REVIEW - ZOMBIE MOM - DEAD AWARE BY ELEANOR MERRY

Title: Zombie Mom

Series: Dead Aware

Author: Eleanor Merry

Genre: Zombie Fiction, Post Apocalyptic

Release Date: **Newsletter Exclusive**

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Zombie's are pretty happy folk, for the most part. Eat, sleep, hunt and repeat. Sounds perfect, right?
When a zombie woman meets a young girl, she must come to terms with the creature she has become and make the ultimate decision. Are people friends, or food?

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REVIEW
I had really enjoyed reading Vagrant Youth, which is a novella from the Dead Aware Series and I saw that Zombie Mom was exclusively available free to those that signed up for Eleanor Merry’s newsletter and as I wanted to read more of the series I signed up. Zombie Mom is shorter than the Vagrant Youth novella so I would probably call it a novelette.

The two main characters of this novelette are a young 9 year old child called Octavia, or Ava for short and a female adult zombie who Ava names Angela as the novelette progresses.

Angela doesn’t remember her “before”, as in her before she was a zombie. She remembers waking up in a park bathroom and just laying there as she couldn’t work out how to use the door handle that will allow her outside. She persevered and finally made it outside, though she comes back into the bathroom at night to sleep. It’s when Angela is outside that she hears voices nearby, she looks in the direction of the noise and see’s a small child frantically running away from some unseen danger or person. Angela smells that smell that makes her salivate for something to eat, fresh meat. She stands up and sees the young girl run into her bathroom, the zombie man chasing her cannot work the door handle so gives up and leaves. Angela goes to investigate who it is in her bathroom and what is wrong with the clearly human girl.

When Angela hears the child crying, whimpering, then quietly saying hello, it is as if something clicks inside her and she suddenly realises what she was about to do and that its not right. Angela wonders “What am I?” as tears roll down her face. When she looks up, she is looking straight into Ava’s innocent face staring down at her. Ava is curious as to what has happened to Angela and like only children can, strikes up a conversation with her. It soon becomes apparent that Angela is not the usual type of out of control zombie that attacks humans to eat etc. Angela is on of the dead that are still somewhat aware of the world around them.

Later in the novelette Angela and Ava meet up with some of the other characters from the Vagrant Youth novella which ties the novelette into the series well. I could have read on and on about these characters both the aware zombies, and the humans that are trying to survive attacks by the mindless zombies and other humans that are out for themselves looting places and shooting people who get in their way.

To sum up I think this short story, novelette that is part of the Dead Aware Series, and is set in the same virus ravaged world is a great taster of what is to come from the rest of the series. I really enjoyed reading this one especially the relationship that develops between Ava & Angela. Liked the way the characters from Vagrant Youth and Zombie Mom have met up. I am certainly looking forward to reading more about these characters in the rest of the series as well as meeting more aware zombies too.

BLOG TOUR - IN OVER HER HEAD: LIGHTS, CAMERA, ANXIETY

Title: In Over Her Head: Lights, Camera, Anxiety

Series: Cecily Taylor 

Author: Krysten Lindsay Hager

Genre: Contemporary, Romance, YA

Release Date: 3rd September 2019

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours

Cecily feels like she has it all: great best friends, the beginnings of a career as a model/actress, and she’s dating her favorite singer, Andrew Holiday. Then Cecily’s best friend Lila begins to ditch her every time Lila’s boyfriend calls. Cecily feels lost, but she and Andrew begin connecting more and she’s never been in a relationship where she felt so understood. Andrew even begins to confide in her about his anxiety. Soon Cecily experiences her own anxiety on a magazine photo shoot, but she manages to impress the magazine staff. Just when it seems like all her dreams are coming true, everything comes crashing down when a photo of Andrew with another girl appears online. He swears nothing happened, but Cecily is crushed. She feels like she’s lost two of the people closest to her. Was her perfect relationship real or was she in over her head?

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EXCERPT

“They were talking about how they’re using unknown models right now and I mentioned how awesome you were in the video and they agreed. We started talking and they wondered if you’d want to come to New York and do a shoot for the magazine. What do you think?” he asked.

I almost fell off my bed. Me? Model? I wasn’t pretty enough for that and everyone would write in to let them know that just like they all felt the need to voice that opinion in the online video comments.

