I LOVE zombie books, and this one quickly joined the list of my favorites. It was witty, but also had my heart pounding at times. Thank you for the ARC opportunity!

This was a very random book choice and it surprised me. In my usual reading I do come across dystopian fiction but the undead are few and far between. I liked the name and the blurb so decided to give it a shot.

Serendipity lives in a world where the bite of the undead can turn someone and they hunger for the blood of the living. A lot has changed in how society works, but some things do not change. If there were clues about what time it was supposed to be, I didn’t catch it. It does not matter in the bigger picture anyway.

There is a romance at the center of the plot which toes the line between sweet and stalkery. I liked the set up and our leading lady, but the plot seemed as if there was more to come.

With the Indian characters in the story, I felt like the sarees were a bit much. The description and the actual drape do not actually match as well as one might imagine, although this is a very tiny piece of the storyline to be bothered about.

I thought the book began well and I didn’t dislike it, but I think it had the foundation to be more than I got out of it. I would try other books by the author and recommend this book to fans of zombie fiction.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

Ich weiß ehrlich gesagt nicht, wie ich dieses Buch bewerten soll, da ich es aufgrund relativ kurzer Ausleihdauer (ohne Verlängerung) nicht lesen konnte.

Steampunk, zombies, romance - I was hoping to love this book but it just didn't draw me in to the world.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC.

This book is hard to categorize. It is a weird western in that it has elements of the western formula, medical/technological items that don’t fit the time, and zombies. The overall feel is like a B movie from decades ago. Unfortunately it has the low level quality in of a B movie at a lot of points and also feels rushed in the last third.

Two sisters, Serendipity (Sera) and Bloom, live together after a zombie apocalypse has occurred coming up with various supposedly funny names for the living dead until one day Bloom vanishes and Sera has to go search for her. It annoyed me so much that despite their close bond and reliance on each other to survive that the elder sister would have just left Sera to fend for herself - when they do eventually meet up again Bloom says she figured Sera wouldn't be on her own for long - referencing possibly the worst relationship I've ever read where a boy who has stalked Sera for about 10 years keeps saving her from doing stupid things with zombies and she goes and lives with him then two minutes later they love each other. There's so many storylines that are hinted at or started and then left (Moll Grimes serum being swapped, Amity just dying off page). I honestly cant think of anything I liked about this book - but I will say that I didn't hate it enough to DNF it! It was a quick read.

This is a zombie-urban-thriller-steampunk kind of novel that I think owes a lot to Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. Unfortunately, it's not as good. The story of two sisters who live and survive together is great until one leaves without notice and suddenly seems to have changed her personality entirely is uneven and poorly paced and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The male lead who has been stalking the other sister since she was 6 isn't romantic: it's stalking. The eccentric scientist is of course a bad guy. There's fatphobia despite the main character describing herself as "curvy"; the constant "I must have coffee" trope gets old really fast; and the constant flirting while fighting for your life or someone else's is just silly. Give this one a miss.

Zombies due to the Dead Disease and sisters trying to survive, steampunk, and some romance. While this book sounds like it's got it all for me the execution was lacking.

Serendipity Blite inherited her father’s crackerjack shooting skills, while her sister, Bloom, got his knack for mechanical engineering. The siblings’ talents make them a formidable pair capable of surviving the apocalyptic aftermath of the Dead Disease.

I really liked the ideas in this book but I didn't love the execution. The prose itself felt a little unpolished. A good attempt, though.

thank you to netgalley for the advanced reading copy. I really enjoyed this and will be getting copies for my shop.

It's a cute mix of romantic fantasy and zombie apocalipse. Entertaining and well plotted.
Some more world building would help
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was such a cute book for a zombie book. I wasn't sure how I would like it but I really enjoyed it!

Sera and her sister Bloom try to survive on their own after a zombie apocalypse but things get complicated when Bloom goes missing.
My main problem was that I found the romance part of the story a bit rushed and instantaneous with a lack of character development and rather than adding to the story, at times it took me out of it.
Overall an entertaining novel with a mix of zombies and romance that leaves us with a perfect ending for a sequel. A book, in my opinion, mainly suitable for YA.

Genre: YA Romance/SciFi/Dystopian etc.

Review: This “novel” is the push into genres that is so far removed from palatable that it reeks contrivance from the go.

The beginning lures you in with some passable world building with shuffling zombies and mysterious saviors. The erosion from the norm is the insistence that the MC is: YA, hotter than a zombie fart, blushing, flirtatious, curvacious, angry/forgiving, super survivor/expert marksman at 50 yds and loves her hunky one-eyed man cake.

A little bit of this is ok but this author rams this shjt down the gullet at every turn. Comparative body evaluations, petty recriminations, considered and manipulative progressive action, brushing of fingers to lips coupled with chills and blushes, myopic internal dialogue, constant coffee/food/coffee/food references. WE GET IT!!

Dunzo at the 38 percent mark. You can try to push through but you will be flipping pages to get to the movement.

Rating: DNF

This is a book about Sera, a girl living during a zombie apocalypse. Laurel approaches this concept with mix of humor and sincerity that makes her story fun and compelling. Sera meets an interesting cast of people who have all survived the apocalypse in their own unique ways. I really liked the use of humor to lighten the tone of what could have been a really heavy book.

The thing I did struggle a little with was the romance. It felt fast for characters to be so invested in each other. A lot of the dialogue sounded sort of childish (mostly between fmc and mmc) which made it difficult for me to buy into their story. I was also a little confused about what time period this was taking place in.

I really enjoyed the world that Laurel created and the interesting characters she placed in it. There were really fun world building elements that I thought were unique for this kind of story. Zombie stories almost always have a “cure” aspect and I really liked how this one played out.

Overall, this was a super entertaining read that I would definitely recommend! Since I got this off NetGalley, I wasn’t really sure what age range it was for. It doesn’t look to be marketed towards YA but a lot of the rating does feel kind of like it fits that genre better than adult though there are definitely more mature discussions.