This was plugged by @SmartBitches on Twitter as a dystopian romance. Well, I’m working on finding my niche in romance and dystopian is my bag, baby! This seemed like a good match for me with only $1.99 at stake.
Lynne Harmony is a CDC scientist and the most prominent survivor of the Scorpius bacterium, a plague that has turned most of the population into corpses or “Rippers”, who turn into primal killers or tactical psychopaths with the change in their brain chemistry. Lynne got away with a blue heart (literally) and a bounty on her head. She went on the run until she could track down Jax Mercury, a dangerous former gang member now leading and sheltering survivors in LA. She needs his help and protection to try and find a way to help humanity.
Jax is the good guy hidden under the damaged bad guy exterior. Lynne is smart, strong, and driven, but of course secretly needs to fix Jax and constantly appreciate his “maleness”. Though other than one very concerning scene with a belt, I was mostly along for the ride because I love a dystopian story, even a bad one. Since I’m not a big romance reader I could appreciate that I was given a smart heroine and a man that said “Nothing happens that you don’t want” before ravaging his new lady captive. I really did like Jax. There was a lot of action of the dystopian survival variety breaking up the action of the steamy variety.
Overall, I enjoyed this. 3.5 stars. I might even read the second one. I’m glad that I saw the plug because it opened my eyes to a romance subgenre that I hadn’t known about.
It’s so great when you find your exact genre niche, isn’t it? I’m all about Victorian England or contemporary new adults it seems. I read a lot of Regency books, but I have to repress my hatred of the clothing and it’s distracting.
It certainly was an exciting find! I don’t know why it hadn’t occured to me before, considering there are romances of every other conceivable flavor.