“Wow, it’s…wow.”

“I know, right? And I’m here for a few weeks recording so we could see each other. My manager said he’d talk to your parents and work out the details. You’d be working just to get exposure, so the contract would be about rights and not money—is that cool? It’s a great way to get your name out there and stuff for your book.”

               “My book?”

“Your portfolio. You know, the photos people look at to decide whether or not they want to hire you for modeling jobs.”

Was I going to be modeling enough that I needed a book? Did this magazine actually want me? It sounded too good to be true—going to New York to model and be in a magazine while visiting my pop star boyfriend. Was this my life?

“I don’t know if my parents will go for it,” I said.

“Let my manager talk to them and see what magic he can work. He wants to help this magazine out, too. You want to do it though, right?”

Part of me did—the part of me that wanted a big life and to be famous and adored. The reality side of me was an anxious mess just thinking about flying out there though.

               “Yeah, for sure,” I said hoping I sounded convincing. 

“Great, give me your parents’ number and I’ll have my manager give them a call.”

               I felt like I was having an out of body experience as I recited my mom’s cell phone number to him. 

My entire life could change in a phone call.

AUTHOR BIO

Who knew all those embarrassing, cringe-y moments in middle school and high school could turn into a career? And who would have thought that daydreaming in math class would pay off down the road? Krysten Lindsay Hager writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, frenemies, crushes, fame, first loves, and values.

She is the author of True Colors, Best Friends...Forever?, Next Door to a Star, Landry in Like, Competing with the Star, Dating the It Guy, and Can Dreams Come True. True Colors, won the Readers Favorite award for best preteen book and the Dayton Book Expo Bestseller Award for children/teens. Competing with the Star is a Readers' Favorite Book Award Finalist. Landry in Like is a Literary Classics Gold Medal recipient. Krysten's work has been featured in USA Today, The Flint Journal, the Grand Haven Tribune, the Beavercreek Current, the Bellbrook Times, Springfield News-Sun, Grand Blanc View, Dayton Daily News and on Living Dayton.

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REVIEW - JIHADI BRIDE BY ALASTAIR LUFT

Title: Jihadi Bride

Author: Alastair Luft

Genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Thriller

Publisher: Black Rose Writing

Release Date: 29th August 2019

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Erik Petersson works with the High-Risk Traveler Task Force, an organization that prevents radicalized individuals from joining extremist groups. Disciplined and dedicated, Erik’s carefully controlled world is upended when his daughter, Arielle, leaves university to join the Islamic Caliphate, a terrorist regime in Syria. Erik rallies a desperate effort to stop her, but when he fails, he resolves to bring Arielle back, whatever the cost.

Driven by a secret she can’t outrun, Arielle’s dream of a more purposeful life is confronted with the brutality of life in the Caliphate. When she attracts the attention of Abu Noor al Kanadi, a terrorist leader bent on punishing America for its actions in the Middle East, Arielle must choose whether to sacrifice her dreams to survive or risk a frantic bid to escape. Torn between rival agendas, father and daughter must choose between family or country, love or fear. 

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REVIEW

I had looked at this book a couple of times and I was honestly not sure whether I really wanted to read it or not. You hear so much in the news about young people being radicalised and going out to places at war. In the end my curiosity got the better of me and I went into reading the book with an open mind and the intention I always have of giving my honest opinion. The genres listed for this book are historical fiction, mystery and thriller. I am not wholly sure I agree with the “historical” label as I feel the subject matter of the book is more current than historical really. I would agree with the labels of mystery, and thriller and would add suspense and maybe political/religion to the list.

One of the books main characters is Erik who works as part of the High- Risk Traveller Task Force that attempt to prevent those that are radicalised from joining extremist groups. Erik takes his work seriously and certainly puts a lot of hours into his job to the point of being a workaholic. Sadly, it means when something awful happens to his daughter, he doesn’t know about it and she doesn’t reach out to him. In fact, she reaches out to an already radicalised friend she has at college. Erik and Arielle regularly remotely play Warcraft together. So, it comes as a total shock to Erik when he receives a phone call from his daughter Arielle before their pending Warcraft game session cancelling it and saying she doesn’t have much time, that she is in Frankfurt, that she loves him, doesn’t disown him, even though she is supposed to do that and live their previous life behind. Arielle tells her dad she loves him and will pray for him and goodbye. Arielle reveals she is travelling with her friends to Turkey, to meet someone who will then take them into Syria.

