Me on Please Remain Calm

Title: Please Remain Calm
Author: Courtney Summers
Release Date: January 20, 2015
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (Macmillan imprint)

Rhys is determined to reunite with Sloane until he discovers people who might need him more--people who offer him the closest he'll get to everything he's lost, if they can just hold on long enough. Rhys thinks he has what it takes to survive and find Sloane, but in a world overrun by the dead, there are no guarantees and the next leg of his journey will test him in unimaginable ways.

Please Remain Calm is a number of things. It's bleak and tense, harsh and brutal. It's an attempt at survival, a constant race against time and zombies. It's an exploration of how far we go and how ruined we become when we're pushed to the brink. It's primal and emotional and frightening.

Rhys wants to survive, it pushes him, it drives him. He has to get away. He doesn't want to die. And he wants Sloane to want to stay alive. But she's already part of the way there, ruined and depressed. Can he keep her alive? Can he make her want to stay alive, stay with him? But the running, the death and destruction, the zombies. It never ends. And in the end, will Rhys still have the strength to continue?

Death follows them, nipping at their heels, breathing down their necks. It is the new constant in their lives, no longer is it clean drinking water or a soft, warm bed to sleep on at night.

I'm okay with how This is Not a Test ended, even though I wasn't at the time. I can see now that it was up to Sloane to make the decision, live or die. Here, it's all up to Rhys.

(I purchased a copy of this e-book.)

Book Trailer Reveal - The Right & the Real

As a bit of early extra fun for the Canadian YA Lit event starting on the 1st, I've got something cool to show you from author Joëlle Anthony.

Joëlle's the author of two YA books. Last year, I read her debut Restoring Harmony and found it very intriguing. If you haven't read it, it's about sixteen-year-old Molly who lives on a small farming island on the BC coast in the year 2041 after massive oil shortages and a global economic collapse. She heads down to Portland to bring her grandparents back to Canada, but what should've been a short trip turns into a massive rescue mission and an encounter with more than a few shady characters.

Her new book, The Right & the Real, sounds rather compelling. Here's the description from Goodreads, and Joëlle's brand new book trailer in honour of her birthday. :) Happy birthday, Joëlle.

The Right & the Real: Kicked out for refusing to join a cult, 17-year-old Jamie must find a way to survive on her own. Jamie should have known something was off about the church of the Right and the Real from the start, especially when the Teacher claimed he wasn’t just an ordinary spiritual leader, but Jesus Christ, himself. But she was too taken by Josh, the eldest son of one of the church’s disciples, and his all-American good looks. Josh is the most popular boy at school too, and the first boy outside the drama geeks to give Jamie a second look. But getting her Dad involved in a cult was not part of the plan when she started dating Josh. Neither was her dad’s marriage to the fanatic Mira, or getting kicked out, or seeing Josh in secret because the church has deemed her persona non grata. Jamie’s life has completely fallen apart. Finding her way back won’t be easy, but when her Dad gets himself into serious trouble, will Jamie be ready to rescue him, and maybe even forgive him?