A Darker Shade of Magic (Shades of Magic #1)
Author: V.E. Schwab
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: February 24, 2015
Pages: 400
Format: Audiobook/Library
Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.
Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.
Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they'll never see. It's a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.
After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.
Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they'll first need to stay alive.
Siege (As The World Dies #3)
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Pages: 368
Source: Paperback/Library
As the survivors continue to seek stability in their lives,
forces both inside and outside the fort walls move
them toward a final, climactic conflict between
the living and the dead. Jenni, Katie and the others
discover that they are not alone, that there is another
enclave of survivors whose leaders plan to take over the fort.
Faced with a series of difficult decisions, each choice they
make could lead to the deaths of those they love or, if not
careful, their own demise.
Meanwhile, an army of the dead is descending on the fort.
Soon, the living will face their ultimate fear...
...a siege by the dead.
But they will fight to the end to survive...
As the world dies.
Review: This was such a bittersweet ending for me!!! Even with that though I still loved this book to pieces! I don't know where to start with this book! I guess I'll start with the action part of the book. In the last book we ended with someone from the military watching the fort. The military that was watching them plays a huge role in this book! They are working for the vice president, now president who apparently survived and are part of another huge group of survivors somewhere else in Texas (Madison Mall I think). These survivors are under much stricter rules than at the fort though. One of the Madison Mall survivors though happens to be Blanche's sister. And she has this very strict idea of how the survivors are to live now. And she wants to make the fort a part of that plan too. Though things dont exactly work out the way she hopes they will when it comes to that plan.
The fort itself had its own amount of drama. The vigilante is still on the loose throughout most of the book, causing tons of havoc. Blanche is causing an immense amount of drama and even shoots some people just to try and leave because she thinks she'll do better at her own house because her luxuries are there. And then lies when she gets caught. Idiot! No one is going to believe her since all she does is cause drama. On top of that they are dealing with hordes of zombies coming their way and the military group. They just had a whole lot to deal with.
I really enjoyed the multiple POV's again. I also really enjoyed their incorporation of the spirits of the deceased! That made many scenes very very interesting! I was very excited that Katie had her baby! After everything that happened in this book the baby made a nice happy ending to it! The rest was bittersweet however. One of the main characters dies and many of the side characters die due to the zombie horde. I was happy yet really sad with the ending!
5 Stars!
Fighting To Survive (As The World Dies #2)
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: November 8, 2011
Pages: 368
Source: Paperback/Library
It’s time to clear the hotel.
The
fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found
safety between its walls. Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold
to live in tents and other makeshift shelters. The leaders of the
survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an
assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square.
A
pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing,
room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof. As the sun sets, the
people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo
to celebrate their survival. Gazing out over the beauty of the
surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and
danger lurk around every corner.
The fort’s search and rescue
teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as
competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women. The first
attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come.
And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living.
Review: I loved this book as much as I loved the first!!! Ok, so there was only one complaint I had about this book and that was that it kept switching between like I think 6-8 people's POV's. It was confusing a few times to figure out who was speaking so I'd have to go back a reread to figure it out. While I wasn't exactly the biggest fan of it, I did however feel like it added to the story in a good way so I'm not complaining too much. I really loved when they did the dog Jack's POV. That seriously made me giggle so much. "I want a cookie!" Hahahahahaha! We needed that lighthearted moment when the rest of the book seemed to be so dark.
Ok. In all seriousness here... This book was definitely darker still than the last book. There was a lot more urgency to get into the hotel, especially after one of the other surviving groups they were in contact with was wiped out in a tornado. Travis realized that they couldn't wait til the perfect time to go in. They had to go in as soon as possible or something else beyond their control might get to them first. So having realized that, they got together their forces and stormed the hotel. Man!!!! I so did not see all that happened actually happening in the hotel. Ok, first of all, there was like ten times more zombies than anyone expected. Apparently there was an event going on at the hotel the day people turned so it was perfect breeding ground for a whole army of zombies. I was pretty scared for everyone that went into the hotel after finding that out!!! There was just so much danger around every corner and the freaking zombies kept getting people!!!! AH!!! I was really sad with the number of people that ended up dying thanks to the zombies. But hey, those people sacrificed themselves for the good of everyone else being able to use the hotel. It was freaky how fast some of those people changed though! I mean on person just got a scratch and she changed within minutes. FROM A SCRATCH! It was like what????? You never know how long it can take someone to turn. Lesson learned for everyone.
So in this book we really see what happened finally taking a toll on Jenni. We also still see Katie struggling with everything as well. We know in the last book Katie was struggling with moving on because she didn't want to dishonor Lydia's memory. But she made a lot of progress in this book. She finally comes to terms with it and accepts that its ok to move on and that Lydia would want her to move on and be happy. This led to her finally giving into being with Travis. Finally!!!!!!! I loved seeing these two together! It was such a nice change seeing Katie happy and in love. Jenni... She started really struggling with stuff. She was having a lot of nightmares about that first day when her family turned. And on top of that she felt like Lloyd's ghost was haunting her, trying to get her to die and come be with the rest of them so he could control her again. I felt so bad for her. Even after finally getting away from him, he's still finding a way to get to her. I felt so bad for Juan because Jenni wouldn't let him help her, or even talk to him about it. He just wanted to help her, or at least comfort her but she just wouldn't let him. But they were still so cute together when Jenni wasn't dealing with that stuff. I'm hoping she will let Juan in more in the next book if she starts struggling with it again.
