Showing posts with label Rhiannon Frater. Show all posts

February 27, 2018

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Could Re-Read Forever

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

Topic:
Books I Could Re-Read Forever

1. Uglies (Uglies #1) by Scott Westerfeld - This is one of my absolute all time favorite books. I've already re-read the series a number of times and I never get tired of it! And guess what. There's going to be new books in the series! So I guess I'll be whipping this series out again and reading it before the new books come out!!!! 

2. The Host by Stephenie Meyer - Years later, I've gone from loving Twilight to despising it. The Host however, is one of my favorite books by far. I loved the writing of this book. I loved the story line. I love love love that it takes place right outside of Tucson (the main area it takes place, though not directly mentioned by this name is Marana, AZ, a small but growing town whose borders overlap the northwest side of Tucson). This made the book so much better because I could literally visualize everything since I live and drive that area a lot! One of the roads they mention in the story I literally live a mile away from. I love rereading it for the fun of reading something that takes place in the area I live!!! 

3. The First Days (As The World Dies #1) by Rhiannon Frater - This was a book I wasn't even sure about when I picked it up. I literally picked it up one day at the library after seeing a few blogger friends suggest it. I wasn't sure if I was even going to like it. Man, I'm glad I did! This book was a quick read for me, but absolutely amazing!!! The storytelling is brilliant! I felt connected to the characters, and was actually a genuinely fantastic zombie book! I could reread this series all day every day. Pick it up if you haven't read it!!!!! 

4. The Statistical Probability of Love At First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith - So I'm not the biggest fan of contemporary, I'm actually pretty choosy with the contemporaries I read. But this one is definitely one of the few I could just reread forever. Unfortunately, I let my friend borrow my copy and she never gave it back. (insert angry face). And she even insists its her book now she kept it for so long. I need to get a new copy for myself since it would be fruitless trying to get my original copy back. But then I will reread the hell out of it!!! Also, not lending books to said friend anymore. 

5. Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins - This right here is my other absolute favorite contemporary I LOVE rereading!!! I cannot get enough of Anna and Etienne! And Paris! I love reading about the city of Paris! And this book was just so well written! I can't imagine not having it around to reread often. In fact, one of the quotes for next weeks top ten topic is coming from this book!

6. Life As We Knew It (Last Survivors #1) by Susan Beth Pfeffer - So despite my reviews of this book and series only getting 3-4 stars, its still one of my favorite books to reread. Its another easier quicker read and it holds a special place in my heart. This book was actually the first one I reviewed when I started this blog. And I reviewed it after I had reread it for the 3rd time I think. This series and the Uglies series mentioned above are actually the books that pushed me into blogging because I wanted to share my love of those books with others! This book/series was also my first taste of dystopia and genuinely what I think pulled me into my love for the genre, which is another reason I reread it a lot.

7. Unknown (Unknown #1) by Wendy Higgins - This is one of my newest additions to the reread pile. I read it late last year and just fell in love with the story. I actually started rereading it already even though its only been 2 months since I read it the first time. I just can't help myself. Dystopian, aliens, bombs, Rylen & Amber, Nevada. I literally can't get this book/series out of my head. Its that good!

8. City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments #1) by Cassandra Clare - I've actually already reread this book a good solid 3 or 4 time already, but I haven't reviewed the series on the blog yet. I actually plan to reread all the mortal instruments books and finally review them on the blog later this year. I can't get enough of Jace & Clary in this series! And I just love reading about the Shadowhunters. Cassandra Clare just writes amazing stories you can't help but want to immerse yourself in over and over. 

9. PODs (PODs #1) by Michelle Pickett - Let me be honest here. I saw this book once on a WoW post and thought it sounded interesting. Then, just for the hell of it, I sent in a request to the publisher for a review copy, I wasn't expecting anything at all. I ended getting a review copy. I ended up sitting down with the book and devouring it much faster than I thought! And I ended up rereading it after writing my review for it. I really love this book and its sequel The Infected. Its another one of my go to dystopia series to reread. (Can you tell I love rereading dystopia??)

10. Pure (Pure #1) by Julianna Baggott - So I've actually read both Pure and Fuse a number of times. I love the darkness of the world built in this series and even the darkness surrounding the characters and their lives. I love coming back to this world. I have to admit though. I've been avoiding starting Burn because I hear it falls kinda flat in comparison with the first two books and I'm not sure I'm ready for that. 