Erik tries his best to talk his daughter out of her plans, saying there is a civil war in Syria, its dangerous, he asks her not to do this. But her reply has him thinking back to the headstrong, hard headed child she was at just age three. It’s when she says “Now that there’s Caliphate, hijrah is an obligation”. When asks what all that has to do with her, Arielle reveals she converted six months ago. Erik tries his best to keep his daughter talking to gain clues as to who she is with, where she is and how she is getting to Turkey and then onto Syria. These clues are the base stones he has to rely on when he tries to find his daughter. He tries going through the official channels but when those wheels grind increasingly slower and he is shut out, told he is too involved emotionally, he takes the only course of action left to him, to go after his daughter himself. In Eriks mind and world there is not “if” he will find his daughter and get her back only a “when” he will.

Arielle is the other main character of the book and comes across as a fairly strong, independent character who lost her mother when she committed suicide when she was much younger. Arielle is joining in college life and whilst out socialising something awful happens to her. Arielle feels ashamed and reverts into herself, becoming quiet and timid until she meets Naomi, the friend that introduces her to a bible class. After attending the class and hanging out with Naomi and her boyfriend Hamza she soon becomes caught up in the religion and going to Syria. Arielle and Naomi are under the impression that they will be working in a hospital, caring for the ill or injured. Naomi believes Hamza will be there to greet them when they arrive in Syria. It soon becomes apparent that the girls have not really been given the true facts about where they will be staying, who they will be with or what they will be doing either!

Umm Fatima who met the girls on their arrival, escorts Arielle and the other girls to a woman named Deeba. In the small room there is a row of seats and Deeba sits at a desk with paperwork in front of her and a man standing guard near her called Tariq. The room is hot and wearing her new attire Arielle feels claustrophobic and ill. Deeba is in charge of giving the girls new, more suitable names and their job/purpose. Arielle is renamed Hafsa and is told she is to marry Mus’ab Saleh, when Arielle says she is there to work in a hospital she is told there are enough working at the hospitals that she has to marry and her first duty is to “make cubs for the Caliphate”. Arielle feels numb and just returns to her seat, thinking of what she had been told she would be doing and why it has all suddenly changed, but she is too scared to speak up. When her friend Naomi is given the name Abdia and told who she is to marry she says no, she has a boyfriend and wants to know where Hamza is. When Naomi refuses to return to her seat, Tariq steps forward and strikes her continuously until she is in a heap on the floor. Arielle tries to comfort her friend, but soon leaves the room and doesn’t know what happens to her afterwards.

The book is told in a kind of diary format, in that at the beginning of the chapter the place/setting and time of day are listed. Then we find out which character we are following in that specific chapter. I would say there are three, maybe four angles to the story. There is Erik’s which

tells his part of story from his point of view and we follow first the official channels to try and trace his daughter with the intention of her being picked up by Police and being returned to him. Then when those channels do not seem to be interested enough in his daughter, Erik is forced to take matters into his own hands approaching the problem in a more unofficial way.

There is Arielle/Hafsa’s side which tell of what is happening to her in her day to day life and what she sees. Hafsa/Arielle is soon married off to Mus’ab Saleh. Luckily for Hafsa Mus’ab is kind and quite gentle with her, not insisting on consummating their marriage immediately.

We also have the chapters on Abu Noor al Kanadi who is a known extremist and his second in command Mamdouh al Qassam who are in fact being monitored by the High-Risk Traveller Task Force.

It seems that Abu Noor al Kanadi doesn’t have the stomach for the public be-headings and other such atrocities, though his second in command Mamdouh al Qassam more than makes up for it!

As Erik did work at the Task Force there are the interaction between him and his colleagues. In fact, there’s the beginning of a possible romance between Erik and Stephanie. Another colleague called Jordan gives Erik some intelligence prototypes to use as well.

