More than Survival
A Zombie Apocalypse Love Story Book 1
Kate L. Mary

Post-apocalypse is just a backdrop for this set of sex scenes

Previously published as More Than Survival by Camryn Lynn

I didn’t enjoy this. It has many positive reviews, so I wasn’t expecting to be so disappointed. I’m a huge fan of post-apocalyptic romance, especially those with some smut in them. But this just didn’t do it for me.

There isn’t much world building here. The story doesn’t leave the cabin. Uncle Seamus disappears and Sawyer appears. Nothing else happens besides sex. There really isn’t a plot here. A post-apocalypse is just a backdrop for this set of sex scenes.

There was too much sex, and I found the sex scenes unrealistic and somewhat boring. There was barely any dialogue during the sex scenes. The dialogue is usually my favorite part and what makes a sex scene hot for me. I didn’t find any of these hot.

I didn’t like how ignorant Lucy was about sex. At 18, she hadn’t learned the basics and had never tried touching herself. This is difficult to believe. I hated that she tried to get pregnant on purpose to keep Sawyer with her and that after she had decided she wanted to wait, he decided to chance it. There was never a discussion about having children.

I never connected with Lucy. She was a survivor and able to take care of herself, hunting, cooking, chopping wood, etc. But she didn’t feel emotionally strong. She was lonely, and her focus was on keeping Sawyer happy so he would stay. I got the impression that if she hadn’t been lucky and some abuser had come along instead of a nice guy, she would have accepted the abuse to not be alone.

Fortunately, Sawyer was a nice guy. I didn’t feel that Sawyer was a developed character either. We never get his point of view or learn much about him. Both characters were unrealistically beautiful and perfect.

I hated that it ended on a cliffhanger. We never find out what happened to Seamus or if Sawyer returns. Near the end, I was so bored that I started skimming, looking for something to happen, and then it ended abruptly. I thought there was much more to the story because I was only at about 70%, but the rest is another novella. So turned out I had started skimming during what should have been the climax of the novel. Not good.

Error count: 12 before I started skimming in Chapter 8. 4 in the Prologue, but they became less frequent after.

M/F, no cheating, no OW/OM drama. 3^rd close to h only, past tense. Lucy is a virgin, but Sawyer is not. His sexual history is not revealed.

Skin
Flesh Series Book 2
Kylie Scott

Post-apocalyptic dark romance with zombies

This is the second book in the Flesh Series. I gave the first, Flesh, four stars as well. I enjoyed this one just as much. Flesh was a ménage, but Skin is a dark romance. Nick buys Roslyn and chains her to the bed in the beginning. There is some nonconsensual kissing and touching but no rape. He didn’t want to keep her chained up forever and was hoping he wouldn’t have to resort to that, but she cracked his head open with a wine bottle as soon as he got her home. Watching these two sort out their differences was entertaining and often made me laugh.

Nick was not a bad guy. He was just in a bad situation and made some mistakes. He is an alpha male but not over the top. I liked that Roslyn was strong, didn’t give in to Nick right away, and had the guts to stand up to baddies. The sex scenes were hot. The action scenes were well written and paced without too much gore in the book overall.

Just like Flesh, the story grabbed me from the start. There isn’t too much backstory at the front. It is set in Australia, but if it wasn’t explicitly stated, I wouldn’t have known. There is no dialect speech, not a lot of “mate”s and such. Just a little flavor thrown in.

M/F, no cheating, no OW/OM drama, contains several graphic sex scenes, contains a bit of foul language and a good dose of violence, standalone, HFN.

Error count: 11. There are many comma splices (sentences with two independent clauses joined with a comma but not a conjunction). It happened so often that I have accepted this as style. I’m not a fan of the style, but that’s probably because my brain keeps yelling, “Error!” while I’m trying to enjoy the story. I do think it may add to the fast pacing.

Favorite Quotes:

“He was a beast, an animal reeking of sweat and ready to pounce, rock hard and hurting. His hard-on gave Godzilla a run for its money. If he swung it about, Tokyo would be leveled.”

“Men were such complicated creatures. Women were so much more straightforward.”