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September 09, 2013

Review: Siege by Rhiannon Frater

Siege (As The World Dies #3)
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: April 24, 2012
Pages: 368
Source: Paperback/Library

As the survivors continue to seek stability in their lives,
forces both inside and outside the fort walls move
them toward a final, climactic conflict between
the living and the dead.  Jenni, Katie and the others
discover that they are not alone, that there is another
enclave of survivors whose leaders plan to take over the fort.

Faced with a series of difficult decisions, each choice they
make could lead to the deaths of those they love or, if not
careful, their own demise.

Meanwhile, an army of the dead is descending on the fort.
Soon, the living will face their ultimate fear...

...a siege by the dead.

But they will fight to the end to survive...

As the world dies.

Review: This was such a bittersweet ending for me!!! Even with that though I still loved this book to pieces! I don't know where to start with this book! I guess I'll start with the action part of the book. In the last book we ended with someone from the military watching the fort. The military that was watching them plays a huge role in this book! They are working for the vice president, now president who apparently survived and are part of another huge group of survivors somewhere else in Texas (Madison Mall I think). These survivors are under much stricter rules than at the fort though. One of the Madison Mall survivors though happens to be Blanche's sister. And she has this very strict idea of how the survivors are to live now. And she wants to make the fort a part of that plan too. Though things dont exactly work out the way she hopes they will when it comes to that plan. 

The fort itself had its own amount of drama. The vigilante is still on the loose throughout most of the book, causing tons of havoc. Blanche is causing an immense amount of drama and even shoots some people just to try and leave because she thinks she'll do better at her own house because her luxuries are there. And then lies when she gets caught. Idiot! No one is going to believe her since all she does is cause drama. On top of that they are dealing with hordes of zombies coming their way and the military group. They just had a whole lot to deal with. 

I really enjoyed the multiple POV's again. I also really enjoyed their incorporation of the spirits of the deceased! That made many scenes very very interesting! I was very excited that Katie had her baby! After everything that happened in this book the baby made a nice happy ending to it! The rest was bittersweet however. One of the main characters dies and many of the side characters die due to the zombie horde. I was happy yet really sad with the ending!

5 Stars!
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July 08, 2013

Stacking The Shelves [#59]

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

Library:
Bought for Kindle:
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May 14, 2013

Review: Fighting To Survive by Rhiannon Frater

Fighting To Survive (As The World Dies #2)
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: November 8, 2011
Pages: 368
Source: Paperback/Library

It’s time to clear the hotel.

The fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found safety between its walls.  Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold to live in tents and other makeshift shelters.  The leaders of the survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square. 

A pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing, room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof.  As the sun sets, the people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo to celebrate their survival.  Gazing out over the beauty of the surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and danger lurk around every corner. 

The fort’s search and rescue teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women.  The first attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come. 

And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living.


Review: I loved this book as much as I loved the first!!! Ok, so there was only one complaint I had about this book and that was that it kept switching between like I think 6-8 people's POV's. It was confusing a few times to figure out who was speaking so I'd have to go back a reread to figure it out. While I wasn't exactly the biggest fan of it, I did however feel like it added to the story in a good way so I'm not complaining too much. I really loved when they did the dog Jack's POV. That seriously made me giggle so much. "I want a cookie!" Hahahahahaha! We needed that lighthearted moment when the rest of the book seemed to be so dark. 

Ok. In all seriousness here... This book was definitely darker still than the last book. There was a lot more urgency to get into the hotel, especially after one of the other surviving groups they were in contact with was wiped out in a tornado. Travis realized that they couldn't wait til the perfect time to go in. They had to go in as soon as possible or something else beyond their control might get to them first. So having realized that, they got together their forces and stormed the hotel. Man!!!! I so did not see all that happened actually happening in the hotel. Ok, first of all, there was like ten times more zombies than anyone expected. Apparently there was an event going on at the hotel the day people turned so it was perfect breeding ground for a whole army of zombies. I was pretty scared for everyone that went into the hotel after finding that out!!! There was just so much danger around every corner and the freaking zombies kept getting people!!!! AH!!! I was really sad with the number of people that ended up dying thanks to the zombies. But hey, those people sacrificed themselves for the good of everyone else being able to use the hotel. It was freaky how fast some of those people changed though! I mean on person just got a scratch and she changed within minutes. FROM A SCRATCH! It was like what????? You never know how long it can take someone to turn. Lesson learned for everyone. 

