Title: Wanted: Dead or Undead (The Zombie West Series, Book 1)
Author: Angela Scott
Published by: Evolved Publishing
I received this ARC from the author in exchange for my review.
Wanted: Dead or Undead. I have to admit I started reading this expecting a zombie western with lots of eating and being eaten along with some humor. What I got was so much more.
The story starts with a nail-biting scene that leaves you with no choice but to continue reading.
Trace is an opportunist, a card shark, and a bit of a trickster. All he wants is to stroll through life with no complications. That wasn’t hard until the zombies started moving westward.
Red is a no-nonsense woman on a mission. Traveling west towards California, she is hoping to find her brother. He joined the cavalry to fight the zombies and she hasn’t heard from him since.
The zombie plague has consumed the larger cities on either coast and is rapidly extending to the midwest.
Thrown together by a chance encounter, Trace and Red slowly begin to trust each other. They will have to in order to survive. As they travel westward their group of two slowly grows along with their attraction for each other. They both have secrets kept to themselves for fear they will shatter the tenuous bond growing between them.
Angela Scott takes her time developing the characters and establishing her story, weaving in new characters along with their stories and building genuine relationships. The scenes were so well written I could swear I was there. I shuddered in horror, feared the worst, and sighed in delight.
The cliff-hanger ending left my jaw dropping in surprise, already anticipating more. This ending is very satisfying and one of the best I have read.
I gave this book 5 stars and recommend it to anyone looking for a great read and a new series.
I will be watching for Survivor Roundup (The Zombie West Series, Book 2)
~~~
Angela Scott
I hear voices. Tiny fictional people sit on my shoulders and whisper their stories in my ear. Instead of medicating myself, I decided to pick up a pen, write down everything those voices tell me, and turn it into a book. I’m not crazy. I’m an author. For the most part, I write contemporary Young Adult novels. However, through a writing exercise that spiraled out of control, I found myself writing about zombies terrorizing the Wild Wild West—and loving it. My zombies don’t sparkle, and they definitely don’t cuddle. At least, I wouldn’t suggest it. I live on the benches of the beautiful Wasatch Mountains with two lovely children, one teenager, and a very patient husband. I graduated from Utah State University with a B.A. degree in English, not because of my love for the written word, but because it was the only major that didn’t require math. I can’t spell, and grammar is my arch nemesis. But they gave me the degree, and there are no take backs. As a child, I never sucked on a pacifier; I chewed on a pencil. I’ve been writing that long. It has only been the past few years that I’ve pursued it professionally, forged relationships with other like-minded individuals, and determined to make a career out of it. You can subscribe and follow me on my website, where I blog obsessively about my writing process and post updates on my current works. I’m also on Twitter and Facebook, but be forewarned, I tweet and post more than a normal person.