Blurb:

To live through the zombie apocalypse they have to survive each other first.

College freshman Parker Osborne is having the worst day ever. He humiliated himself trying to pick up a cute guy, he hasn’t made any friends at school, and his stupidly hot jerk of a TA gave him a crappy grade on his paper. He’s going to drop Adam Hawkins’ film class and start fresh tomorrow after he’s had a good sulk.

But Parker’s about to find out what a bad day really looks like—if he can survive the night.

A virus is unleashed, transforming infected people into zombie-like killers. After these quick and deadly creepers swarm campus, Parker only escapes thanks to Adam swooping him onto the back of his trusty motorcycle. Now they’re on the run—and stuck with each other.

When they’re not bickering, they’re fighting off the infected in a bloody battle for survival. Their only hope is to head east to Parker’s family, but orphaned Adam has a secret he’s not sure Parker will accept: he’s a werewolf. Can they trust each other enough to find some light in these dark days?

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Review:

I’m a little bit late to this series. And honestly, I only picked this book up because I had the opportunity to read and ARC of book two. It’s coming out SOON. I was advised that I should really read this one first in order to get the lay of the land and a lot of important details that would be needed going forward. So here I am.

Let’s break this down.

Zombies…I can’t think of any zombie books I’ve ever read. Nope…none. This was my first. I WAS SCARED.

Shifters…Yeah, sometimes. But I’m wary as fuck.

Paranormal…Again, sometimes. Usually only if it’s by an author I already like because of other books I’ve read.

Reviews…I missed this last year when this was published but holy cow at the awesome reviews.

Also, I’ve read Keira’s Amish series. I liked it. So how scary could this really be?

Ummm….

Okay, not super scary. Just squicky. That’s my official assessment. Zombies (or creepers) are squicky.

This was not a complete home run for me, but I did enjoy it.

In paranormal, the world building needs to do two entirely different things simultaneously. It needs to draw me in incrementally so that I’m not overloaded with details. And it needs to give me a strong sense that everything that happens is possible; that this could be a time or place I’d find myself living and attempting to survive. Maybe I’m asking too much — but I have read a few paranormals that managed to do both of those things successfully.

Here…was partially successful. The world building was gradual enough not to be an info-dump. But I think the biggest problem I had, going from a non-creeper world to creeper-infested mayhem, was the total lack of information for the characters to figure out what was happening. News outlets were cut off — including the internet. Phone lines and cell service started dropping. Nobody knew anything other than RUN, SAVE YOURSELF, HOW? I DON’T KNOW.

So that set my mind to racing and wondering things that didn’t have anything to do with the story…like what about the thousands of airplanes that had to have been in the air right then? What about cargo ships? What about the Tibetan monks — or other isolated refuges around the world? How would a virus essentially attack everywhere all at once? It might’ve been something in the water…but even that takes time to infect all the water supplies all around the world. What kind of plague can just happen ka-pow all the world over? Even that Zika thing is taking its time.

Obviously, our MCs weren’t going to learn this…so neither were we. Therefore it prompted too many questions fluttering around my brain to fully buy into this dystopian zombified world.

Then…for fun, let’s toss in werewolves. Mmmm-kay. This felt like smashing pieces of two completely different puzzles together. It took me a long time to accept this as part of the reality. But I did. Eventually.

I loved the characters, though. Parker took some warming up to — he’s a bit of an immature spoiled brat in the beginning. Adam was delightful, mostly level-headed and sensible.

For the most part, the story was well rounded, and there was definitely enough to keep me engaged and entertained overall. I think my only gripe would be that the dialogue didn’t always feel natural. Some of that might have due to Parker’s immaturity and “I know you are but what am I ?” comebacks.

So…not a complete win for me. But look, lot’s of people have LOVED this book. I know they’re eager for the next. And honestly, I understand why — because this book ultimately left me DYING to know what happens next. So, OF COURSE, I accepted the ARC. (Review coming soon!)

Review also posted on GoodReads.