REVIEWED BY L.A. ASHTON

​Genre: Action/Light Sci-Fi

Pairings: F/F, M/F, M/M, MMFF (polyamorous setup for future installments)

Queer Rep: Bi/Pansexuality, Polyamory

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence.

My Rating: Four Stars

[Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

Synopsis

This novel was described to me as “Resident Evil” meets “Maze Runner” by the author, and honestly that was all it took to hook me. Going in with as little knowledge as possible wound up being an excellent experience, and I would recommend the same to you. The gist? Nasty zombie-esque creatures, an evil mega-corporation, and main characters who are trained to kill. What more could an action junkie ask for?

General

Omen Operation is an action packed thrill ride that will have you screaming for answers just as much as it will have you screaming for everyone to kiss. It is a new adult novel that ages the characters right beneath your gaze and forces a group of wildly varied individuals to tackle a horrifying situation. It satisfied not only my thirst for well-written on-page violence, but also for soft found families and a bisexual disaster MC.

Plot

From start to finish, this novel delivers everything it promises. Action, intrigue, and just-beneath-the-surface-please-God-kiss-already sexual tension. Something I wasn’t expecting was the overwhelming sense of found family illustrated between all the leading characters. It was a soft mortar that held the sharp edges of the book together, and it was expertly done. The fondness and familiarity they had in each other, the comfort and casual adoration... it was enough to make my heart swell every time. That sort of love and trust created something in them and in me. It wasn’t enough to just love the main character; if she adored someone else, so did I. If they loved another, oops—now I do too. I became happily entangled in their web, and it made every interaction something I wanted to read.  
It also made me absolutely desperate for them to kiss, please, SOMEONE, ANYONE, GOD--
One of the main themes of the novel is something the MC wrestles with quite extensively. It felt like love vs. reality, or perhaps how our insides sometimes clash with our outsides. What appears to be outwardly “right” simply can’t be so, what we feel must sometimes be allowed to override logic. What’s left of ourselves if we set aside all feeling? The struggle our MC faced was a real one, and it was satisfying if sometimes painful to watch.

Setting

The setting changed often, but was always described with intricate detail. It was easy to get a sense of where our characters were at all times

Characters

Do I even need to do this? They were all great. They were very different, but not in a cliché or eye-rolling fashion. They felt very much like real people we could all know and love. There is no perfect or infallible character. They were not built on stereotypes. I have a feeling the author has an extensive backstory for every single one in their head, and I hope one day we get to see some of it.  Hopefully, also, with more kissing.

The kissing thing isn’t actually a complaint. I love slow burn.

I’m just dying inside.
 
I honestly feel so blessed having read this book when I did, as the second instalment of the series will soon be up for preorder. I can’t wait to see more of the characters and unravel more of the mystery behind them. If you’re at all interested in action novels or found families, I highly recommend giving this title a read.

Taylor Brooke’s official site is here, and their twitter is over yonder.
 
Note: I am an Amazon Associate and I am using affiliate links. These do not affect you or my reviews.
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From NineStar Press:
Omen Operation (ebook) — $5.99
From Amazon.com:
Omen Operation (print) — $15.99    |    Omen Operation (ebook) — $5.99
 


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Genre: Horror/Post-Apocalyptic

Pairings: N/A

Queer Rep: Bisexuality

Warnings: Graphic depictions of violence,  discussion of self-harm, suicidal ideation, emetophobia, domestic violence, pregnancy, childbirth, and gore.
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REVIEWED BY L.A. ASHTON

M. Rose Flores’ official Facebook is here, and her twitter is over this way.

Note: I am an Amazon Associate and I am using affiliate links. These do not affect you or my reviews.

From Ninestar Press:
The End (ebook) — $6.49
From Amazon.com:
The End (print) — $15.99    |    The End (ebook) — $6.49



[Note: I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.]

Synopsis

Being a teenager is rough. Being a queer teenager? Moreso. And being a queer teenager during the zombie apocalypse, well... at least it can’t get any worse.

Cate’s life takes a cataclysmic turn on her seventeenth birthday. Now living in a world where the dead live and the living have lost their humanity, Cate and her sister struggle to survive. As if suddenly having to acclimate to zombies being a real thing isn’t bad enough, Cate soon discovers that not all zombies are as simple as they seem, and she just so happens to be immune to their virus.
General
“The End” is a book with a strong voice and a focused plot. If you’re itching for a zombie thriller, the biggest strength of this novel is that it’s everything you expect it to be. Unfortunately, its biggest weakness is that it’s everything you expect it to be.

Plot

My first few moments with The End had me jumping back to the book’s listing to check for a Young Adult tag. The End is not shelved as a young adult novel, and I honestly believe that was an error on the press’s part. The age of the characters notwithstanding, the narrative is highly colloquial and felt geared toward a younger reader. Or, at the very least, for someone looking to read YA.

The book is told on two timelines: “THEN” and “NOW”. This works well for the piece, and helps give the reader momentum. It was a saving grace at times, as the catch 22 for this novel becomes apparent very early: this book will give you the zombie story you think you want, but it will almost never surprise you.

