A zombie series with heart—and brains.The first series in the Until the End of the World universe, finally available in an omnibus of three full-length novels and one novella.The end of the world is only the beginning…
Book One: Until the End of the WorldCassie Forrest isn’t surprised to learn that the day she’s decided to get her life together is also the day the world ends. After all, she’s … World
Cassie Forrest isn’t surprised to learn that the day she’s decided to get her life together is also the day the world ends. After all, she’s been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she’s stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents’ cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too.
This is difficult enough, but Cassie’s tag along ex-boyfriend and her friend’s bratty sister have a knack for making everything, even the apocalypse, more unpleasant. When the two attract a threat as deadly as the undead to their safe haven, Cassie’s forced to see how far she’ll go to protect those she loves. And it’s a lot farther than she’d anticipated. This, coupled with Adrian’s distant voice on Safe Zone radio and, of course, the living dead, threaten to put Cassie right back into the funk she just dragged herself out of.
Survival’s great and all, especially when you have leather armor, good friends and home-brewed beer, but there’s something Cassie must do besides survive: tell Adrian she still loves him. And to do that, Cassie has to find faith that she’s stronger than she thinks, she’s still a crack shot, and true love never dies.
Book 1.5, a novella: So Long, Lollipops
He watched his new family drive away, certain it was the last time he’d ever see them. But sometimes plans go awry in the best way.
Now, the plan is to get back to them. But sometimes plans go awry in the worst way.
Sometimes the only plan is to believe it will be all right, even when it’s almost impossible to believe.
Book Two: And After
Cassie could almost believe life at Kingdom Come Farm is perfect, with her loved ones at her side and spring on the way. The spring thaw also means millions of defrosting zombies, however, and if the past year has taught her anything, it’s that life in this new world is highly imperfect.
When Safe Zones throughout the country begin to disappear and the zombies at the fences grow in number, Cassie clings to the hope that if she has the people she loves most, it will be all right. But the highly imperfect world makes only one guarantee—zombies never die, never stop and are never satiated.
Book Three: All the Stars in the Sky
Cassie has sworn she’ll never let the world get the best of her again.
She’s chosen to believe everything will be all right.
But on a journey filled with heartbreak and madness and zombies, Cassie and her friends must struggle to stay alive—and it’s hard to believe in a future when survival seems unlikely.
more
Again, one of my all time fav post apoc books
I’m a big fan of zombie literature and this is one of my two favorite authors. I’d read the first book in the series quite a while back. While I liked it, I felt it had its flaws (mainly telegraphing a “surprise” that occurs toward the end) but overall felt it was a pretty good first novel.
Recently this trilogy collection was on a big sale on Amazon at a time I was looking for something new to read so I got it. The first book was better than I remembered but her writing improved dramatically in the following books. I was really drawn into her version of the zombie apocalypse. As soon as I finished this trilogy, I was back on Amazon looking up her other books. They’re in the same universe but different characters (There’s a bit of overlap in the second series in that one of the characters is the brother of a character in the first series.) and settings.
I’m almost done with her latest book and find myself drawing it out because I don’t want to be done with the series so far and the have to wait for the next one to come out.
She is really excellent at creating characters. I wouldn’t swear that the first one follows this format but I know the others are told from the viewpoint of two or three characters independently. Each one rings true and you really feel that the story is told by different people. Even the more minor characters are distinct and feel like real and complete people. No one is perfectly good or totally bad.
She’s really great at not only creating characters but in writing believable dialogue, setting up scenarios, and the books have just the right mix character development and interaction, description of the settings and the new reality, and that good zombie action. And the zombies are the old-fashioned Romero-style shamblers, which (to me at least) are more realistic and scarier than the ones the run at speeds far greater than they could have while alive.
If you like zombie novels, I would highly recommend trying this author.
My very favorite author and my favorite series by her, Sarah Lyons Fleming. If you love books that grab hold of you and never let go, this is the series for you. I feel like these completely genuine characters are my friends and cohorts. I think about them constantly, even years after first meeting them.
My review in brief is think of Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum meets The Walking Dead back when the writing was good. As a result of reading and greatly enjoying the first book of the series as a freebie, I bought the entire collection. I am very happy I did, and am considering buying the Cities companion series. That is saying a lot since I do not care for series books in general, and I really don’t much like post-apocalyptic or zombie genres. I was only willing to try the first because it was free to me and was by a woman writer – I had this thought that maybe a woman might write more about the characters and less about the violence. In this instance it turns out I was right. The books are filled with believable, strong characters, although a few felt a little flat at first. Initially I thought some might be archetypes from cliched slasher movies, but that fear turned out to be false. Throughout the entire series I found I was very anxious to get back to reading to find out what happens next. Since lately I’ve been reading a lot of give-away promotional books, I’ve grown to not expect much in characters or plot. This has plenty of both. I was pleased that unlike most of the genre I’ve read, this had genuine plot and was not filled with endless gory fights. There were minimal encounters with the walking undead and fairly brief descriptions of the violence. The story, the humor, and the feelings of the characters were obviously more important to the writer than the rending of flesh. My only complaint is that although the writing was fresh and flowed easily, it sometimes took effort to determine which character was speaking. That disrupted the feeling of experiencing and brought back awareness of reading. For me that brought the rating down from 5 to 4.
Not the usual zombie melodrama. I was surprised how much I enjoyed these books. Kept me busy through a long trip to Dallas and and back. I recommend this to all those who love the genre.
Amazing series!!!