Willow and Jason’s story of survival and love comes to its conclusion in Defend.
My name is Willow and I am in love with Jason.
I don’t know where he is, or how to find him. Every step forward feels like I’m leaving him a hundred behind. They left me but the farther I travel the more I start to feel like I’m the one leaving.
We had been searching for safety. A place to rest and protect. A home … rest and protect. A home to defend. Now I’m just trying to get by minute by minute. Day by day.
Who am I without them? Why go on when they’re not by my side?
Survival. That’s all that’s left now.
To survive.
Be a survivor.
My name is Jason and she is all that matters.
I am coming for her and nothing and no one will stop me.
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The final part of the story and again as much as I enjoyed parts of this it was again too short for me to appreciate fully.
I guess I’m just not really a fan of serial type stories.
Don’t get me wrong this was still a good read but I would have preferred this if it had been one complete story rather than. broken down like it was.
Luckily I read this when all the parts were out so I didn’t have to hang around as I might have become disinterested waiting.
The danger of these short serial type reads is not getting easily invested well at least for me.
So there were a couple of things here that I noticed.
First I don’t think the lake group would have been so easily accepting of them after what Paulie and the others had done shooting up members of there group.
Also, Finn still bothers me his obsession towards Willow is strange and slightly odd and felt slightly out of place.
I personally would have preferred if he had not been a part of the story at all.
Or if he had only in passing as a minor character.
I just found him slightly one dimensional and rather unnecessary and he detracted from the whole surviving a zombie apocalypse thing.
Which I do think was enough to carry this story on its own.
I did adore Finn’s final fate and thought it was fitting whose hand actually delivered it.
I was also correct about Jay going postal in regards to Ren and Jay is definitely holding a grudge there.
Quite rightly considering his actions nearly killed Willow leaving her behind as he did.
I personally think if she had died Jay would have destroyed Ren.
The fact that nobody even thought to apologise bar Jay for Willows previous unfair treatment also really annoyed me.
Not Pauly, Ren or even Ricks girls thought to hold there hands up and own it that bothered me somewhat.
What can I say I hold a grudge and they were still playing the blame game in regards to Finn and his obsession with her right until the end like it was her fault.
Poor Willow did nothing at all to deserve the treatment she seemed to attract constantly from them.
I still can’t believe they all left her behind like they did, no wonder Jay lost the plot.
So this did wrap things up quite nicely and though there was some sadness there was also a lot of hope and light on the horizon.
I liked where this eventually ended up and there’s definitely scope for more stories set in this brave new world.
This was an imaginative series that taken as a whole I enjoyed just next time I would prefer this as one complete novel rather than many smaller novellas.
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
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I have longed for this book for months, especially with the climactic ending of Hunted with Willow left behind, chased by a mob of zombies and Jay shot and separated from her. I excepted a very action-packed and dramatic continuation as well as conclusion to the series with Defend, and while it did deliver both aspects it sadly did not reach the level of excitement that I had for previous books and I had hoped for in this book.
Maybe I had unrealistically high expectations for the story, but all in all I feel like it was very rushed like the author just wanted it over and done with. Like all previous books in the series Defend was short, but it was now even shorter than the rest of the series which also made it so much more rushed to the conclusion, making the depth and struggles suffer for it. Because it was not that much depth the new characters introduced wasn’t given much room for characterization and the conflicts and struggles the characters faced was solved so quickly and easily it became underwhelming and too convenient for it to feel real. The conclusion with Finn coming to mind, or Reese’s fatuation with Willow. It all was solved or brushed by so easily that it made me question why this was even a thing in the book to begin with. Defend, for me anyways, felt like just the ending of a book instead of an actual book because of this.
The story did hold my interested and attention well enough though, especially with the beginning where Willow fights for her survival and her despair. It held both that depth and action that I desired so it wasn’t until after that that the story became so rushed. Even in that rushness there were still very enjoyable moments like Jay finding out she was left behind, his and Willow’s reunion, them finally settling down, a surprise with Willow and even the more tragic event with a loss. All that made for a great story, good enough for me to give it four stars. Had it only had a bit more complexity to it, like a more satisfying conflict with Finn or if Reese’s fatuation had built up to something this would have easily been a five star story. As it is though I am still very satisfied with the ending of this book considering I am a total sucker for HEA. Also, with how it left of I am excited to continue on in the world of Zombies together with Ren in the future.