I read this series when it first came out and loved it. Fancied revisiting this world but thought I'd listen this time. I read this series when it first came out and loved it. Fancied revisiting this world but thought I'd listen this time. ...more
Red Hill is the first book I've read by Jamie McGuire. I've heard a lot of great things about her new adult romance series so this seems quit2.5 Stars
Red Hill is the first book I've read by Jamie McGuire. I've heard a lot of great things about her new adult romance series so this seems quite a bit of a departure from that genre. Sadly it showed. Red Hill brought nothing new to the zombie genre, and contained quite a lot of the same stuff I've read before. And I've read a lot. It also didn't really go into any depth.
Basically it's the journey of several characters that find themselves fighting a zombie outbreak. There's Scarlet, who's looking for her two daughter's; Nathan and his daughter, Zoe, who he's trying to keep safe; Miranda, her sister and their boyfriends; all are heading to one place they think is the safest: Red Hill Ranch.
There are several narrators, all from the first person view point. This didn't work for me at all. The main reason first person is used is to get inside the mind of the character, this can't be done successfully when each chapter flips between several characters. We never got inside the character's mind for long enough to really get to know them, and because of this the first person POV was wasted. I don't really understand the use of first person in this instance, and wonder why the third person POV wasn't used. In my opinion it would have read better a lot better.
Even though each chapter is titled with the character's name, I often had to go back to the beginning if I'd taken a break mid-chapter, to see who it was, as I couldn't gage who was speaking, the voices just weren't distinct enough to determine who was speaking.
None of the characters are particularly likeable, except maybe for Nathan and Scarlet. Miranda starts out likeable, but then I changed my mind after some of her terrible, selfish decisions. One being to not take an eight year old girl because they didn't have any room in the car. Really? She could of sat on someone's lap - to me, there's always room for a child. But no, Miranda was totally happy to leave her to the zombie hordes.
There were also aspects that were glossed over. Such as an elderly couple who took in Nathan and his daughter, Zoe. They became quite close even in the short space of time they had known each other, and I liked their bond. But when something happens to them, it's never mentioned; no emotions - nothing. I found this unbelievable and way too simplistic. After reading quite a lot of really awesome zombie books who's writer's understood that emotions are a huge part of zombie fiction, (namely Rhiannon Frater who wrote the As the World Dies series), Red Hill was sadly lacking in this department.
There was also quite a bit of repetitiveness in the prose; doubling up of words in a short space is one of my pet peeves when it comes to writing, as well as weird descriptions:
Skeeter smiled with his mouth and frowned with his eyes.
I ran to the door and pressed my ear against the door.
Hearing her clumsy footsteps upstairs as the sickness told her braindead body to move to find food was unbelievable.
and then a short time later:
No matter how many times I told myself it was true, seeing someone I knew to be dead moving around was unbelievable.
There were also a few inconsistencies:
Skeeter alternated between checking on his wife and checking the windows in the other room.
then
I wondered who the woman on the floor was to Skeeter, and what her life was like before she was bitten.
The fact that the narrator knew the woman was Skeeter's wife in one sentence, only to wonder who the woman was in the next really irritated me and threw me out of the scene.
The ending was a mishmash of silliness all packed into a few chapters. It felt as though the author was just throwing stuff in there to try and get a better climax to the story. Characters died all over the place, a huge bomb went off, ash fell from the sky, was it nuclear? Nobody knew, but hey let's continue with the birthday party inside! It didn't do anything for me. And due to the way the narration was handled I didn't get to know the characters that well, and as I didn't like many of the characters to begin anyway, I didn't care much about their outcome.
However, even with all these negative points, I did still manage to read until the end. It wasn't awful enough to stop me reading but it certainly wasn't a particularly good zombie novel.
Red Hill wasn't the best zombie novel I've read, but it also wasn't the worst. It's a 'meh' book for me. There were a few good parts, but many were quite silly, most of the characters were unlikeable, and the pacing was all over the place....more
Plague World is the third book in the Ashley Parker zombie/urban fantasy series, following her fight to save the world from the zom*Warning: Spoilers*
Plague World is the third book in the Ashley Parker zombie/urban fantasy series, following her fight to save the world from the zombie plague. This continues on from where Plague Nation ended, and Ashley and her band of merry-men are fighting their way across America to find Gabriel, who was taken by the bad guys. He could also hold the cure to the virus that is now spreading across the world.
As usual there is quite a lot of action, but I felt as though not a lot actually happens. Sadly the pacing did fluctuate, and I found myself getting a bit bored in places. For the book just to be about Ashley trying to find Gabriel, meant that it didn’t quite have the same amount of excitement as the previous two books. I feel that if Gabriel’s side of the story was interwoven with Ashley’s story, it would have given the book a better dynamic, broken the story up a bit, making it a more fast-paced read. Gabriel’s condition is an interesting one and it was a shame that we couldn’t have seen what he was going through while Ashley was trying to find him.
As mentioned, there is no appearance of Gabriel, until 30 pages before the end of the book. I will admit that this annoyed me quite a bit as the series started out with Gabriel being part of the main storyline, as well as Ashley’s love interest, which I really liked. I enjoyed having the romance aspect mixed with the darkness of the zombie apocalypse, so to not have Gabriel in for basically the entire book made me feel a little bit cheated.
Thankfully, Ashley’s snarky nature is still present. She’s funny without being annoying, and although the situation is dire, her humour breaks up the seriousness of what is going on around them. Fredsti manages to combine humour and horror very well and I really enjoy that aspect of her writing.