So in this book we really see what happened finally taking a toll on Jenni. We also still see Katie struggling with everything as well. We know in the last book Katie was struggling with moving on because she didn't want to dishonor Lydia's memory. But she made a lot of progress in this book. She finally comes to terms with it and accepts that its ok to move on and that Lydia would want her to move on and be happy. This led to her finally giving into being with Travis. Finally!!!!!!! I loved seeing these two together! It was such a nice change seeing Katie happy and in love. Jenni... She started really struggling with stuff. She was having a lot of nightmares about that first day when her family turned. And on top of that she felt like Lloyd's ghost was haunting her, trying to get her to die and come be with the rest of them so he could control her again. I felt so bad for her. Even after finally getting away from him, he's still finding a way to get to her. I felt so bad for Juan because Jenni wouldn't let him help her, or even talk to him about it. He just wanted to help her, or at least comfort her but she just wouldn't let him. But they were still so cute together when Jenni wasn't dealing with that stuff. I'm hoping she will let Juan in more in the next book if she starts struggling with it again. 

So this whole thing with the bandits. Ok, first of all. I DESPISE these bandits!! What they were doing was just wrong! In the last book they just up and killed Ralph and now their going around murdering whole groups of people, and then taking some of the women and just raping them until they get tired of them and kill them too. Its just wrong!!!! I'm so glad everyone in the fort decided it best to try and go out and save as many people as they could in the few places they knew there was survivors. Even though they were too late to save a bunch of people they still did save a few and each person they saved counted!! I was also very happy and impressed with what Nerit had come up with to lure the bandits in to take some of them out! That was a seriously awesome plan! 

So one thing we still don't find out is who the vigilante is thats killing people from the fort. I'm seriously getting annoyed! There are so many people that would make good suspects for being the Vigilante that I cant figure out who I think it could be. We better find out in the next book!!! I need to know who it is!!! Also, that freaking epilogue! It definitely sets up something interesting for Siege! I seriously cannot wait to get my hands on a copy!

5 Stars!
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May 11, 2013

Stacking The Shelves [#53]

Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tynga's Reviews as a way to share all the books we got during the week!

Sorry, I had a video for you guys, but Blogger/YouTube is being a pain in the you know what and wont let me add my video to my blog post... And I do not have the patience to embed the freaking code and fight with the formatting...

Bought For Kindle:

From The Library:
 Audiobook From The Library:
Weekly Recap:

Cover Reveals:

Memes & Other Posts:
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March 09, 2013

Review: The First Days by Rhiannon Frater

The First Days (As The World Dies #1)
Author: Rhiannon Frater
Publisher: Tor
Publication Date: July 5, 2011
Pages: 331
Source: Paperback/Library

Katie is driving to work one beautiful day when a dead man jumps into her car and tries to eat her.  That same morning, Jenni opens a bedroom door to find her husband devouring their toddler son.

Fate puts Jenni and Katie—total strangers—together in a pickup, fleeing the suddenly zombie-filled streets of the Texas city in which they live. Before the sun has set, they have become more than just friends and allies—they are bonded as tightly as any two people who have been to war together.

During their cross-Texas odyssey to find and rescue Jenni’s oldest son, Jenni discovers the joy of watching a zombie’s head explode when she shoots its brains out. Katie learns that she’s a terrific tactician—and a pretty good shot.

A chance encounter puts them on the road to an isolated, fortified town, besieged by zombies, where fewer than one hundred people cling to the shreds of civilization.

It looks like the end of the world. But Katie and Jenni and many others will do whatever they have to to stay alive. Run, fight, pick each other up when they stumble, fall in love…anything is possible at the end of the world.


Review: OK! So we know how much I absolutely love The Walking Dead and anything related to Zombies. So I think it was obvious I'd read this at some point! Lol!! This was such a great and fast read! I think I loved this so much just because it felt like the girl protagonist's side of The Walking Dead. That's what it felt like to me. I enjoyed seeing the Zombocalypse come to be through the eyes of two women instead of a man. It really showed just how much a woman's emotions can be different than a mans in this sort of situation. So Jenni ends up seeing her husband (now a Zombie) eating the flesh of her toddler son. And when she tries to escape the house her zombified husband comes after her and her other son Mikey. Her son pretty much sacrificed himself to his zombified dad just to save his mom and make sure she made it out of he house. Katie, well, she's on her way to work when a zombie jumps into her car and tries to take a chomp out of her. A guy in a truck tries to save her but ends up being attacked by a zombie and just tells Katie to take his truck and go. And she does. Katie sees Jenni on her porch pretty much in shock and gets through to her in her state of shock just in time before her zombified family breaks their way out of the house. So thats how Jenni and Katie got put together.  

