Savage
Jade C. Jamison
Nina Hardwick has had a rough life since leaving high school, but inside she is still the girl looking for a silver lining. The past several years have left their toll on her psyche, and just as she feels like she’s climbing out of a deep abyss, her life and the lives of millions of others fall into shambles as a virus overtakes the country and leaves a plague of undead armies scouring the land.
In a desperate attempt to get away from the infected, Nina and some neighbors speed out of town, nearly killing a man on a motorcycle. When they stop to rescue him, Nina realizes that he is the one man from her past she never got over, the guy who should have been her high school sweetheart until she messed it up. But this unrequited love, Kevin Savage, says he doesn’t even remember her. Or does he?
Nina, Kevin, and her neighbors head to the wilderness and fight to survive not only the plague but also hunger, cold, their inner demons…and even each other. Will they survive and, more importantly, will her heart?
I’m a fan of zombie books and movies as well as a fan of Jade C. Jamison. So, when I saw this book coming out, I was very excited. I was a little hesitant at first because the characters are in their early 40s which is a little older in characters than what I usually read. However, I’m so glad I gave it a chance because it was fantastic.
Nina and Kevin knew each other back in high school but due to her Naïveté, Nina didn’t know how to reciprocate Kevin’s advances and he quickly moved on. She spent years pining over him until she met her husband in college. Flash forward 30 years and the zombie apocalypse is happening. People are contracting a virus dubbed the “zombie virus” and it’s spreading quickly. When Nina’s neighbors agree to help her go see if her aunt is okay, they (literally) run into Kevin on his way out of town. Since his bike is messed up, he has no choice but to join them. They soon become allies in their fight for survival and a lost high school connection becomes rekindled. These two really compliment each other well. Amidst all the danger and lingering questions, they start to get to know each other again. I really liked how their relationship developed over the story of the book and hope to see more if there is another book.
The story line definitely will definitely have you on the edge of your seat. I found myself constantly trying to figure out what would happen next and flying through the book so I could find out. A lot of this book is about the relationship between Nina and Kevin (many flashbacks to when they were in high school) but it also has a lot about their survival during the crisis going on. It felt like it was a little more realistic as far as what would happen if this really did happen and I like that. I hope there is a second book because there were still some loose ends and I’d love to see more Nina and Kevin. Awesome book and 5 out of 5 palm trees!!
I lay in Kevin’s arms for longer than I could calculate, staring out the window and watching as the sky grew darker. Part of me wished we could stay like this forever, in this place the world seemed to have forgotten about, away from everything bad and horrible and dark.
That might have been nice, but there was still the question of my kids…and the rest of my family. I needed to know they were all right, had to find out where they were. I didn’t know how the hell I was going to do that or when, but I needed to.
Up against my body, he felt strong where I felt weak, warm where I could only sense cold. He had become to me everything I always knew he was, and the realization that I had fallen in love with him again struck me hard. It had been an easy slide, one I hadn’t even known I was on until my feet were back on the ground.
I decided there, in his arms, that I wasn’t going to fight it.
But I also wasn’t going to acknowledge it. After our weird past as teens, I didn’t know what to expect from him in the aftermath. I only knew this moment, and I was going to cherish it, hold it tightly in my heart like I might clench a locket in my fist, and then I was going to let tomorrow bring what it would. I would leave this room with no expectations, no hope.
It was something I’d grown pretty good at over the years.
As if he could read my mind, he said, “We should probably head back.”
“Yeah, I was thinking that. I think a storm’s moving in, don’t you?” I turned around in his arms. Part of me didn’t want to. I was sad—profoundly—but felt like I shouldn’t be drowning in that emotion. I didn’t want to give away anything in my head.
His voice was soft when he said, “Yeah, I think so, so we shouldn’t screw around.”
I smiled in spite of myself. “A little late.”
He grinned too, and I imagined that he was feeling inside the same way I was but also wanted to try to put on a happy face. But he pulled me close and kissed me tenderly. He didn’t say anything, though, even after his lips left mine.
I wanted to acknowledge the significance of his earlier revelation, even though part of me was afraid to go there, so afraid of what the truth was. But I had to know. “Do you really remember me…or were you just saying that?”
Jade C. Jamison was born and raised in Colorado and has decided she likes it enough to stay forever. Jade’s day job is teaching Creative Writing, but teaching doesn’t stop her from doing a little writing herself.
Unfortunately, there’s no one genre that quite fits her writing. Her work has been labeled romance, erotica, suspense, and women’s fiction, and the latter is probably the safest and closest description. But you’ll see that her writing doesn’t quite fit any of those genres.
You’ll have to discover Jade’s writing for yourself to decide if you like it.
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