Excerpt: Bad Blood by Nicky Peacock

BAD BLOOD
by Nicky Peacock

Amazon UK  |   Amazon US |  Evernight Teen

“I am Britannia. I am your protector. I will fend off the hungry hordes of undead hands that reach toward you. I am your steadfast defender. I will stand between you and the zombie masses as they try to taste your flesh. I am strong, unyielding, and dedicated to your survival. All I ask from you… is your blood.”

A five-hundred-year-old bloody game of vengeance will need to be put on hold if vampires are to survive the zombie uprising. Britannia and Nicholas, bitter enemies and the only two surviving vampires left in London, have to work together to save un-infected humans and deliver them safely to a vampire stronghold in the Scottish Highlands. Unable to drink the zombie ‘bad blood’, the remaining vampires need the humans to stay alive. But will the vampires tell the survivors who they are and what they want from them? Will Britannia be able to hold back her vengeance for the greater good? Is survivor Josh the reincarnation of Britannia’s murdered true love? And can she bring herself to deliver him to the ‘safe’ hold? Survival instincts run deep, but bad blood can run deeper.

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Bad Blood EXCERPT

We ran to the hospital. On the way, we encountered hardly anyone, alive or dead. Where were they all? When we arrived at the hospital car park, I understood. Zombies were pack animals. A massive crowd of them were crammed in and around the main building like they were waiting for a concert to start, all barely paying attention to their surroundings and seemingly swaying against the force of gravity. The other thing was the smell. When watching horror films filled with shuffling zombies, the horror came from their ghastly looks—the reminder that death has a tight grip on us all, well, most of us. But what the filmmakers should focus on—if they could—was the acidic rank odor zombies gave off. They had been dead barely twenty-four hours. It took a normal human body at least thirty-six hours to really start to smell, and that was with a vampire’s heightened senses. These guys smelled like they’d been out in the sun for three weeks covered in rubbish and besieged by wily maggots. They were mostly intact, though. Maybe this hospital had been Zombie Ground Zero. Most had turned so quickly their comrades hadn’t had time to feed.

The Art of the Last of Us by Rachel Edidin [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: The Art of The Last of Us
EDITOR: Rachel Edidin
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PUB DATE: Jul 2 2013

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"Naughty Dog Studios and Dark Horse proudly present the essential companion to The Last of Us, a richly detailed and compelling game set in a postpandemic world where humans have become an endangered species. Featuring concept art, character designs, and astonishing settings and landscapes, The Art of The Last of Us provides a unique look at one of the gaming world’s most eagerly anticipated titles."

- Source: goodreads.com

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Rating:

The Last of Us has been the talk of the gaming world ever since the news came out of its upcoming release. In spite of the delay, players who have played and/or finished the game have then since raved about it.

Other than trying out the demo version, I haven’t played The Last of Us video game yet. I know. How dare I, right? In my defense, I am working in a company that involves game designing. Contrary to what other people think, being in the gaming industry (or in my case – game-ish), you don’t get to play video games all day. In fact, you even end up rarely playing or not playing at all. Unless you’re a reviewer, critic or tester, then that’s beside the point.

Since I mentioned about my job, research and inspiration comes with the territory. When I stumbled upon an advance copy of The Art of The Last of Us on Netgalley... This is the part where we say the rest is history, but I need to elaborate. I was thrilled to be granted access to view this before it got published. Oh, the joy of flipping through this book!

Horde by Ann Aguirre [REVIEW]

TITLE: Horde (Razorland #3)
AUTHOR: Ann Aguirre
PUBLISHER: Feiwel & Friends
PUB DATE: Sep 20 2013

Summary from Goodreads:

"The epic conclusion to the USA Today bestselling trilogy.

The horde is coming.

Salvation is surrounded, monsters at the gates, and this time, they're not going away. When Deuce, Fade, Stalker and Tegan set out, the odds are against them. But the odds have been stacked against Deuce from the moment she was born. She might not be a Huntress anymore, but she doesn't run. With her knives in hand and her companions at her side, she will not falter, whether fighting for her life or Fade's love.

Ahead, the battle of a lifetime awaits. Freaks are everywhere, attacking settlements, setting up scouts, perimeters, and patrols. There hasn't been a war like this in centuries, and humans have forgotten how to stand and fight. Unless Deuce can lead them.

This time, however, more than the fate of a single enclave or outpost hangs in the balance. This time, Deuce carries the banner for the survival of all humanity."

Rating:

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“Because I love you.' It was easy to say it this time now that I understood what it meant. Then I quoted his own words back to him. 'Not just when it's easy. All the time.”

For a minute there I think my heart stopped.

I’ve had my bad share of series-finale books. Some got left me sad, some left me disappointed, and some even left me incredibly ticked off. So I was wary while reading Horde. I was wishfully thinking this would not blow up in my face. Thankfully, Ann Aguirre did not fail me. Oh! Thank you, Ms. Aguirre for such a wonderful ending!