Those two are from then on pretty much on the run. As the day goes on they get to know each other more and form a bond. From that moment on those two pretty much vowed to protect each other. They deal with psycho's who dont think the Zombies are real, those that think the dead still hold onto part of their humanity and those who have actually embraced what is happening. I liked when they dealt with those people who embraced it. They knew how to help the girls and how to deal with the zombies. The first people they encountered that embraced it were Ralph and Nerit. They helped the girls out with training them to shoot a gun and defend themselves. And they even let the girls borrow their truck to go find Jenni's stepson at camp. That's a lot of trust to put into strangers you just met, but when the dead rise from the grave, you pretty much trust those who you just feel you can trust no matter how short a time you've known them. Though Nerit and Ralph seemed like good people so they probably would have done the same for anyone like Jenni and Katie who needed their help. 

I was very happy to see that Jenni got her stepson back, in full human form!!! YAY! She lost her other children and it was nice to see that she didn't lose them all. I was so sad though that Katie and Jenni ran out of gas before making it back to Ralph and Nerit. Instead they end up outside a small town of survivors called Ashley Oaks. These people managed to seal off their little city like area in a day. That's some skills! And they were always taking in other survivors so it was nice that Katie, Jenni, Jason and Jack (the dog that Katie and Jenni had with them from the start) had a safe place to be. And I loved seeing those people their like Travis accepting them into the fold and making friends with them. And Jenni mostly, but once in a while Katie as well, did what they could to earn their place in Ashley Oaks. I really liked seeing Jenni open up though. She was an abused housewife before, and now that she was free of that she really started embracing her freedom and enjoying it, even if it did involve zombies. It was very great seeing that change in her throughout the book. Katie struggled throughout the book with the loss of her wife, but near the end it seemed like she was finally starting to consider moving on. I hope she can in the next books. Katie is an awesome person and she deserves some happiness. I loved seeing Jenni be able to move on so easily. I mean I know that sounds kind of bad, but she was already planning on leaving her abusive husband so it wasn't like she had to really get over someone. I hope Jenni & Juan and Katie & Travis can really form some great bonds in the next book!

I definitely cant wait to read the next book! With how The First Days ended with Nerit coming to Ashley Oaks after bandits got Ralph and then someone murdering the drug dealer after leading a whole group of zombies to Ashley Oaks... Man. The next book should definitely be awesome. I cant wait to see where the story goes!!! 

5 Stars!
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January 31, 2013

Fighting To Survive by Rhiannon Frater Book Blitz!


Fighting to Survive by Rhiannon Frater (As the World Dies, #2) - Adult Zombie Series
Paperback Release: January 29th 2013 / Tor Books

It’s time to clear the hotel.

The fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found safety between its walls. Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold to live in tents and other makeshift shelters. The leaders of the survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square.

A pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing, room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof. As the sun sets, the people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo to celebrate their survival. Gazing out over the beauty of the surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and danger lurk around every corner.

The fort’s search and rescue teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women. The first attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come.

And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living.


AUTHOR BIO

Rhiannon Frater

Rhiannon Frater is the award-winning author of the As the World Dies trilogy (The First Days, Fighting to Survive, Siege,) and the author of three other books: the vampire novels Pretty When She Dies and The Tale of the Vampire Bride and the young-adult zombie novel The Living Dead Boy and the Zombie Hunters. Inspired to independently produce her work from the urging of her fans, she published The First Days in late 2008 and quickly gathered a cult following. She won the Dead Letter Award back-to-back for both The First Days and Fighting to Survive, the former of which the Harrisburg Book Examiner called ‘one of the best zombie books of the decade.’ Rhiannon is currently represented by Hannah Gordon of the Foundry + Literary Media agency. You may contact her by sending an email to rhiannonfrater@gmail.com.

Website/Goodreads/Facebook/Twitter

Guest Post by Rhiannon!!!
Women, Society and the Zombocalypse!

I honestly didn’t set out to write a feminist take on the zombocalypse when I started writing AS THE WORLD DIES as an online serial. I just wrote about the sort of people I that exist in my everyday life. The characters all evolved naturally as I wrote, as did their complicated relationships and sometimes disastrous choices. It was only later that I fully began to understand how ground-breaking having two female leads in the genre actually was.