Characters I instantly liked were, Erik, Stephanie, Jordan and Ziad. I grew to like Arielle/Hafsa who soon realises that she is being used as a pawn in a much bigger game and war than she ever thought she was entering into. I felt a little sorry for Arielle/Hafsa and Naomi/Abdia how naïve they were. They thought they were going to work in a hospital, tending the ill. Though if I am honest, I don’t think either girl would have easily slipped into caring for the type of injuries they would have had to deal with. Having said that, when Arielle/Hafsa is forced to face a highly contagious disease she does try to help those with the illness. I also liked the character of Mus’ab as when an opportunity arose where he could desert his post and disappear back to his own country, he doesn’t take it. Mus’ab returns to Raqqa for his newlywed wife Hafsa/Arielle and they attempt to escape over to Lebanon but are caught. I won’t reveal what comes after their capture as you need to read the whole book yourselves.

  

I did enjoy reading this book, even though I was unsure to begin with about reading it. It was interesting, yet disturbing at the same time. The punishments that Mamdouh delivers are horrendous and he seems to be totally unaffected by them. However, Abu Noor al Kanadi is quite happy to let others do the dirty work of punishing, torturing and killing on his behalf. There are some really poignant moments towards the end when both Erik and Arielle are suspected of having Ebola. There’s also quite a bit of fighting action too from the different sides of the war, the mercenaries Mark and Chris who also seem to enjoy the killing a little too much.

My immediate reaction upon finishing this book were that it had been engrossing, a very realistic, and believable story. Also, that it had some great characters.

So, to sum up, I am glad I went ahead and read the book, it did show different sides of an horrendous war and how people can get caught up in it fairly easily.

BOOK BLITZ - ANGEL BLUE - SEVEN DEADLY SINS BY JENNIFER SILVERWOOD

Title: Angel Blue

Series: Seven Deadly Sins

Author: Jennifer Silverwood

Genre: Adult, Urban Fantasy

Release Date: 14th August 2019

BLURB supplied by Xpresso Book Tours

All Eanna wants is to forget the night she lost everything, but fate has other plans. A lifetime ago, the cursed burned her home and everyone she loved. Now she’s haunted by a dangerous legacy.

Her guardian, Etlu is determined to make Eanna into a queen, even if it means sacrificing his happiness. Surrounded by enemies, Eanna and Etlu have no choice but to give in to destiny.

Wil and his sister Isabol are searching for the chosen princess, but Wil finds more than he bargained for in Eanna. He doesn’t plan on falling in love with her. A love like theirs can only end in tragedy and death.

There can only be one outcome when chosen and cursed collide: a world bathed in fire and blood.

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EXCERPT

Eanna stands and returns to the fire. The blue flames are higher than they should be. She braces her fingertips on the stone hearth and wills ice back into her veins.

After a moment, Wil breaks the silence. “You stabbed me.” His accent is strange, and his voice is rougher than she is used to.

“I did not know it was you,” she admits, then curses. She should have killed him anyway. He would have killed her first, right? She doesn’t dare turn around, though she needs to clean up the mess they made together.

Eanna winces at the unwanted analogy.

“Am I your prisoner?”

She turns at this, surprised to find he has the bloody rag in hand and is doing his best to clean himself. “I saved your life,” she says.

His strange, huffing laugh is accompanied by a wince. “Didn’t look that way to me in the woods.”

Eanna clenches and unclenches her fists. “You were shot six times before I found you. And right now, you are bleeding all over the floor. What do you think the redum would have done, had I not saved you?” She doesn’t know why she cares, but somehow, it’s important he knows.

Knows what? It should not have made a difference! It made no difference to his kind when they killed your family.

Wil gasps as he touches the stab wound. His muscles strain, and his eyes squeeze tightly shut.

She senses the stirring of power in the air and knows he is fighting his hidden beast. Fangs sprout from his gums as claws push through his fingertips. A sudden rush of fear floods her mind. She won’t allow it into her bloodstream on the off-chance he smells it.

Stupid, foolish mistake! Should have stayed inside, like Etlu asked.

A brief vision of Etlu finding her lacerated body days from now passes through her mind. By then, it would be too late for miracles and resurrections. The cursed would be long gone.

A strangled groan escapes Wil’s fanged mouth as his eyes pop open.

He is afraid. She takes advantage of this as she kneels and places a hand beside his wound. She presses a little too hard, and tears escape his eyes.

“Be calm.” She relieves the pressure, and he looks at her again. “You won’t last three minutes outside like this. The redum would pick up your scent and kill you before you were two kilometers past the river.”

