My name is Willow.His name is Jason.He hated me. I hated him— while silently hiding how much all that hate hurt deep down inside me. But all that was before. Before everything changed. Before I woke up to gunshots and screaming and death.Now he still hates me, along with his Uncle Paulie and their club brothers. But I don’t hate him. I can’t, not after he came for me. Not after he saved me.Not … Not after he saved me.
Not now that the ravaged are here.
They come at you like you’re nothing. With their feral snarls, and bloodshot eyes. Their decaying mouths salivating for a bite of you. They are hungry for life and we are their meal.
I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to accept it. But I can’t ignore them now that they’re everywhere. Now that the threat of them haunts us every waking moment.
But with Jason standing between them and me— I can’t hate him anymore. I don’t want to.
This story ends in a cliffhanger
Warning. For readers 18 years and older. Contains explicit sexual situations, possible triggers, dark themes, language, and violence.
more
This is really unusual for me, but I am 110% behind this book. Despite being rough around the edges I absolutely fell in love with the story and everything in it. I loved the characters, the drama, the tragedy and while I’m kind of over the whole zombie apocalypse frenzy I still found myself completely obsessed with the plot.
I have actually not ever really been into the whole zombie fan culture, so I had my reservations reading Willow. As I got into the story though I did not mind the main theme at all, mainly because it helped bring out and strengthen the other genres that I like, specifically the romance and drama. It was also really easy to get into the story from the get go since it jumped into the plot right of and showed that beautiful drama that I crave in a story like this.
Willow was a character that was very easy to feel for. I found it so unjust and I was so angry on her behalf of how the world and the people around her treated her like crap solely based on who her mother was. We do not choose our parents after all and I wished I could crawl inside the book and scream that to the characters who hated her for no good reason at all. This aspect of the story was new, for me anyways, and the drama it brought out with her being surrounded by those people was absolutely addictive. I really liked how that hate formed the backbone of Jason and Willow’s relationship, seeing as he was one of the people who had made wrongful assumptions on Willow’s character based on what her mother had done.
The romance was a slow burn, but I did not mind considering the drama compensated for that. It was never fully clear in the beginning where Willow stood with Jason and that made it much more intriguing. Sure, throughout the book we in some ways learned that he did no longer judge her or hate her, but it was attentional, I believe, that we didn’t know how he really felt about her. It put some spark and mystery behind the romance and through all the action and struggles they went through together their relationship built beautifully. I loved Jason’s possessive side and his need to protect her and how that brought forth his edgy and angry behavior. It played perfectly with Willow’s attraction and intrigue of him, but also her confusion and uncertainty as well, seeing as his new behavior towards her after years of hate was uncharted territory for her.
It is always easy to look for and point out flaws in a book, but I really don’t feel the need to do that here since I enjoyed the story to the fullest. The flaws that were did not bother me since I was so invested in what did work. I can really only fault it for one thing and that is that that it ended so quickly, like all the good things do. I would have loved to see some confrontation from Willow’s part about how Jason and many other characters treated her and I would absolutely love to see the romance keep developing like it did in the end. I don’t see this as flaws though since this only makes me more excited to read the next book in the series, especially with the ending we got.
I really hope the author is proud of this book because I know I am. This is one of the best books I’ve read this year and for me that means a lot. In fact, it means so much that I am going to break one of my own rules and purchase and read Defy next, even if the full series isn’t out yet. Thank you so much E.M. Raegan for such an amazing story and for letting me read it for free. You and your book deserves all the five star reviews you’ve gotten and hopefully will get in the future.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Excellent start to a new series. Good characters with realistic story development and action that doesn’t feel crammed in. Willow reacts to the craziness around her like a regular person would. That normality lets the story unfold around her without people doing stupid stuff.
Sure, there’s conflict and disagreements between characters–it IS a dystopian romance/zombie story. Stuff’s going to hit the fan. But it’s not tiresome, angsty, high school-style drama.
Hope that next book comes out soon–need to know where that ending’s going.
First book in this series and this one start’s with a bang jumping straight into the action when Willow wakes finding herself trapped in her apartment with her mums boyfriend Rick who is currently making a meal out of her mother.
Trapped her only hope is Ricks nephew Jay who upon realising her current situation rides to her rescue forever earning her gratitude.
Jay drops Willow off at his MC club while setting out again to meet up with his Uncle.
But poor Willow feels like a lamb to the slaughter as she is now surrounded by people including Jay who hate her and make no secret of it all because of her mother and her actions.
They quite judgementally tar her with the same brush when she is absolutely nothing like her selfish parent.
I actually felt so sorry for her having to face all that unearned animosity it really was uncalled for and unfair to be judged by the actions of others and I wanted Jay to actually apologise profusely for his uncalled past behaviour.
We also have Dahlia and Billy thrown into the mix and these two grandmother and grandson were such great characters and I was so glad that Willow at least had these in her camp supporting her.
So this was jam-packed and manic and a really easy read.
Genre-wise this is zombie apocalypse romance and certainly doesn’t pull its punches.
Where we left things here at the border it was just starting to get interesting.
Jay has also started to redeem himself in regards to his past treatment of Willow though he does need to apologise and pull up others for there unreasonable actions towards her.
Really excited about this one and where it’s heading and this was a fabulous start.
A big thumbs up from me.
I voluntarily reviewed a copy of Willow (Defy The Ravaged).
Reviewed By Beckie Bookworm
https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/9460945-bex-beckie-bookworm
https://www.facebook.com/beckiebookworm/
http://www.beckiebookworm.com
Didn’t know what to expect with this story. I loved the author’s alien series and was wondering if she could expand that same kind of uniqueness she had to a different genre. Though this book is a slow – burn on the romance side, it still has that same drive when it comes to burning through the pages until suddenly your at the end. I devoured this book. Couldn’t believe it was over just when it was getting good. I was left with a “Dunh Dunh dunha” ending and cursing out loud . Good thing the next book in the series is out because I will be diving right in.
This is my first time reading anything by this author, I thought the story was really well thought out and written. I really enjoyed how the author has gradually built her world throughout the book with the use of events and scenes that occur. There are a few storylines that are running through this book and that makes for a very interesting and engaging read. The characters are believable as is their dialogue, there are good people and bad people and those I’m not to sure of yet. I love how the main characters question themselves and the fact that there is this group of people who were already operating as a family before the events occurred and so they already have a group formed and ready to work together to survive. The romance story that is going along with this apocalyptic event is brilliantly conceived and executed within the story. This book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger as it’s the first book in the series and I’m looking forward to reading the second book and to see how the characters deal with what is thrown at them next. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.