After the Ending
By Lindsey Pogue & Lindsey Fairleigh
February 14, 2013

After the Ending is the first book in a dystopian series.
People may have survived the armageddon but the virus that came has changed them. After Dani’s fever from the virus breaks she doesn't recognize the world anymore. She is alone or so she thinks.

Zoe, a bartender who has had her fair share of scumbags. She has changed along with everyone else who had the virus. Her family is gone but she now has a newly acquired strength that she must learn how to control.

Can Dani and Zoe pull through in the newly formed world along with deadly individuals and deadly terrain and find each other?

I enjoyed this world, but there were some things that didn’t make much sense. Dani and Zoe were supposed to be grown women but they act like pre-teens with the emailing and crushing on men. They were immature. Another thing was the phone lines were out but the Wi-Fi worked. Also this book is marketed towards YA but I would say it should be more of an older YA, not quite New Adult but not younger young adults.

Thank you to L2 Books and NetGalley for this E-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

**3.5**
Told through alternating points of view between best friends Zoey and Danielle, who find themselves stuck on opposite sides of the country when the ultimate pandemic occurs, the story is the women's struggles and triumphs to find each other- as well as other virus survivors along the way, as the world crumbles around them.

The one negative I had about the book was sometimes the action was lost in the delivery of the story. The characters would write emails to each other when email was still an option for communication and tell of these huge super interesting and possible plot changing events in just a few sentences or so and I feel like I missed out on experiencing the events with the characters. Having a sentence about a huge fight or people leaving or a big reveal made it less real or important to the story and made me a little miffed I couldn't read it in real time. I guess on one hand I didn't have to have recapped info all the time, but I would have preferred more real time adventures and less email correspondence in general.

Overall this was a very interesting story, a little too on the nose for the whole COVID pandemic thing right now at times even though it was written in 2012 but an enjoyable read for me. If I had to describe this I would say an adult version of The Darkest Minds series by Alexandra Bracken (which interestingly enough also came out in 2012) but with some sexy times and real life dangers added in- and faithful dog companions (let's be real here, I will always pick a book with an animal companion left to my own devices, they will win every time). The story was fast paced and engaging and both main characters were likeable and resourceful. I will for sure continue the series and as an FYI this ends on a cliffhanger so be glad the whole series is out so you can jump right into the next book.

I’m sorry this was just not good. It sounded like it would be an exciting read with a cool dystopian theme but no. Just no. I won’t continue this series.
Not for me.

Dani and Zoe are bff and they are at opposite sides of the country when a flu-like pandemic strikes and kills almost everyone. Their objective is to reach each other.

If this is what an apocalypse looks like then a) I am dead on account of not being 'hot' and b) it reads like a Twilight-esque type of story so again, being over 40 I would be killed off. Maybe suits a better audience than me, I am sure that I am not its target however it just doesn't read very well and I would genuinely struggle to see how the rest of the trilogy unfolds. I ,for one, am not really interested in seeing what happens next. There are better post apocalypse books out there, when holding this up to say, 'Birdbox' by Josh Malerman there really is no contest. Apologies for not enjoying it but Netgalley has offered this proof in return for an honest review and I am afraid that it was just not my cup of tea.

DNF

*Book source ~ NetGalley

A virus kills off billions in a matter of days. The world as we know it ends and now the few survivors are trying to stay alive.

This is one of the stupidest books I’ve had the misfortune to pick up. The writing is horrible, the characters are vapid, and while I expect sci-fi to be a bit out there, it needs to have some grounding in basic facts. If billions of people died in just a few days, how in the fuck are all the gas stations out of gas? They were sick, in bed or the hospital, puking their guts up, not running out there to fill up their tanks because they knew the world was ending. No one knew how bad it was because it happened so fast. Also, the phones and cells are out. And yet somehow these two friends are emailing each other. Apparently the internet is a magical place in this book where wifi roams free for all to use, no matter where they are. So much bullshit I had to give up at 11%. How did this crap even get published?

I liked it and have told my followers to get themselves a copy for themselves as it is a really good read.
recommended to not only my followers but friends and family