Synopsis:

"Imagine a world where you might disappear any minute, only to find yourself alone in a grey sickly land, with more horrors in it than you would ever wish to know about. And then you hear a horn and you know that whoever lives in this hell has got your scent and the hunt has already begun. Could you survive the Call?"

I seem to be on a roll this week reading really good books! This is another fantastic book but it's so different I'm at loss at how to even describe it. It's like a cross between a horror, dystopian survival & Irish folklore fantasy story all rolled in to one. Different can be a good thing though and that's one of the reasons I liked the story so much. The world building was so creative! It is very dark & grim and after reading about the horrors they suffer through at the hands of the Sidhe fairies, you probably won't want anyone to touch you ever again. It's a pretty intense ride, especially just waiting to see who was going to be "called" next! If you're looking for something different to shake things up a bit, this will do it! 

I couldn't tell from the ending if there's going to be a sequel but if there is, I'll definitely come back for more!

*I received this ARC from Edelweiss & Scholastic Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

**I read this for my 2016 Halloween Bingo: ~Creepy Crawlies~ square 

because it will definitely give you that feeling and more. The grey lands are filled with all kind of horrors like like spider trees hungry for flesh. : )

Hungry is the second episode in the ReMade serial and it's written by Andrea Phillips. It continues the story of the 23 teenagers that are dropped into this new post-apocalyptic world.

In this episode specifically, the survivors are getting to know one another and they're trying to work out the basics of surviving- looking for food, finding shelter and figuring out how they got there and why....

Honestly, the writing style and content just has too young of a vibe to it for me. I read a lot of YA dystopian/post-apocalyptic books as long as they're geared toward adults too but I feel like I'm out of my comfort zone with this serial. As long as the content stays age-appropriate, I think a younger audience would enjoy this a lot more then I would so I'm going to call it quits with this episode. There's nothing inherently wrong with it, it's just not for me.

I know I've said it before but the Bookburners serial is fantastic and more my speed so if you like serials, I would recommend 'adults' to check it out first. There's also another a serial published by Serial Box too that I was looking into yesterday called The Witch Who Came in From the Cold. I haven't read it yet but it sounds really good and I plan to check it out soon. It's a fantasy style serial set during the Cold-War featuring magic, sorcerers, spies etc.

*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Serial Box Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Remade Synopsis:

"Every minute, 108 people die. On October 14th, 2016, from 9:31-9:32 p.m. EDT, 23 of those deaths will be teenagers. Now they are humanity’s last hope for survival. 

Awakened in a post-apocalyptic world and hunted by mechanical horrors, these teens search for answers amidst the ruins of civilization. Fate, love, and loyalty face off in this adrenaline -pumping YA adventure."

Episode 1- "Shadows and Dreams" Synopsis

"Holden Black never imagined his crush knew his name, much less that he’d suddenly be driving her to a party. But life can change in a second, especially when you’re 16. A look. A flash of headlights. A scream. What do you do when the unexpected jumps straight to the unbelievable, the dream becomes a nightmare, and waking changes everything except your heart’s desire."

Remade is a new YA post-apocalyptic serial written by a collaboration of authors: Matthew Cody, Kiersten White, E. C. Myers, Andrea Phillips, Carrie Harris & Gwenda Bond, and published by Serial Box Publishing. There are 15 episodes and each episode will be released weekly and feature one of the six different authors I listed above.

I have to admit, when I started reading the first episode, Shadows & Dreams, written by Matthew Cody, it didn't grab me the way the Bookburners serial did but as I read further into it I became more intrigued. I haven't quite made my mind up if I'm going to read the full season yet because so far I've only really got a glimpse of what's to come but I'm definitely going to stick around for another episode and see where the story leads. There's a fantastic cast of authors so I expect the serial will only get better and better but we'll see. I'm going to reserve my full opinion until I get a little further into it.

*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Serial Box Publishing in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Even though I've really liked all of the other books I've read by Smith, when I first saw the cover of this book, I was thinking I probably wouldn't like it very much because I didn't like the cover at all, but you know what- I absolutely loved it!  That's a perfect example of why you should never judge a book by its cover!

Of course after I finished reading it, I saw online that Simon & Schuster has given this series a complete makeover and the covers are gorgeous! Honestly, if I would have seen the new covers before I read the book, I wouldn't have hesitated one second to read the story. But hey that's reality, we do it everyday with books, products, people etc. 

So I guess the moral of this review/rant is: this is a fantastic post-apocalyptic book so don't let the (old) covers fool you! The characters in this one could have been fleshed out a little more but other then that, if you like a good action-packed, apocalyptic invasion, then you can't go wrong with this series. Really, you can't go wrong with any of Smith's books. Hell Divers is my ultimate favorite but Orbs is a close second behind it! 

*I received this ARC from NetGalley & Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! 

The Lost Flotilla series is a post-apocalyptic story about a group of survivors that have been living on a flotilla of ships because a mysterious natural disaster has completely flooded the entire world.

Soil pickups where Salt left off. The survivors have learned the location of a secret underground facility that might have information about what caused the disaster so they train a crew to run their sub and go in search of this place...

I liked this follow-up but I enjoyed Salt a lot more. There were just a few scenarios in this one that were a little too unbelievable and the plot just wasn't as entertaining to me. I just got the  'I've been there done that' feeling. If you haven't read a ton of other post-apocalyptic stories though you'll probably enjoy it more then I did.