In this instalment, the virus has become airborne, but sometimes it didn’t really make sense. As well as the Wild Cards (those who are immune to the zombie bite), there is also TJ, who is a civilian. He goes out with the Wild Cards, but doesn’t wear a protective mask. Is the now mutated virus, which has gone airborne, only contagious from human to human when it shows itself as the flu? Once it kills the humans and they come back as a zombie is the virus not airborne anymore? How long can it survive while its airborne? Once people turn into zombies does it return to it’s previous state of only being transmitted through bites and blood? Too many questions…
The story of Ashley and the other Wild Cards is interjected with snippets of the outside world, and focuses on an individual or couple and their experiences, and we get to see what’s going on through their eyes. Some of these mini stories were good as the ending is wrapped up, but some were left hanging and all I could think was, what happened to so and so? Although generally these stories were interesting, I also found them to be slightly distracting to the overall story. In all honesty I could have done without them, and would have preferred snippets of what Gabriel was going through instead.
When we do finally meet up with Gabriel again, it is very close to the end of the book, and it is bitterly disappointing. I DID NOT like what happened to him, and felt as though it was an easy way out, rather than expanding on his condition of half human, half zombie. It was a real shame this part of the story wasn’t fully developed, as it was one of the most exciting aspects to the overall story, and to Gabriel’s character.
I did enjoy this final instalment, but not as much as the first two books, and I didn’t like the way it ended – heartbroken doesn’t cover it. The ending, however, didn’t really feel like a conclusion, as the zombie apocalypse continues, but it did give me hope that maybe one day, Fredsti will bring back Ashley Parker....more
I really tried with this one. The writing is ok, the characters are ok, and I think I could possibly have finished it if it wasn't *No rating as DNF*
I really tried with this one. The writing is ok, the characters are ok, and I think I could possibly have finished it if it wasn't just so very dull. Hardly any zombies or action and the sex scenes were devoid of any sexiness. ...more
Having read all the preceding books in this series, I was looking forward to reading the 4th and final book. After sadly being dropped by Orbit, the aHaving read all the preceding books in this series, I was looking forward to reading the 4th and final book. After sadly being dropped by Orbit, the author decided to self-publish the ending to David and Sarah's story. I have read other reviews which stated that the series didn't really need another book, but I'd have to disagree. I'm really pleased that Petersen decided to publish a final book to what was a fun series.
I will say that The Zombie Whisperer wasn't as good as I had hoped but it did wrap up a few of the questions I was left with at the end of Eat Slay Love.
We're back with Sarah and David a couple of months from where Eat Slay Love ended. They are up high in the hills, living day to day, fighting off any zombie stragglers and generally getting by. David, with his new zombie strength and immunity to zombie bites does most of the hard work, preferring to keep Sarah out of harms way. This doesn't go down particularly well with Sarah and so they have to compromise with Sarah shooting from the top of the house.
One day a large pod of zombies descend upon them, and after dispatching all of them realise they were running from something. That something soon comes into view - a helicopter containing old friends. Sarah and Dave soon find themselves back in Seattle where it all began, along with many familiar faces, trying to find a cure to zombieism, dealing with Sarah's shocking, but potentially exciting news, and coping with Dave being poked and prodded by scientists like a lab rat.
Although they know many of the people they are now working with, Sarah has some serious trust issues, issues that are proved right, albeit by the wrong people.
I did enjoy this instalment. I jumped straight back into Sarah and Dave's story with ease, as though I hadn't had the eighteen month long wait since the last book. The Zombie Whisperer was a pretty short read, which was a shame, and because of that I did feel the ending was a tad rushed. There were also certain plot elements that really didn't need to be there. But as always there was quite a bit of snarkiness from Sarah, which I've always enjoyed, and it was nice to meet past characters again. The writing wasn't as tight as in the previous books, but I still really enjoyed Petersen's voice and really like her writing style. I find it very easy to read.
The Zombie Whisperer is a fun read and wraps up Sarah and David's story nicely. It was really good to be back with these two characters and to see them getting an end to their story was satisfying, if a little bittersweet. I will miss Sarah and Dave....more
Love with a Chance of Zombies is a fun erotic romance set in a zombie-apocalyptic world. At only 74 or so pages, Dryden manages to pack a lot3.5 Stars
Love with a Chance of Zombies is a fun erotic romance set in a zombie-apocalyptic world. At only 74 or so pages, Dryden manages to pack a lot in. There's hot sex, love, zombie killing and a doc who's trying to find a cure.
The story opens up with feisty heroine, Lena Stanton, out in the field shooting zombies. She's then called to stand guard over Dr. Lucas Naye, who's seen to be a hero as in the Before life he was a prodigy and genius, sadly in the Now life he's been bitten. It takes up to six weeks for the first symptoms to show and so until then he's a allowed to continue working in his lab. Lena's job is to make sure he doesn't escape or hurt anyone, and to kill on sight when he changes. What she doesn't plan on, are days full of amazing sex, and falling in love.
The interactions between Lena and Lucas are short but sweet. Mostly sex to be honest, rather than dialogue, and how they want to give him the best send off they can, both of them not realising how difficult it will be as they begin to have feelings for each other.
The romance and sex is mixed with a little bit of zombie killing action as they work tirelessly to find a cure, and I loved this untraditional combination. The ending is a HEA of sorts, but I do so wish this was a longer work as I really enjoyed being in Lena's world, and would have loved to see how things worked out with Dryden.
A fun, steamy read with the addition of zombies. A great combination in my book, a shame is was so short....more
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