I hadn’t put a lot of thought to this series when I first started off with Enclave. To me, it felt like another one of those zombie stories, blah, blah and blah. But then when I met Deuce and Fade, they poked my interest over what kind of story these characters would be going through. And so I fell in love with these two, and over time, as I watch them grow I couldn’t bear to think of these two apart.

Deuce has always been a strong character from the start. But it was humbling to see a sensitive side of her. The more she grew to learn things about life and love that has been deemed unfit for a Huntress during her days in the enclave, the more lovable Deuce became. She has truly grown so much over the course of her journey. She truly lived up as the heroine I always believed her to be.

Fade may have been the quiet one from the start, but there is no denying the aura of strength he seems to embody. Needless to say, I couldn’t get enough of Fade! He was just prefect, never mind that he was a little broken after the events of Outpost, time helped him heal, and I was so glad that Deuce was there to support him all throughout.

Reboot by Amy Tintera [REVIEW]

TITLE: Reboot (Reboot #1)
AUTHOR: Amy Tintera
PUBLISHER: HarperTeen
PUB DATE: May 7 2013

Summary from Goodreads:

"Five years ago, Wren Connolly was shot three times in the chest. After 178 minutes she came back as a Reboot: stronger, faster, able to heal, and less emotional. The longer Reboots are dead, the less human they are when they return. Wren 178 is the deadliest Reboot in the Republic of Texas. Now seventeen years old, she serves as a soldier for HARC (Human Advancement and Repopulation Corporation).

Wren’s favorite part of the job is training new Reboots, but her latest newbie is the worst she’s ever seen. As a 22, Callum Reyes is practically human. His reflexes are too slow, he’s always asking questions, and his ever-present smile is freaking her out. Yet there’s something about him she can’t ignore. When Callum refuses to follow an order, Wren is given one last chance to get him in line—or she’ll have to eliminate him. Wren has never disobeyed before and knows if she does, she’ll be eliminated, too. But she has also never felt as alive as she does around Callum.

The perfect soldier is done taking orders."

Rating:

“Humans had a brightness to them, a glow that only death extinguished.”

This is a zombie book…but not at all what it may seem. As all zombie stories begin, it starts with a virus. This virus turns humans, not into brain-eating undead creatures, but into the ultimate weapons of destruction they call reboots. They are killing machines, and they are the perfect set of soldiers to do our bidding. That sounds just as awesome as how Rebo0t turned out to be.

In the world of our protagonist, Wren, once the virus takes place in a human’s body, your time is right about up. But once you die, you come back to, uhm, well not life, but human bodies become reanimated. The longer you stay dead, the stronger of a reboot you become. Now, reboots pretty much look like your average human, the only difference is (aside from the undead factor) they’re faster, stronger and are able to heal themselves in a manner of seconds that no ordinary human is capable of. Our small but terrible heroine took 178 minutes before she woke up from death, making her one of the most lethal reboots to have existed. But here’s the catch, the greater the number, the less a reboot is likely to possess human emotion.

Alice in Zombieland by Gena Showalter [REVIEW]

TITLE: Alice in Zombieland
           (White Rabbit Chronicles #1)
AUTHOR: Gena Showalter
PUBLISHER: Harlequin Teen
PUB DATE: Sep 25 2012

Summary from Goodreads:

"She won’t rest until she’s sent every walking corpse back to its grave. Forever.

Had anyone told Alice Bell that her entire life would change course between one heartbeat and the next, she would have laughed. From blissful to tragic, innocent to ruined? Please. But that’s all it took. One heartbeat. A blink, a breath, a second, and everything she knew and loved was gone.  Her father was right. The monsters are real….

To avenge her family, Ali must learn to fight the undead. To survive, she must learn to trust the baddest of the bad boys, Cole Holland. But Cole has secrets of his own, and if Ali isn’t careful, those secrets might just prove to be more dangerous than the zombies….

I wish I could go back and do a thousand things differently.
I'd tell my sister no. I'd never beg my mother to talk to my dad.
I'd zip my lips and swallow those hateful words.
Or, barring all of that, I'd hug my sister, my mom and my dad one last time.
I'd tell them I love them.
I wish... Yeah, I wish."

Rating:

Everyone thinks Alice Bell’s father is crazy. He locks up his family inside their home, sometimes even in their basement, every night and goes about roaming the perimeter with a shotgun in his hands. He believes in monsters lurking around. But nobody has actually seen one - including Alice. All her life, Alice’s routine is to go to school and get back home before sunset, and all the paranoia going on in her father’s head is agitating Alice.

One night she finally convinced her parents to let them all go to watch her little sister, Emma’s ballet recital. That night she finally witnessed what her father has feared of all their lives.

All so suddenly, Alice is left an orphan. She moves in with her grandparents and moves to a new school. But weird things are going on. While jocks ruled her former school, the bad boys who seem to take fights as breakfast, rule here. But what is with them? Most of all, who the heck is Cole Holland and why is she feeling incredibly connected to this guy?

Suddenly her grief isn’t the only thing she has her mind occupied with – there’s school, Cole... and something she must fight off for her life and protect those she love...