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Great start to a new series...

Halley and her Aunt Rebecca live in a little town in England and have been together since a few months prior to the apocalypse. Since then they have been on their own. Flash forward to over 4years later and Halley wants to venture out to find others. Something has been "calling" to her to find others. She leaves one morning while her Aunt is still sleeping.

A couple of days later she finds Nate, who had just tried to commit suicide by taking too many pills. He had been alone for most of the last four years and thought he was the only person alive for the longest time. He and Halley quickly become close and they soon set off in search of more survivors. What they end up finding will surprise you and the ending was totally unexpected.

I found this book hard to put down and would definitely recommend to others!

Years after a mysterious illness spreads across the world, Halley Clark only knows one other person alive - her aunt. Halley leaves home to search for other survivors and finds Nate Reynolds. This book takes us on their journey as they search for other survivors and the answer as to what caused this pandemic that killed off most of mankind.

With what is going on in the world today, this book really makes you think. It is an excellent read and I could not put it down. Ms. Nicholas does an amazing job giving flashbacks to before the pandemic and the current situation, which helps to understand the characters and what they are going through. I highly recommend this book to read and I cannot wait to read more in the series.

This book was given to me an an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in an exchange for an honest review. I was not compensated in any way.

I love end of the world scenarios and post-apocalyptic fiction, so this was right up my street. It’s a bit of a departure from classics like The Stand, calling to mind quieter offerings like Earth Abides. I do appreciate the fact that post pandemic disaster, the world isn’t suddenly divided into patriarchal tin pot dictators ships complete with rape gangs. (Honestly, that’s only one facet of what’s possible in a Collapse so I get a little tired of that being other writer’s go to for conflict.) At it’s heart this book looks at how human’s evolved to be communal and sociable, how loneliness and a drive for survival move us. It’s intelligently done and occasionally stark in its depiction. Overall this was an agreeable surprise. Recommend for other post apocalypse fans.

I enjoyed this novel about the end of world. I felt like I was there with main characters. The writing was very realistic. I am looking forward to next book by Nicholas.

Halley survived the pandemic that took most of the world, and her aunt seems to be immune. Stifled in their tiny cottage, Halley strikes out against her aunt's wishes to look for other survivors.

I'll be honest. I wasn't sure about this. The blurb makes it seem like a romance, and I'm not a huge fan. However, I am a massive fan of post apocalyptic stories, and with the news at the moment I thought this was an appropriate read. (Note to readers in the future: at the time of writing the Coronavirus is spreading around the world, albeit with [so far] a 2% death rate rather than the 99.99999999 ad infinitum depicted here.)

It's not a romance, exactly. Two of the characters do become (quite graphically described) lovers, but loneliness and horniness play as big a part in it as love. Another couple has been together for a while, but they don't show it much.

It is a fabulous post apocalyptic story. It's rare to get one set this far past the apocalypse, where survivors have settled into things. Katy gives her scenes a wonderful, creepy atmosphere. She thought of things most writers don't, like gas and diesel going bad and power plants needing to be shut down.

I am a little confused, though. At one point Halley muses that because people died so quickly, a lot of places aren't looted. But the 'before' segments show that the plague stretched out over months. There must have been people, near the end, who were desperate enough to loot. Maybe Halley just hadn't come across those ones.

I also thought that the survivors had very little reaction to finding out the virus was designed to kill almost everyone. Maybe they were in shock, maybe they were numb, but it still seemed strange to me, after everyone had lost so many loved ones.

I really enjoyed this read, although I skimmed a few sex bits...no shade if you liked them, just not my cup of tea!...and I'm looking forward to reading more from Katy to find out what happens next.

Different type of pandemic tale

Halley Clarke and her aunt survived the pandemic that killed most of the world's population. They've lived in a country cottage in rural southwest England for the 4 1/2 years since the onset of the pandemic and have not met any other survivors.

Halley heads out towards the coastal region one day on her own with the hope of finding other people and she ends up miraculously finding Nate Reynolds, a junior doctor, that has given up because of loneliness and despair.

I enjoyed this post-apocalyptic tale. It was different than other pandemic stories I have read. From the author's note, I understand this to be the first book in a series. I felt this book came to a satisfactory closing but am not adverse to continuing to read about Halley and Nate.

I received this book from Wild Rose Press through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

Wow, I really loved this book! I started reading this one evening after finishing another book, thinking I would just finish off a few pages before bed to see what it was like. An hour later, not only was I still reading, I was completely fixated on the story and had difficulty putting my Kindle down and turning off the lights. There were several aspects about the book I enjoyed but what I loved most is that it felt fresh and completely different than anything else I’ve read previously, especially in terms of a post-apocalyptic genre. There wasn’t the threat of flesh-eating zombies, yet the book had a eerie, realism that I found fascinating, often exploring ideas that I hadn’t been introduced to or thought about before in a post-apocalyptic world, like who knew that gasoline has a shelf-life and stopped working after a certain amount of time? I loved that!

As Halley and Nate ventured away from their cabin in search of other survivors, I was already hooked but then, just when I felt like I knew where the rest of the book was headed, it took a 90º turn and introduces what I can only describe as extraterrestrial or spiritual entities with the virus that I was not expecting and my interest instantly evolved from moderately entertained to highly obsessed (See what I did there?)

The ending did not disappoint. Albeit a sad, sobering conclusion, I loved that there was a twist I wasn’t expecting with the aunt and I felt relieved that at least Halley hadn’t left her poor aunt to fend for herself for all that time alone. I also love that this book leaves the story open for potential sequels. I would totally read those!

I only have a couple small bits of criticism, suggestions or ideas (take from it what you will):
- I thought it might be interesting to introduce identical twins to the story early on and have only one be “immune” to the virus. It might add to the mystery of why only one of the twins survived and lead to questions that the book would answer later on. Just an idea!
- It might also be nice to explore anxieties or real problems that could happen in a post-apocalyptic world. For instance, what happens when you have toothache or if you break you leg and there’s no one to go to? Or if you break your glasses? (Reminds me of an old Twilight Zone episode)
- It wasn’t often but there were a few times where I felt that the dialogue was a little cheesy and caused a couple eye-rolls, especially from Ben and Halley. Just something I would look at again
- Also, just a question I kept thinking about after finishing the book, did Nate die when he fell off the ladder at the cabin? I thought about it later because in the moment I was so worried he was seriously injured but ended up being fine. I though, “oh wow! He probably died and came back to life in that moment!”...