So this whole thing with the bandits. Ok, first of all. I DESPISE these bandits!! What they were doing was just wrong! In the last book they just up and killed Ralph and now their going around murdering whole groups of people, and then taking some of the women and just raping them until they get tired of them and kill them too. Its just wrong!!!! I'm so glad everyone in the fort decided it best to try and go out and save as many people as they could in the few places they knew there was survivors. Even though they were too late to save a bunch of people they still did save a few and each person they saved counted!! I was also very happy and impressed with what Nerit had come up with to lure the bandits in to take some of them out! That was a seriously awesome plan!
So one thing we still don't find out is who the vigilante is thats killing people from the fort. I'm seriously getting annoyed! There are so many people that would make good suspects for being the Vigilante that I cant figure out who I think it could be. We better find out in the next book!!! I need to know who it is!!! Also, that freaking epilogue! It definitely sets up something interesting for Siege! I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on a copy!
5 Stars!
The First Days (As The World Dies #1)
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: July 5, 2011
Pages: 331
Source: Paperback/Library
Katie is driving to
work one beautiful day when a dead man jumps into her car and tries to
eat her. That same morning, Jenni opens a bedroom door to find her
husband devouring their toddler son.
Fate puts Jenni and
Katie—total strangers—together in a pickup, fleeing the suddenly
zombie-filled streets of the Texas city in which they live. Before the
sun has set, they have become more than just friends and allies—they are
bonded as tightly as any two people who have been to war together.
During
their cross-Texas odyssey to find and rescue Jenni’s oldest son, Jenni
discovers the joy of watching a zombie’s head explode when she shoots
its brains out. Katie learns that she’s a terrific tactician—and a
pretty good shot.
A chance encounter puts them on the road to an
isolated, fortified town, besieged by zombies, where fewer than one
hundred people cling to the shreds of civilization.
It looks
like the end of the world. But Katie and Jenni and many others will do
whatever they have to to stay alive. Run, fight, pick each other up when
they stumble, fall in love…anything is possible at the end of the
world.
Review: OK! So we know how much I absolutely love The Walking Dead and anything related to Zombies. So I think it was obvious I'd read this at some point! Lol!! This was such a great and fast read! I think I loved this so much just because it felt like the girl protagonist's side of The Walking Dead. That's what it felt like to me. I enjoyed seeing the Zombocalypse come to be through the eyes of two women instead of a man. It really showed just how much a woman's emotions can be different than a mans in this sort of situation. So Jenni ends up seeing her husband (now a Zombie) eating the flesh of her toddler son. And when she tries to escape the house her zombified husband comes after her and her other son Mikey. Her son pretty much sacrificed himself to his zombified dad just to save his mom and make sure she made it out of he house. Katie, well, she's on her way to work when a zombie jumps into her car and tries to take a chomp out of her. A guy in a truck tries to save her but ends up being attacked by a zombie and just tells Katie to take his truck and go. And she does. Katie sees Jenni on her porch pretty much in shock and gets through to her in her state of shock just in time before her zombified family breaks their way out of the house. So thats how Jenni and Katie got put together.
Those two are from then on pretty much on the run. As the day goes on they get to know each other more and form a bond. From that moment on those two pretty much vowed to protect each other. They deal with psycho's who dont think the Zombies are real, those that think the dead still hold onto part of their humanity and those who have actually embraced what is happening. I liked when they dealt with those people who embraced it. They knew how to help the girls and how to deal with the zombies. The first people they encountered that embraced it were Ralph and Nerit. They helped the girls out with training them to shoot a gun and defend themselves. And they even let the girls borrow their truck to go find Jenni's stepson at camp. That's a lot of trust to put into strangers you just met, but when the dead rise from the grave, you pretty much trust those who you just feel you can trust no matter how short a time you've known them. Though Nerit and Ralph seemed like good people so they probably would have done the same for anyone like Jenni and Katie who needed their help.
I was very happy to see that Jenni got her stepson back, in full human form!!! YAY! She lost her other children and it was nice to see that she didn't lose them all. I was so sad though that Katie and Jenni ran out of gas before making it back to Ralph and Nerit. Instead they end up outside a small town of survivors called Ashley Oaks. These people managed to seal off their little city like area in a day. That's some skills! And they were always taking in other survivors so it was nice that Katie, Jenni, Jason and Jack (the dog that Katie and Jenni had with them from the start) had a safe place to be. And I loved seeing those people their like Travis accepting them into the fold and making friends with them. And Jenni mostly, but once in a while Katie as well, did what they could to earn their place in Ashley Oaks. I really liked seeing Jenni open up though. She was an abused housewife before, and now that she was free of that she really started embracing her freedom and enjoying it, even if it did involve zombies. It was very great seeing that change in her throughout the book. Katie struggled throughout the book with the loss of her wife, but near the end it seemed like she was finally starting to consider moving on. I hope she can in the next books. Katie is an awesome person and she deserves some happiness. I loved seeing Jenni be able to move on so easily. I mean I know that sounds kind of bad, but she was already planning on leaving her abusive husband so it wasn't like she had to really get over someone. I hope Jenni & Juan and Katie & Travis can really form some great bonds in the next book!
I definitely cant wait to read the next book! With how The First Days ended with Nerit coming to Ashley Oaks after bandits got Ralph and then someone murdering the drug dealer after leading a whole group of zombies to Ashley Oaks... Man. The next book should definitely be awesome. I cant wait to see where the story goes!!!
5 Stars!