We’ve seen zombie stories plenty: The Walking Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead, Day of the Living Dead... you get the picture. We know the rhythm and tropes by now. This novel follows them almost to a T, which made some of it fall just this side of boring. I could guess how things would play out, what would be introduced next, etc. Unfortunately, the hook the author promises in the synopsis—zombies who aren’t “just zombies”, and an immune MC—makes almost no impact on the narrative. Yeah, fighting the abnormal zombies is a bit rough, but they don’t do anything truly jarring or horrifying, and you never find out the how or the why behind them. For the most part, there’s not even speculation. Cate and her comrades handle them the way they handle all the rest, and they move on. I wanted something creepier, or something with more narrative weight, and all I got were some zombies that could run.
On the other foot, I’m a picky jerk about a lot of things, but I’m even more of a picky jerk when it comes to written action. M. Rose Flores is good at action, describing things clearly and succinctly with just enough gross “oomf” when necessary. In general all her descriptions and prose were wonderful. She had a tendency to over-explain things to the reader—obvious things that we could glean from context or would inherently understand—but the cadence and feel of her words was good. If she plays it less safe with her next project, she could hit one out of the park. She just needs to do the weird thing, give us the plot twist we weren’t expecting, and give the middle finger to some of the standard genre tropes.

Setting

The descriptions were good, so the setting was fine. We’re given the rundown towns and cities you’d expect from a zombie apocalypse. I actually wish the characters would have spent more narrative time in one place so we could have explored these places more; it was difficult to get attached to places and people when Cate and Melody moved at such a break-neck pace.

Characters

Cate is a cool kid. You get a sense of her character right away from the narrative style, and it sticks with you. She is just a kid though, and I sometimes had to remind myself of this when she did something stupid. Would teenage me have been smart enough to know better? Maybe, but maybe not. She also deals with real problems that make real sense given her current (awful) circumstances, and I liked seeing a proper portrayal of the mental strains a person would face.
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I really liked Marco. I eventually grew attached to Calvin as well, but some of the more superfluous characters (especially toward the end) didn’t really stick with me, which made the climax less impactful.
 
I think if you’re looking for a YA zombie narrative, The End is for you. If you want something that’s gonna knock your pants off with new ideas, it’s not for you. If you just want to chill alongside some dudes while they cleave into zombie heads, dig in! Despite my very par feelings about this particular novel, I look forward to what else Flores will bring to the world.

Reviewed by J.S. Fields

Genre: fantasy (fairy tale)
Pairings: f/f, m/m
Queer Representation: cis gay, cis lesbian, aromantic, asexual, trans
Warnings: none
Rating: 3.5 stars

Review
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Generally, this was a decent anthology. It started slow, and some of the first stories had pacing issues and/or failed to grab me. The real meat of the anthology came at the end, where the stories got longer, better written, and had much better character arcs. It actually took me longer than usual to get through this book, due to the slower stories at the start, but it was well worth continuing. Some specifics on each story follow.
 
Coming Home by Jennifer Cosgrove
A M/M (cis) modern Cinderella. I didn’t have any strong feelings one way or the other on this one, likely because the writing was fine but I don’t generally get into m/m stories. I do always enjoy a good Cinderella retelling, though.
 
Snow Fox by Sara Codair
Modern Snow White (F/F, trans) with a neat social media bent. Rosa is a poor college student trying to make ends meet through ad revenue via her instagram and YouTube videos. Another social media darling wants her dead so she can be number one. Thank goodness for Cara, the hot EMT who is always around to do some saving.
I really enjoyed the very different take on this Snow White story. Unfortunately I don’t think I know enough about social media to really get all the jokes in it, but I was amused, nonetheless.
 
Deathless by Emmalynn Spark
M/M (cis) fairy tale of an origin I am unfamiliar with (or possibly a mashup). Vanya, third in line for the throne, is sent to rescue his betrothed princess from an evil wizard. He trades places with the princess (sort of Beauty and the Beast like), and in his confinement, falls for the wizard. This was one of the longer shorts in the book and the romance developed at an even pace. It had a good mixing of stock fairy tale elements and traditional imagery.
 
At Her Service by K. S. Trenten
F/F (cis) cinderella retelling, with a fun twist on the saint/slut narrative. Instead of the wicked stepmother and stepsisters, we get a ‘mistress’ Ariella (around the same age as Cinders, and it’s hinted they were raised together), and the Cinderella character. Some good twists in this one, and a number of good trope-turning changes. The romance was also very palpable, although the writing could have been tightened.
 
Shattered Glass by Lina Langley
This is one of the better written (and longer) shorts in the anthology, although I am not familiar with the fairy tale it draws from. M/M (cis). It didn’t capture my attention like some of the others, but it was a very smooth read.
 
Finding Aurora by Rebecca Langham
F/F, asexual (cis) Sleeping Beauty. Talia, a master spell caster, must accompany Prince Amir on a quest to find and wake Aurora Rose, and her kingdom, else he will be disinherited. Spirits, goblins, dragons, and magic pop up everywhere in this well-paced, well-written short that would have been far better served at the start of the book than at the end. Bonus–no damsels in distress in this short, and Aurora is just as much a hero as is our master caster.
 
Master Thief by Sita Bethel
M/M, but a fairy tale I don’t recognize. Tyv is one of three brothers who sets off to find his fortune, He falls in with a group of thieves, who teach him the way of things. Although this story was well written, I failed to connect with Tyv and found him arrogant and unlikable. This is the first short in the series to have erotic content, however, so if you’re reading for a sex scene, this is where you’ll want to start.
 
The True Love Curse by Tray Ellis
F/F, M/M,aro/ace (cis) fairy tale mashup (I think). This one is definitely my favorite. Smoothly written, intricate, and all the right fairy tale elements blended together to make a really enjoyable tale. The romance is brief but strong, the characters rounded, and just enough trope boxes checked to make this comfortable, but not silly.