Wil grimaces, then nods. Whatever battle he’s fighting seems to leave him when she removes her hand. As he exhales, fangs and claws recede. The cabin is silent, save for the uneven rhythm of their unsteady breaths.

She is forced to rip up pieces of another blanket before fetching fresh snow and melting it with her blue flames. The cursed doesn’t fight her this time as she works to stay the constant flow of blood.

Wil’s silence is somehow more unnerving than his growls. Eanna tries to ignore the maleness of him with little success. But she isn’t Annunaki for nothing. She has been trained to act by the very best of them. She won’t let this usemi awilum see how he unnerves her.

“Why didn’t you finish me off?” His gruff manner causes her to jump and accidently graze an open wound. Wil breathes heavily, but no sign of the beast appears.

“We need to sew this,” she mutters, reaching for the thread and needle. “You are lucky I like to be prepared.”

His pained laughter startles her into meeting his gaze. “The dagger you stabbed me with felt cursed. Silver?”

Eanna hesitates before threading her needle. “Yes.”

“Why did you do it?” Wil hisses as she begins to stitch his skin together.

“I…” She bites her lower lip, as blood pools beneath her needle. “I do not know.”

“Should have killed me when you had the chance,” he says, almost cheerfully. “Would have been a cleaner death.”

Guilt crushes her chest like a sagkal. “I know.” Eanna bites her tongue while she washes the mended wound again. Finally, she sets the rag aside. “Sit up.”

He growls, but at least he obeys. Sitting up, he is taller than her. Disliking the advantage, Eanna adjusts by sitting on her knees.

She catches his eyes as she begins to wrap a bandage around his torso. His chest is broader than Etlu’s. Where her guardian is all hidden strength, this beastly creature is bulging muscle.

He is smiling, damn the cursed. Eanna sniffs at this.

He is already damned, silly Anu.

“At least I can enjoy my final hours, before the fever settles in,” Wil says, his lips brushing her ear. There is a flicker of sadness behind his cocky delivery, and beneath this, fascination.

Eanna jerks away, craving distance. “Sha hatti, you bled all over the pallet,” she says, grateful for the distraction. “Nothing to do about it now. I’ll make a fresh one tomorrow. But we both need to sleep.” She wrinkles her nose and looks at what remains of her dress. “And I need to burn these clothes.”

“Sorry.” Wil appears solemn and possibly grateful to her.

Oh, this shall not do at all.

“I have mended you, cursed,” she says, “but I may kill you in the morning.” Eanna stands and ignores her guilt by throwing a clean fur over his bare chest. 

AUTHOR BIO

Jennifer Silverwood was raised deep in the heart of Texas and has been spinning yarns a mile high since childhood. In her spare time, she reads and writes and tries to sustain her wanderlust, whether it's the Carpathian Mountains in Transylvania, the highlands of Ecuador, or a road trip to the next town. Always on the lookout for her next adventure, in print or reality, she dreams of one day proving to the masses that everything really is better in Texas. She is the author of three series--Heaven's Edge, Wylder Tales and the Borderlands Saga--and the stand-alone titles Stay and She Walks in Moonlight. She released her first serialized Urban Fantasy, Angel Blue in August 2018.

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BOOK BLITZ - DOROTHY IN THE LAND OF MONSTERS - OZ REVAMPED BY GARTEN GEVEDON

Shifters, Zombies, and Vampires? Oh my!

Title: Dorothy In the Land of Monsters 

Series: Oz ReVamped 
Author: Garten Gevedon 

Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal, Young Adult
Publication date: October 11th 2019

Synopsis supplied by Xpresso Book Tours

Shifters, Zombies, and Vampires? Oh my!

My name is Dorothy Gale, and I think I might be dead.

When my dog Toto and I got swept up in a twister, we landed in hell. A very colorful hell. Like a rainbow dripping in blood. Now it looks as though this dreadful underworld plagued with vampires, zombies, and shifters will be the site of my eternal damnation.

They say this terrifying land called Oz isn’t hell or purgatory and escape is possible, but first I must survive the journey down the blood-soaked yellow brick road to the only place in Oz where vampires dare not tread—The City of Emeralds. 

