Temperature : Bitter Cold
Author: Adam Santo
Genre: Horror Science Fiction
TBR Reviewers: Shyla
Length: 240
Rating: 5 stars - A Must Read.

The second book in the Temperature series takes on a much darker, sinister tone. I was chilled to the bone, riveted and curious about where Mr. Santos was taking me. Our hero Bo is forced to team up with a witch named Zemra to find Sally, our heroine who's been kidnapped in the
last book; I hate to be a spoiler kind of gal but that's a need to know basis for this review. Mysteries and legends prevalent in society are explained with the wit and whimsy I've come to expect from Santos as Bosnic and his partner trek to find someone who can give them the locations of Sally. 

Our heroine, newly raised zombie, Sally is having one hell of a bad year! She's just trying to wrap her mind around what she's become, only to find she has powers none have seen in millennium, be threatened with death and finally kidnapped by a religious group of zombie haters. The torture she endures at the hands of top psycho Demric is enough to turn your stomach. But it forces her to explore just what being a necromancer means. If you have images of vile , half decomposes bodies rising from their grave you're dead on and you know just what makes this book so bad ass. One thing I really love about Sally is she's a save yourself kind of girl. ( The best kind in my opinion.) Bo is there to help her get out of tight spots but he's almost a last resort/mentor. 

I could on and on about the plot and its wicked twists but that would be ruining. Suffice to say I highly recommend this dazzling jewel. Santos has a way with descriptions and distorting the everyday knowledge we take at face value that makes you devour each page.

Tower in the Woods by Tara Quan
Genre: Zombie, romance, post-apocalyptic, bdsm 
Length: Novella
TBR Reviewer: Brutally Honest
Rating: 4 stars – Recommended Read.
Heat: 4 handcuffs – An erotic Ride.

What a unique idea! At the end of the world, we have zombies! Along with a virgin sniper trapped in a tower, rope made out of zombie hair and some wicked rope bondage. Add that to witty one-lines and extremely well written characters – you have Tower in the woods by Tara Quan

At the beginning, there’s a scene in her POV and then the same scene in his POV. That
was the first hurtle with this book. It slowed down the entire pace and it was redundant. It hurt the book rather than helped. There was a puppy torture reference that I absolutely hated and I nearly put the book down for that single line. It was horribly disturbing and completely unnecessary. There’s also a major hop in the story. They have sex and then jump to a week later, which put a damper on the character’s connection. 

Still, after those issues the book comes together quite nicely. The characters were well written and the story itself a solid read. I’ve never read anything that blended a fairytale with zombies. It was a really good idea, the plot was well fleshed out and there were no annoying slow spots. The pace was constantly even. The sex was smoking hot with some bondage. I enjoyed it and would like to read more from this author.
 
Zombies plus fairytale story plus a talented writer equals a book you must read!

The Outlaw’s Lover by James Cox
Genre: M/M, post-apocalyptic, erotic
Length: Novella
TBR Reviewer: Brutally Honest
Rating: 5 Stars – A Must Read
Heat: 4 Stars – An Erotic Ride

Wow, I have to say I’m impressed. This is the third in the series and I really enjoyed the first two but this book raised the metaphorical bar. The Outlaw was so freaking hot and the tension between him and our main guy Rian is electric. I really liked this plot. The twist was obvious about the town but still I found myself really getting into the world the author portrayed. This is all about survival and finding happiness in a world gone to crap. I really wanted to just
drown in the author’s description. He describes particular body parts like works of art. I’d definitely recommend this book.  

The Outlaw’s Lover is an exciting, sexy read that will have you looking around every corner for your own outlaw.

GIVEAWAY: Three winners! One commenter is winning a copy of The Outlaw's Lover and two other random commenters are winning a book from our prize list.  

Giveaway: 1 Ebook

The Three Hour Man by James Cox
Sci fi, post-apocalyptic, M/M, erotica
Novella
TBR Reviewer: Brutally Honest

This is the second in the series Manlove at the End of the World. The first was a great start and I couldn’t wait to read the next. This can be read as standalone and I have to say this SHOULD be read no matter what you’ve read in this series.

This is a fantastic story that starts with a hanging and has a happy ending. The characters were well written considering this is a novella. What really made this story stand out among the genre is the plot. It’s m/m but throws in this apocalypse type event. Finding love in this new
earth is really a romantic adventure.

I also like the unique way this series is told. The first book, The Last Cowboy is the last in the plot. The virus has spread and this new world is here. This book shows a bit more on how crazy groups started to form among the survivors. I can’t wait until I get to the actual virus outbreak to see how it all went down and what actually caused the sickness that killed nearly all the population. As I said this is an intriguing series. Then there’s the heat, sorry, freaking flames. Damn! That title is exactly as gutter minds would guess, yummy!
 
The Three Hour Man is hot, but has a fantastic back-story that really weaves the reader into Mr. Cox’s apocalyptic world.

Daimones by Massimo Marino  
Genre:science fiction  
Length: novel
Reviewer: Mark 

Think you’re having a bad day? Yesterday Dan lost his job after being made surplus to
requirements and being told he was no longer needed. Today he woke up to find he and his family could well be the only survivors left on the planet after an extinction-level event occurred whilst they were sleeping. Faced with a new reality in which they might just be alone, Dan and his family attempt to adapt and survive but two questions remain....why did they survive and what happens now?

