon Slayer.  And in a way is a bit similar in the Norse types of themes.

Okay, I think my favorite by Maggie Stiefvater is The Deadlier of the Species, a zombie story.  It's a bit unique for a zombie story, which only makes sense for this author.  The cause of the zombies is a little parasite that must be in water or it will die when not in the host, or zombie it seems.  I love the way Ms. Stiefvater writes her characters, the banter, and even the horror of this story doesn't keep her from doing that.

Finally, my favorite story by Brenna Yovanoff in the collection is titled Neighbors.  This is a story about a ghost.  The ghost of a child.  And they don't necessarily understand that they are a ghost.  It's a short quick way, maybe not quite so shocking and scary though, of telling a story similar to the movie The Sixth Sense.  You may or may not see the end coming.  But it's still a good telling.  Ms. Yovanoff is pretty good with ghost stories.

Those are just a few of the stories, and there are others that I really liked just as well, but I didn't want to tell about all of them.  I actually feel as I looked back through to pick which ones to talk about, that I may have enjoyed many of Tessa Gratton's stories the most.

P.S. - Check back this week, as I've now passed 1900 followers on GFC, so I see another giveaway in the future!