(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I didn’t realise, at first, that this book was the second in a trilogy. I found it fairly easy to understand, even though I was thrown into the action fairly quickly.

Starting the book off with the newspaper articles about the virus was a good way of setting the scene, in my opinion. It made me think of films that do the same thing.

There was something that struck me as a bit strange, though – the fact that only one person from a family ever seemed to survive. If one person had immunity to the virus, it would make sense if others they were related to did as well. (I’ve seen that in other apocalypse storylines that have a virus wipe out the world’s population, too…)

Reaper and Sam were fairly interesting characters and I thought it was interesting how they and their group became the law-keepers. It actually provided some hope that, even with the world in such a state, there were at least some who fought to protect the innocent.

The author didn’t seem to have a problem killing off characters, which I thought was quite good. In war, there are always going to be casualties.

It was interesting to see how different people reacted to the aftermath of the outbreak. I thought the author did a very good job of portraying the different attitudes and morals that had sprung up.

On the whole, I found the book to be really well-written with characters who were true heroes, but still flawed. I would definitely be interested in reading the other two books in the trilogy sometime in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I did like this book. It reminded me of the mystery books I used to read when I was quite a bit younger and I think it makes a good start for the series.

I did think that there was a bit too much going on that was summarised. I liked the friendships between the characters, but I felt they weren’t explored as well as they could have been. I also noticed there was an awful lot of repetitiveness when it came to smiling or laughing – sometimes when it wouldn’t actually be appropriate.

The mystery was good, in a way, but I felt it was all a bit rushed. I think this book could be much better if the storyline was expanded. I think there was a bit too much switching between POVs.

I did really like the whole school camping idea. I thought it was a cool idea that would probably be really good for schools in reality to use. It might have helped interest me more at school. Then again, my lack of interest was to do with other things.

I did think the book ended a bit too abruptly. It would have been nice to see more of the characters. I’d be interested in reading the next book in this series to see what happens.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I do have a few mixed feelings about this book. It was good to be put into the action straight away, but I felt that a lot of things were left unexplained when they could have been – like Breccan’s and Easton’s involvement with the creatures and Calloway.

In some ways, I felt this book was a bit simple to read. For a lot of it, it was basic good and evil. I would have liked to know more about the Hara-Kirs. In a way, it feels like it was all believed just a bit too quickly. That might have been as a result of being thrown straight into the action, but I feel the book would have benefited from a little more explanation.

I did like the characters and how they interacted with each other. It was nice to see that Calloway was a truly good character, who stood up to the bully even knowing it would make his life miserable. That’s the kind of character I can get behind as a hero. I also liked Easton, though I struggled a bit with the name. Where I live, there are areas called Easton and Weston, so at times, it was hard to accept the names.

Although I liked the fact that Calloway was struggling to balance his two separate lives, it did all start falling into place for him. It was just a tiny bit unbelievable, at least in my opinion.

I wasn’t all that keen on Breccan as a character. I think I would have liked to see inside his head a bit, because as it stands, he just comes across as a really ungrateful person. I would have also liked to see a bit more of his relationship with Calloway.

I’d be interested in reading the next book in this series to see what will happen to the characters. I do feel that it could have been edited a bit – I noticed quite a few errors in the writing which could have been picked up.

Still, this book was an entertaining read. I can’t go higher than three stars right now, but if it was edited and a bit more development put in, I think it would be much better.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve read – and seen – quite a lot of things that have to do with time travel. It’s not a unique idea, but it’s always entertaining to read – especially when it’s handled well, which I felt was the case here.

I was a bit unclear about how the timing worked with the year Miles went back to. There didn’t seem to be a clear time frame for the two periods of time travel that had occurred.

Although I felt the whole thing with the culture shock and Miles having to deal with needing to work made sense, I wasn’t entirely sure what the whole reason was. I think I would have liked there to be a bit more of an explanation. The book started in a good place, but I would have liked to see more of the background.

I did like the characters in the book and there were some surprises. I think there was a lot that made sense and I felt there was clearly a lot of research that had gone into this book. I really did like the evolution of Miles’ character and I felt that he’d grown up a lot by the end of the book.

It was nice to see all of the loose ends tied up, though it would be nice to see a sequel to this book. Or even a prequel. (Which may exist already – I don’t know). I’d definitely be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.

(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).

(This review may contain spoilers).

This was a fairly unique idea for a book, I felt. I struggled a bit to get into the book at the start, but as the story progressed, I found it easier to understand than I’d expected.

At times, I did find it a bit difficult to picture the exact setting of the world the characters inhabited. It was completely alien to this world and I kept picturing a giant corpse lying down, which was kind of a strange mental image.

The Philosophers were kind of interesting beings which I had very little trouble picturing in my mind. I found Pell to be quite a strange character who I felt sorry for at times, but at turns really disturbed me.

There was an awful lot going on in this book, I felt. Sometimes, the characters’ actions made my head spin, particularly one specific character. I was never quite sure what to make of him.

I liked Max and Abby and how their relationship came across. I was kind of rooting for them through most of the book, even though I liked how Max formed a relationship with one of the Philosophers.

This book was quite a bit darker than I was expecting. It was really well-written, but very disturbing in parts. It did manage to surprise me in some places and even if I had trouble picturing the surroundings in my head, I could see a lot of the events involving the characters happening in my mind.

Although this book was the second in a series, I didn’t find it hard to understand what was going on. It was an entertaining read and I think I’d be interested in reading the other books in this series – at some point in the future.