Until the End (Quarantined #1)
Author: Tracey Ward
Pub. Date: January 13, 2014
Acquired: Amazon
An outbreak of The Fever has taken hold of Portland, Oregon, bringing the population to its knees. The Fever spreads and kills quickly, but the dead aren’t staying dead.
When her neighbor, Jordan, saves her from one of the infected, Alissa joins him in his plan to escape the city, the disease and the threat of a quarantine that will lock the living in with the undead.
What she doesn’t tell him is that she has an illness of her own, one that plays tricks with her mind and makes her a dangerous companion. But Jordan has a secret as well, one that compels him to keep Alissa, a veritable stranger, safe at all costs.
As they fight for their lives and race for their freedom, they’ll discover that what they truly need in order to survive is to stay together until the end.
~My Review~
Right now I have a serious fondness for all things zombie/apocalyptic/romance. It’s scary. Maybe it says there’s something wrong with me. Regardless, I’m an addict. I can’t stop. We can diagnose my issues later.
For now, let’s talk about Until the End. Because here’s the thing with the zombie genre, currently… It’s really hit or miss. And Until the End was definitely a hit.
It takes a certain precious balance of romance and scary running-away-from-zombies-and-crazy-people to make me happy with these books. I need to know that I’m going to love the main characters and care about them and their relationships…Not just their survival. Both are equally important.
Ms. Ward did such an amazing job with that! Seriously. Because, here’s another thing. Seeing as how there ARE so many authors tackling this genre right now, it’s also hard to keep things fresh and original.
So, awesome balance of romance/horror? Check.
Originality? Check.
Able to keep me involved all throughout? Double check.
As a single book, Until the End shone bright for me.
I loved Alissa’s already teetering balance on reality and life BEFORE she got inundated with dead people trying to eat her face. I loved that there was just enough of that little psychosis in there to keep her interesting without life or death scenarios. I loved the fact that she was a bad-ass with a bow.
I loved Jordan and his conflicted feelings regarding his decisions. These characters were totally relatable.
So, as a series? Well, you’ll have to check back next time for my review of book #2 in the Quarantine series. But, I promise, this series is very solid.
~My Rating~
~About the Author~
Tracey Ward was born in Eugene, Oregon and studied English Literature at the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!) It was there that she discovered why Latin is a dead language and that being an English teacher was not actually what she wanted to do with her life.
Tracey’s husband, son and 80lbs pitbull who thinks he’s a lapdog are her world.
