Monday, June 18, 2012

Tomorrow Land by Mari Mancusi [ARC REVIEW]

       
Tomorrow Land
by Mari Mancusi
Summary from Goodreads:

"Can true love survive the end of the world?

Imagine finding your first love, only to be ripped apart by the apocalypse. Peyton Anderson will never forget the day she was forced to make a choice--between her family--and Chris Parker, the boy she'd given her heart. Now, four years later, as she steps from the fallout shelter and into a dead and broken world, he's the only thing on her mind.

All Chris "Chase" Parker wanted was to take Peyton away and keep her safe from harm. But he waited for hours in the rain on judgment day and she never showed--breaking his heart without ever telling him why.

Now the two of them have been thrown together once again, reluctant chaperones to a group of orphan children in a post-apocalyptic world where the dead still walk...and feed. As they begin their pilgramage to the last human outpost on Earth, can they find a way to let go of old hurts and find the love they lost--all while attempting to save what's left of the human race?
"

Rating:

Who would have thought a zombie book could turn out to be cute? I certainly didn’t. That is, until I’ve read Tomorrow Land by Mari Mancusi.



I’ll give you a brief overview of the book: Peyton and Chris are living in 2030 where technology is literally used in people’s everyday lives. Like, for example, there are no more good old-fashioned basketball games, players need only to log in to the virtual world and let their minds do all the playing while they sit back and relax in their homes. It’s not hard to imagine a future like so, given how vast technology is developing.

Anyway, Peyton doesn’t see Chris for anything but a stalker and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with him. Then the apocalypse came and left their world with zombies wiping out the rest of the world’s population. All the survivors, who have earlier went into hiding before the unfortunate event, are struggling to keep themselves alive from hunger and diseases, and not to mention trying not to get bitten and killed by zombies.

Peyton and Chris are few of the survivors. They find themselves crossing paths after a very intriguing event in the past that left Chris hurt and dejected by Peyton while Peyton now longs to be with Chris. Fate doesn’t seem to be on their side...

Tomorrow Land shifts between the point of view of Peyton and Chris/Chase, and each chapter interchanges from past to present. I love the trip back and forth and even though there were hints her e and there about what happened between Peyton and Chris before the apocalypse, you still get that element of surprise and the surge of empathic feeling towards these two love birds.  I love the relationship they have. It’s the normal kind [in spite of the circumstances] that makes me feel the “love” that’s truly there. It’s really cute!

I love the actions scenes and the fact that Peyton is no damsel-in-distress needing Chase to be there to protect her. In fact she can handle herself pretty well, if she wasn’t running out of time to get to where she needs to be. Speaking of the place where she’s going to, the Disneyland bit made me chuckle every time it was mentioned, it’s a little out of place considering the scenario but I’ll bite since I like the story.

I relished every page of this book; the ending was a little bit of a downer though. I expected one last fight-to-the-death since the place was practically crawling with zombies and the way it came out uneventful, except for the revelation of Peyton’s purpose, was a bit disappointing. But I guess this was really more of a love story in the end anyway, so I’m just glad these two got their happily ever after.

*Thank you, NLA Digital and Netgalley for the copy of Tomorrow Land.