Dystopian/Post-Apocalyptic
Luna Books, a division of Harlequin Enterprises
384 Pages
Release: March 1, 2011In post-apocalyptic California, people are struggling with day to day survival. Bio-warfare decimated the landscape, killing off plants and animals, only the hardiest survived. Then came the blue-leaf fever, it didn't kill every one affected, yet those who survived became flesh-eaters, zombies, or more commonly referred to as Beaters.
Cass Dollar can't remember the last 2 months of her life, but that is not a terrible thing, the last she does remember is being taken away by a group of Beaters. The scars on her body tell a story that even she finds hard to believe. She has recovered from the disease, fortunately with no recollection of what she did or became. Now she has one focus, to find her daughter Ruthie
With the help of the mysterious man everyone calls Smoke, Cass hopes to find Ruthie. Knowing it would be a difficult road, she never envisions the obstacles thrown in the way of their quest. Nor is she prepared for the feelings Smoke has awakened in her .
*****
When I flipped to the last page of AFTERTIME my initial reaction was: WHAT?!? THIS is the END?!? Noooooo, I wanted MORE! I wasn't ready to let Cass, Smoke and Ruthie go yet. I felt as if I was just getting to know them. Lord knows, we barely scratched the surface of Smoke. He is so mysterious, alpha, heroic, kind and SUPER hot! This was a gripping and emotional tale of survival that will keep any reader on their toes, because you just never know what is going to happen when you turn the page.
Cass had lead a pretty lousy life in the Before, one that she strongly regrets. You can feel her yearning to be a better person. Her daughter Ruthie is the reason she keeps going on, yet as the story moved on, I understood that she was starting to care for Smoke, and wanted to be a better person for him also.
Ahh, Smoke is still a delicious mystery. I'm not really sure why he was so eager to leave with Cass and why he never wavered in his faith of her. Of course I'm happy he made the decisions he did. There were a few brief explanations, but he really stuck his neck out for a complete stranger.
AFTERTIME is the first book of a new series I canNOT wait to continue. There were a few spots in the beginning of the book that seemed a bit discombobulated, but that didn't last long, and in all honesty, it worked with the story because Cass was just coming out of her illness and was trying to work things out in her confused brain.
Rating: 5 / 5
