This is an alternate cover edition for B00VF8CLC6.
Kill or Die
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 am a big Jade fan but this book is soooo different from anything I have read of hers. I have pretty much read all the books in her library but like 4 so to say I know her writing style wouldn’t be a lie. The anxiety and tension of this book totally sneaks up on you and then BOOM you are a stressed out MESS!! This book is VERY slow but it’s very purposeful in its pace. We, the reader, are in Nina’s mind. We ARE Nina. We get to see her reasons for why she does things and why she feels the way she does. She is a very broken woman because life hasn’t always been easy and she kinda has some “what if’s” playing in her head…..alll those what ifs are about our yummy Mr. Savage……..
Nina and her neighbors end up almost running over Nina’s biggest life regret, Kevin, when trying to get to help Nina’s elderly aunt. The story is the 4 of them making due in a survival situation during the worst possible time to be in the Colorado Mountains. Yes they are homebound essentially and dealing with a few “biters” but the story is not really about the virus but the people. The story is about what people will and won’t do to survive. How people can change to go with the new world or how they break and go a little insane with the new world. I totally think that the characters in this book are actual representations of what can happen if this situation were to arise. The best of couples can fall apart and strangers can become your ally and trusted companion.
Now to all of you “I am not gonna read it because it has zombies in it”…get over it. Zombies are a minimal part of the story. PEOPLE and SURVIVAL are the point of this story. I can tell you I was messaging Jade completely freaking out at parts and then bawling at parts of the story. This book was a book I was eagerly waiting to read. I will not deny it but to say it wasn’t at all what I thought it would be isn’t a lie. I expected a different kind of a book…more action and fighting but what I got was an amazing look into the souls of people. The heart of what makes us a society of good or not good people. I feel that this book is showcasing a whole new level for Jade’s writing abilities. She can write some hot and naughty rockers we all have no doubt but this book and its main character, Nina, is just so deep and inspiring. It really knocked my socks off…..
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner.” While you’re more likely to see Jade headbanging instead of Dirty Dancing, she—like Baby—won’t be put in a corner…or a box. So even though you can’t really stick her books in one genre, you could say she mostly writes steamy Contemporary Romance—and, while you’re at it, you’ll notice in her stories that Jade freaking loves Colorado, hard music, coffee, bad words, and CHOCOLATE!!! And so do her characters.
Oh, and there’s always a glimmer of hope…because if life doesn’t have that, what’s the damn point?