I seem to be reading a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction of late this. All rather appropriate seeing as how the Mayans have quite nicely predicted our demise for sometime around December of this year! It is true, that with the end of the world supposedly just around the corner, there does seem to be an abundance of these kind of novels around. So how does this latest novel compare?

Well quite favorably actually. Daimones begins with an ordinary day for Dan, much like any other. Even when he is fired, he doesn’t take it badly as he was starting to get disillusioned with his work as a Software Programmer anyway. He returns home, we are introduced to his family, they go to bed...and then, the next morning, they awake to the unthinkable. And, to start with, that is it. There is little explanation, and none is needed because all we know is what Dan and his family know, but what this novel does do next and does well is ask, “so, what happens now?”

The answer is try and get back into as much of a routine as possible whilst searching for possible survivors. That is where this novel really succeeds because everything that happens for the next two-thirds of the novel is realistic, down to earth and very, very believable! I found myself asking what I would do, would I do anything differently and analyzing what my own reaction to such an event might be. Would I cope as well as Marino’s protagonists here? I would like to think so but, in all honesty, probably not!

I loved the early part of this book and thought it brilliantly conceived, well thought out and the plot wonderfully structured. What I didn’t like was the authors need to try and explain everything that comes in the final chapters of the book! This final segment kind of let everything down and left me feeling cold. I am not going to give anything away but as soon as Marino starts building the foundations for an explanation, the book begins to take a turn for the worse and it almost begins to feel like two separate stories that have been forced together. Until now, what the author has written has been good and, had he left everything up in the air, what the reader would have walked away with was a very post-modern and highly enjoyable new take on post apocalyptic survival. Unfortunately, Marino decides to go a different route and instead what we are left with is a kind of diatribe into new-age, meta-physical clap-trap that kind of spoils all the good work that has come before.

Like I say, compared to a lot of other similar themed fiction floating around right now, this DOES compare quite favorably. I honestly even thought that it would end up being as good if not better than some of the best post apocalyptic stories I have read of late. For me though, it was just the ending that brought this all crashing back down to earth! If I could rate the first two-thirds of the book only, I would give this 4 stars. As it is, I am afraid the disappointing
ending reduces it to three stars.

Read the End First by Suzanne Robb
Genre: Anthology, science fiction, horror
Length: novel
Reviewer: Mark

Since the dawn of civilization,  mankind has predicted the end of the world in one form or another. In this collected anthology, 24 writers were given three  rules: pick a time zone from around the globe, set their story sometime after  midnight and then pick a way for the
world to die. The end result ~ a  collection that is at once both grim yet compulsive reading; every bit as  horrific as it is thought provoking.
  
I was really looking forward to this and  thought it was an interesting concept and, indeed, there are some great story  ideas here that will totally keep you hooked. But, at the same time,  unfortunately there are just as many offerings  that are distinctly average  by  comparison. Every doomsday scenario ever thought about under the sun is  featured here and then some. But whilst some of them work, sadly there are one  or two that really do just fall a bit flat on their faces. This is a problem  that seems to be inherent with any anthology but is more noticeable here with all of the stories following a common theme.
 
Highlights for me included the story “The barrier between here and there” which invoked fond memories of  old-school, traditional, Lovecraftian horror and which certainly started the  collection off with a bang. But others that also resonated with me included John McCraig’s “EMP”, “Best Intentions” by Rebecca Snow and “Not With A Bang” by  author collaboration, Brooke and Scott Fabian. By far the creepiest story here  though has to be David Dunwoody’s “The Hour.” I don’t want to spoil anything but this story stood head and shoulders above all the rest and left me itching and squirming long after I had moved onto the next story......and the next....and the next!
 
Overall, this isn’t a bad collection of grim fiction. Like I say, some of the stories included were better than others but  there were none that were truly awful, just some that were a little under par.  Reading chapter after chapter of yet more ways for the world to die inevitably begins to take its toll after a while – which is why I would probably recommend reading this in smaller chunks rather than in one big session! Be  warned ~ there are no happy endings here and, after a while, the whole thing can  get a little bit depressing ~ but if you like end-of-the-world scenarios and are  looking for something a bit different, then you check this  out! 
 
Just remember to stock up on canned goods and  drinking water before picking this up. Just in case because you never know....

+Giveaway: 1 ebook

The Last Cowboy by James Cox
Novella
m/m, erotica, post-apocalyptic 
TBR reviewer: Brutally Honest

This is all about a virus that whips out most of the population. Ben is a lonely cowboy that really touched my heart. He’s just looking for someone to spend the rest of his life on earth with. I really felt for him. Cody is the stranger from the city that is starving and needs rescuing. Ben is happy to oblige until a secret comes out, one that could kill them both.

I really, really enjoyed this story. It wasn’t perfect as it could have used more details about this virus and a little more length but that was made up for by the characters personality. The plot was well done. It was fast paced but still had slow moments for the two hot guys to fall for each other. The romance was scorching hot and if you like some serious heat between sexy men, I think you’re going to love this.
 
The Last Cowboy was a quick, hard-hitting read that I will definitely recommend. I can't wait to read the rest of the books in this series!