Admittedly, Jenni and Katie were born out of my desire to read a zombie story that was from a woman’s perspective. AS THE WORLD DIES was born as online serial in 2005. At that time zombie fiction was inundated with the lone gunman wandering across the zombie-infested lands. Women, children, and men who weren’t Rambo in disguise were merely zombie fodder. The women played the roles of the love interest (who often died), the victims, and the zombies. It became demoralizing to read over and over again stereotypes that bore no real resemblance to any of the women in my life. So when the characters of Jenni and Katie invaded my mind one day at work, I wanted to write their story and share it with others.

When I started the serial, I wanted to write about real men and women with flaws and strengths struggling to rebuild society in the zombie wastelands. If history has shown us one thing, it’s that humans survive in communities. I didn’t want to create a world of alpha males and subservient women, or vice versa. I wanted to write about real people dealing with real life issues while facing the undead hordes. I didn’t want to shy away from the difficulties of creating a new community. Differences of opinion, religion, culture, etc. were definitely going to cause problems at some point. Little did I realize that the issues my characters tackled in the online serial (which ran from 2005-2007) would become hotbed issues in 2012. Religion, gay rights, and gender equality are all topics the people in the fort are forced to deal with while still dealing with bandits and zombies.

STRONG FEMALE CHARACTERS

Oddly enough, I never thought about any of the females in my story as being “strong” or unusual. The positive feedback to the characters was definitely a reaction to all the stereotypical women in these kinds of books. People were genuinely surprised to read such positive portrayals. The readers weren’t surprised that the women were strong and competent; they were surprised to see an accurate portrayal of themselves, their wives, their girlfriends, mothers, and sisters. Quite a few male friends have told me that they loved how certain female characters reminded them strongly of the women they love. Female fans have also shared how refreshing it was to see women doing the types of things they would do in the zombocalypse—like killing zombies.

Jenni and Katie aren’t wonder women or superhuman like Alice in the Resident Evil films. They aren’t perfect either. Each has to deal with the aftermath of the destruction of their lives and they don’t always make the right choices. But they aren’t afraid to fight for their own lives and those they love. They step up and take part in the planning of the new community and fight for the survival of everyone.

THE REGULAR GUYS

Though I get a lot of kudos for my female characters, I don’t feel that any of my male characters suffer from standing alongside competent women. I didn’t want to resort to the alpha male stereotype with my male characters, but I also didn’t want to weaken them. Travis and Juan play vital roles in the story and are just regular men facing horrible circumstances. They understand that to survive everyone has to work together and have their own strengths and weaknesses. One of my greatest compliments was when someone told me that he could totally see himself hanging out with my male characters because they were just “dudes.”

THE BIGOTS

There are, of course, men that don’t like the women playing such a strong role. One of them, Shane, becomes a dangerous foe to Katie when she has to kill his brother after he becomes infected. It’s in Shane and his cohort that we see a more dismissive attitude toward women and other people in general. Shane and Phillip are great at entering the zombie-infested towns and salvaging for supplies and serve the community well, but their attitudes toward women, especially bisexual Katie, creates serious problems for the burgeoning society in FIGHTING TO SURVIVE. Shane and Phillip challenge the rules of the new society with their behavior. One particularly upsetting scene between Shane and Katie immediately causes a rift among the people in the fort as people take sides in a “he said, she said” battle.

FRIENDSHIPS

One of the things that’s often missing in fiction, especially post-apocalyptic fiction, is the strong friendship bonds that exist among people. Often the survivors are not really friends, but people thrown together that just barely get along. In AS THE WORLD DIES, I enjoyed portraying various types of friendship bonds. There are best buddies, Juan and Travis, BFFs Ken and Lenore, and Jenni and Katie’s strong, sisterly friendship.

Though people comment on all three friendships as being refreshing and similar to ones they share in their real lives, the one that stands out the most is the friendship between Jenni and Katie. Women are not often portrayed as being friends in fiction. In fact, a lot of heroines are often the only women in the book. Jenni and Katie’s friendship was one of the things my editor at Tor really enjoyed. It’s so rare to see female best friends who love and support each other. Usually women are portrayed as rivals. Since I have close female friends in my life it felt only natural to have Jenni and Katie be close.

In closing…I am very happy that readers embrace the characters and feel they are an honest, realistic version of people they have in their own lives. I am also pleased that readers have enjoyed the dynamics of the new and growing society in the middle of the zombocalypse. 

Giveaway!!
  • A Copy of the mass market release of books 1 & 2 
  • Open to US and Canada
  • Ends February 10, 2013
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