With enchanted footwear and the help of my three new friends—a friendly zombie, a massive shifter lion, and a heartless axe murderer of evil night creatures (who also happens to be the hottest guy I’ve ever seen)—Toto and I have a chance to make it to the Vampire Free Zone. When we get there, I must convince the most powerful wizard in this magical land of monsters to send us out of this radiant nightmare and back to the world of the living. They say he’s just as frightening as this monstrous land, that he detests visitors, and even the most horrifying creatures cower in his presence. But I must seek him out. And when I find him, I’ll do whatever it takes to make him send me home.

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EXCERPT

Gray everywhere. As I stand on the porch of my aunt and uncle’s home, all I can see is the great gray expanse of prairie on every side. No trees, houses, buildings, people, nothing at all breaks the broad sweep of flat gray country that reaches to the edge of the gray sky in every direction. The sun scorched the plowed fields into a dusty, gray mass that expands to the horizon line, the endless gloom broken only by the little black shadows of the fissures running through it like the marbling of a corpse.
Even the grass is dead and gray—the hot sun singed the blades until they were the same lifeless gray color that blankets everything. Years ago, the house was a pristine white, but the torrid summer sun burned and blistered the paint and the heavy winter rains battered it away, and now the house is as weathered and gray as everything else here. It’s fitting for what it’s like to live here in Middle of Nowhere, Kansas. It looks like what it is—bleak, leached of any color, any excitement, anything interesting at all—drained of life. Gray is gray is gray is my life. It surrounds me from all sides, all the time. And it sucks. Thanks a lot, climate change.
I came to live with my Uncle Henry and Aunt Emily on a crappy little farm when my parents died in a car accident. I was thirteen. Because Emily was the only family I had left, she got stuck with me. She could have refused me and left me as a ward of the state, but she was kind enough to take me in. Even though I don’t share the same connection with Emily and Henry that I did with my parents, they’re still family—the only family I have—so, I may complain about this being the middle of nowhere, but it’s better than being in an orphanage or foster care or some group home. Yeah, their place is tiny, and old, but at least it has four walls, a floor, and a roof.
The two-bedroom farmhouse I live in is as weathered and brittle as the farm it’s set on. One story with no attic and no basement, the only feature it has is a cyclone cellar which we’ve had yet to use since I’ve lived here. It may lack color and any of the luxuries most people in America have these days—cable, wifi, consistent hot water to shower with—but I am grateful I have somewhere to live, even if life here is so gray that the grayness proliferates, turning everything in it to a gray as dry as dust.
When Aunt Emily came here to live with Uncle Henry, she was a young, pretty, vivacious woman with golden hair and bright emerald green eyes—or I thought I remembered her that way. Even she’s gray now. Just like it changed this once green land, the sun and wind have changed her, and her once sparkling green eyes are now dim and muted, tinged with a melancholy gray. Living here in this sweltering, ex animate world has stolen her radiance and left her ashen. It’s exhausted the red from her cheeks and lips, and now they’re pallid and gray too. Once she was curvy and a little plump. Now she’s gaunt and never smiles. Can’t blame her for never smiling, living in this dull, gray crap hole.
When I first came to her, Aunt Emily would startle when I laughed. She’d scream and look at me like I was nuts, shocked I could find anything to laugh at in this gray place. Uncomfortable and bored out of my skull, I’d laugh trying to entertain myself, trying not to let the depression get the best of me, but after being here for four years, I get it now—what is there to laugh about when all that’s here is gray?
Uncle Henry never laughs either. Morning to night, all he does is work hard. If he knows what joy is, he doesn’t let on. From his gray beard to his rough boots, Henry is also gray, stern, and solemn. With a permanent stone face, he almost never speaks. It’s like he’s made of hard, gray stone. If he didn’t work so much trying to make this gray land yield something, I’d think he was stone—a gray statue of a man.
Sometimes I wonder if it’s me that’s gray, or the lens I see the world through. Before my parents died, my life was a bright white, like a pristine sheet of paper wishing for a colorful story to grace its surface. Then the black smear of tragedy struck, and it’s as though the thousands of tears I shed diffused the black that blemished my bright whiteness, spreading it over the unsullied parts like watercolor, leaving my world gray. But I don’t think I’m gray. Not yet. I don’t think it has spread to me yet.

