I was a little bit surprised when I saw this book on Netgalley, but since it was by an author from who I read a series once and I was curious to find out what 'tips, tools, and tactics' would be discussed I decided to read it. It was a short book anyway.

Most of it is OK, I guess although there are a lot of things I think people would already know about since she stated, many authors are also readers so they might already know about Goodreads, Librarything and book bloggers. The book states multiple times that it is not okay to complain about bad reviews, pay for reviews or swap reviews with other authors. (It's of course sad that this needs to be said, but I'm glad she said it).

What I didn't particularly liked was her suggesting multiple times to mail bloggers directly. Even though I don't find that particularly annoying, I know a lot of people who do.
And she says in the beginning that if things are not clear from her book, you can always use Google. I agree that you can always use Google, but should a reference book not make things clear, is that not what it is for?

Also, although she spends time explaining that the product itself should be good and needs to be edited, I found a few spelling mistakes (it takes something for me to notice usually). Which again, I don't find that bad, but the whole book was less than 50 pages, so I don't think it would have cost so much (time) to have it edited.

What I thought was a little bit funny or perhaps strange was that this book was on Netgalley, while basically the biggest thing it's explaining is Netgalley. So, people who are going to find the book there are obviously already aware of the existence of Netgalley and are already using it (even if only for getting ARCs and not putting on their own books). However, the most interesting thing I thought was a link to where she explained what Netgalley looks like for a publisher (which I hadn't seen before).

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Continuing the story from Mortality some time after the first book, this book is more about the recovery whereas the first book really focussed on the down fall.

*There may be some minor spoilers in here for the first book*

Zarah has been changed for Chelsea in this novel as the secondary main character in this novel. I found her story however to be the most interesting. Starting as one of the zombies (the second generation, oops, the vaccine failed according to the first rule of not properly tested vaccines* zombies) she struggles to become human once more.

Savannah on the other hand is still trying to survive.

If you're looking for a deep novel on what makes us human, look further. If you want an enjoyable zombie novel or a nice snackbook? This is a good one.

There's not too much info on the zombies. But basically all you need to know about them is there's two different kinds. They are hungry, looking for BRAINS (and other human meat for that matter).

The romantic drama was unnecessary and it didn't really add to the story. What I did really like was the fact that the ending was quite open. I happen to notice lately that there's a need for what I think of as 'overclosure' at the end of a series. But this book ends and you could just feel there was a bit more to their story. It was done, sort of, but it didn't end with these boring (I never seem to like them) extra chapters that usually get stuffed in at the end telling how everyone became a gardener or went to college and got a bunch of kids or something similar. This ending made me wonder: Is there another book? But according to the set I got it was the complete series, so I don't think it is. The real end of the story is left to our own imagination I think.

Overall, I quite enjoyed this series and would read another series by Kellie Sheridan.

*First rule of not properly tested vaccines: It will go horribly wrong and people will turn into zombies.

Duality is the final book in the Hitchhiker's Strain duology. The first book is called Mortality. There's a prequel called End Dayz that collects four short stories.

If there's one thing I've learned from zombie books, is the following: Never-ever use a vaccine that's not properly been tested. If you do not believe me, why not read Mortality (Kellie Sheridan), The Passage (Justin Cronin) or ARV-3 (Cameo Renae) although that last one has the most ridiculous vaccine ever: against RADIATION!

First rule of not properly tested vaccines: It will go horribly wrong and people will turn into zombies.

After a first relatively minor zombie attack (unless you're living near Cleveland) the government hurries this new vaccination scheme, which goes - following the strict first rule of not properly tested vaccines - horribly wrong creating a new race of zombies that are a bit less dead and are harder to defeat as they have some other thoughts than BRAINS, apparently.

In this apocalyptic world Savannah and some other survivors have been camping at her old school, trying to stay away from the zombies as much as possible. But when disaster strikes and they have to flee, they learn about a terrible, gruesome plot of the government when trying to save the ones they love.

On the other end of the dual POV is Zarah. In the beginning it's not completely clear what her story adds to the book, but this will become clear eventually. I thought it was an interesting story, also because it describes the craze in the city during the first outbreak better.

The love stories in both story lines were a bit too much for me, but not so eye-rolling annoying that it gave me headaches. They do make stupid decisions, but then again they are new to the whole survival thing.

It's not the best zombie/apocalypse story out there, but I thought it was interesting and nice to read.

Mortality is the first book in the Hitchhiker's Strain duology. The second book is called Duality. A short prequel consisting of four short stories is called End Dayz.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

End dayz is the prequel to the Hitchhiker's Strain series that I recently read (reviews to come). In four very short stories the main characters are introduced in the early days of the zombie-apocalypse.

I read this one first (as it came first in the omnibus) so at first I didn't really understood what was going on, but after reading the other books I think it's a nice extra bit of this series. It definitely made me curious to read the rest of the story, even though normally I'm not even that much in to zombies, but this is an interesting tale.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!