(I received this book for free as part of Goodreads First Reads giveaways).
(This review may contain spoilers).
This is another book that I would ideally give 4.5 stars to. I liked it more than many books I give 4 stars to, but for me, it wasn’t quite at the level of five stars.
I wasn’t very clear about exactly when this book was set, I have to say. When I looked at the front cover, I though it was set in the Wild West… but on reading through the book, it seems it’s set in a post-apocalyptic world.
I thought the concept of the Reapers being infected with parasites was a really interesting one, though I would have liked to know a bit more of how the infection actually started. Or, rather, if it was a ‘natural’ disease, or if it was caused by sentient beings.
The concept of the Rangers was an intriguing one, too. Abby was an interesting character and I liked her interactions with Jake. It was cool that Jake didn’t come across as the conventional romantic hero and yet I still found his relationship with Abby believable. There were some parts that were quite sweet… but I liked that the attraction was there and real, but Abby was still hesitant to trust him. It made the romance seem much more believable.
It was good to see the way society had formed around the threat of the Reapers. I was a bit confused about exactly what the Scrapers were doing, though.
I did feel that the author did a good job in making the secondary characters feel like real people as well, though I did get confused with who was who at times. It was good to see that the other people had mostly normal reactions to Jake when they did meet him and find out what he was.
I really didn’t like the scientists very much at all, so I didn’t really care about them as characters. But I was able to care about other characters in this book and I wanted to see them survive. At the same time, I also felt sorry for the Reapers. In most zombie stories, the zombies seem to become merely monsters. It came across as vastly different with the Reapers.
I would definitely read more books by this author in the future. There is some dodgy subject matter involved, but it was a really good romance with a lot of action/horror to go along with.
Ink of Blood 