—“Dorothy in the Land of Monsters” Oz ReVamped #1
Chapter 1 – The Cyclone, pgs. 1-2

AUTHOR BIO

Garten Gevedon lives in New York City with her family. She's a sci-fi, fantasy, and paranormal author who loves taking fairy tales and turning them inside out.

 You can visit her online at www.gartengevedon.com.

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REVIEW - SURVIVE THE CONFLICT - SMALL TOWN EMP BY GRACE HAMILTON

Title: Survive The Conflict

Series: Small Town EMP

Author: Grace Hamilton

Genre: General Fiction, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Post Apocalyptic

Publisher: Relay Publishing

Release Date: 12th September 2019

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The world has descended into a nightmarish hell. Death and destruction reign at every turn. Everywhere Austin Merryman has led his tightknit group of survivors has gone from bad to worse as enemies pursue them for the intelligence he possesses. Yet, his group remains steadfastly together even as the infighting continues.

It’s only when the cryptologist traveling with them finally breaks through the last coded barrier, exposing the full extent of the data on the mysterious USB drive, that their luck finally seems to be turning. So many have already given their lives to secure the information, and now they know why.

Now, a small window of opportunity remains for stopping the New World Order from succeeding in their plans, but Austin and his cohorts will have to move fast. Once again, splitting up may be their only option, but at what cost? And can they really launch the countermeasures that could take down the NWO’s plan for domination?

But when the enemy closes in and lives of his entire group are threatened, Austin will be forced to choose between his family and the ultimate survival of the entire world…

This novel contains violence and scenes with referenced substance abuse

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REVIEW
Having read Survive The Chaos and Survive The Aftermath, I had to read this one. In fact, had they all been available together I think I would have read them back to back! The cover fits really well with the rest of the series. The people on the cover could represent either Austin and Amanda or maybe Savannah and Malachi.

The book picks up where the other left off. The group have lost the majority of their prepping possessions along with Ennis’ prepper house.
They are also still mourning the tragic loss of one much loved character (no spoilers here!) especially Savannah who feels more than a little responsible for what happened.
There’s some unsettlement within the group when it is suggested they forget about the overwhelming task of defeating the New World Order and just find themselves a little hideaway and live off the land.

Sarah is still searching the usb stick that Callum gave to Austin and soon discovers a devastating plan that the New Order have. Luckily, she also reveals a way of thwarting that plan. However, it involves the group splitting up into two groups. The difficult decision is made, Austin will lead one team and Amanda will lead the other one. Everything seems settled and though a daunting task, though everyone has their mind set on the end goal of saving the world except one person who turns out to be out just for themselves. A traitor in their midst, the two teams blindly follow their respective plans. Also, to add to this mix of troubles, a guilt- ridden Savannah decides to go it alone. Austin’s first instinct is to head off after his daughter, but it is Malachi that steps up to the plate and reasons with Austin saying Savannah will be more likely to talk to Malachi and he can then persuade her to return to the group.

Favourite characters in this book are again Austin and Amanda, always looking after other people, either in their group or anyone they meet along their arduous journey. I became fond of Malachi again in this book, he shows much more of his caring side. He takes on an adult male’s responsibilities when he goes in search of Savannah and then they both have to grow up rather quickly when they end up caring for a younger child. They both realise all the support and love they have had from their group and how they have been somewhat sheltered from some of the harsher atrocities that are out in the wider now uncivilised world.

I still enjoyed “hating” Zander and the New Order that is still pitting neighbour against neighbour in their fight to take over and remain in charge of the world that is now emerging from the aftermath of the EMP.
I also still disliked Wendell! I was sad at the loss of another character at the ending of the book but it would have been totally unrealistic for these two groups not to have taken any casualties at all in such a dangerous world coupled with their near impossible mission too. In this book we also get to know some of the lesser characters better such as Harlen, Ennis, and Ezra. Gretchen remains a powerful character and by the end of the book I think Tonya has regained some of the strength she had at the beginning of the series.

My immediate thoughts upon finishing the book were that I not only loved this book but the whole series! This last book was packed with action, a few of the fantastic characters were lost towards the end of the fighting. Brilliant read! Highly recommend the whole series!

To finally sum up this whole series is brilliant! From reading the first words to the very last I found the series engrossing and really hated having to put the books down! As the series went on, I easily slipped back into the plot as I started each new book.