3 ½ stars. Above average for romantic suspense with lots of adrenaline excitement in an apocalyptic and magic world.
STORY BRIEF: The author name Ellen 3 ½ stars. Above average for romantic suspense with lots of adrenaline excitement in an apocalyptic and magic world.
STORY BRIEF: The author name Ellen Connor consists of a writing team of two people (Ann Aguirre/Ava Gray and Carrie Lofty). They were inspired by the bad-ass female sci-fi characters in The Terminator and Alien movies. The name Connor is from the character Sarah Connor in The Terminator. Ellen is from Ellen Ripley in Alien. This book has a feeling like the Terminator movie: the apocalyptic state on earth with dangerous creatures (demon dogs) trying to kill all humans. This story is a small group of humans trying to survive. Anything with computer technology no longer works including most cars. The only method of communication is the old fashioned analog radio – but the established radio stations are not broadcasting. The reader gets the feeling that there are no humans left in the cities – and any who survived are doing so like the group we are reading about.
Years ago Jenna’s father Mitch was predicting this apocalyptic disaster. Mason was a troubled teen who was taken in and helped by Mitch. Mitch trained Mason to prepare for it. Before he died Mitch asked Mason to promise to take care of his daughter Jenna when it happened. Now the event has happened. There’s no time to explain so Mason kidnaps Jenna, tying her up and taking her to his cabin in the forest. Having seen the demon dogs she now understands. Mason has enough food for the two of them to stay in the cabin for the winter. Then a group of five people arrive at the cabin asking for help. Mason is reluctant but Jenna lets them in and insists they stay. They discover a scientist Chris at a research station several miles away. He is broadcasting on an old radio saying he has plenty of food. The group decides to travel to Chris. Mason gives everyone guns and ammo to shoot the demon dogs along the way.
There is magic involved. When someone is bit by a demon dog, they react in different ways. Some become demon dogs, some die, others become shape shifters. One of the group is a little girl Penny who has magic abilities.
REVIEWER’S OPINION: This was ok as an escape, slightly above average. It felt like an action movie – lots of action and suspense. The plot is simple - good guys fighting bad guys. There were some sex scenes – I liked the first one best – sex after adrenaline stress. The others were pretty good. I liked the happy ending – it was fulfilling. There’s an interesting collection of characters. I enjoyed Tru the most because he changed the most. He had been a self-mutilating (cutting) Goth kid. But put him in this dangerous world of kill or be killed and he became an excellent shooter, strong, reliable, and heroic. I liked seeing his change.
To give something 4 stars I want to feel “I really like it” at the end which was not my feeling. But it was still good.
DATA: Story length: 327 pages. Swearing language: strong, including religious swear words. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: 5. Estimated number of sex scene pages: 12. Setting: mid 21st century Oregon and the Rocky Mountains. Copyright: 2011. Genre: apocalyptic paranormal romantic suspense....more
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