Review: With Zombies by Michael F. Stewart

Assured Destruction: With Zombies by Michael F. Stewart

Published: 31st March 2014 
Genre: Young Adult / MysterySeries: Assured Destruction #3
Page Count: ?
Format: eBook
Source: Michael F Stewart via Xpresso Book Tours

Synopsis: The final book in the Assured Destruction series!

Jan Rose may already be expunged from the police department's High Tech Crime Unit. Her mother's hospitalized, and Assured Destruction's on the cusp of bankruptcy. But Jan doesn't wait on anything, she seeks out the customers who used to keep the family business afloat. That's when everything starts to go wrong.

A computer virus--aka the Zombie Worm--threatens not only her school and Shadownet, but the entire city. A skull with a chain running through its socket links a powerful gang to her former customers, and holds the secrets to why her father left and the identity of her mother's boyfriend.

To save her family and the business, Jan must determine who is friend and who is foe. And decide what type of hacker she wishes to become: Gray, white, or black. Not only her life hangs in the balance.

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon UK* / Amazon US / Smashwords / TBD / B&N / Kobo

Michael F. Stewart: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

*When purchasing through this link, I will receive a small amount, once I have enough saved up I will put it towards a giveaway.

Review of books one and two can be found here.

Review:
4 / 5 stars

So here we go, third and final book of the Assured Destruction series. Did you see that? I started and finished a series in the same year, now to tackle all the others on my list ha.

With Zombies is a strong finale to the series, which only backs up the points I've made about the other books. 

It continued to wrap up loose ends, develop characters that would have otherwise been in the shadows and provided a well told story even with Jan's unbalanced emotions.

And whilst I really enjoyed this series I do also believe it could have worked as one larger standalone. But having it as three doesn't diminish my love for it.

A lot happens within this last book and of course anything I talk about here on forth will be a spoiler for its predecessors.

With Zombies doesn't waste a moment and dives in where it left off, Jan back home, fuzzy on medicine, Mum in hospital and waiting on Jonny.

Something that I really liked about this was that things didn't just magically start getting better or easier for Janus, they got more difficult in fact and she ended up suffering rather badly for it - nothing that a few weeks in hospital couldn't solve. 

But it was there. It was real. Showing how a real person in every day life would have reacted too all the pressure Jan had been under lately.

I really liked it. Something so simple but just so right.

Whilst dealing with her own and her mum's not-so-good health, she also has to become a seller for a cure for a current zombie virus, findi out the truth about her Dad leaving, find out the secrets her Mum's current interest may have, possibly infiltrate a hacker gang and well you know, on top of all this, attend school accordingly.

Oh and find out what to do now she lost her home.

So as I said a lot happens but the best thing is, everything is tied up. 

There are sad moments and happy moments and over all a very pleasing end to the trilogy.

In my opinion, this series is definitely worth reading, especially seeing as though they're fairly short and are easy to dive in and out whilst schooling is coming to an end.

Review: Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Published: 1st May 2012 by Katherine Tegen Books
Genre: Young Adult / Dystopia
Series: Divergent #2
Page Count: 529
Format: Paperback
Source: RAK from Ciska

Synopsis: One choice can transform you—or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves—and herself—while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable—and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

Goodreads

Purchase: Amazon UK* / Amazon US / TBD* / B&N / Kobo

Veronica Roth: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Tumblr

*When purchasing through this link, I will receive a small amount, once I have enough saved up I will put it towards a giveaway.

Review: 

4 / 5 stars

I'm really happy that Ciska chose to send me this book for a RAK month shortly after it came out, and it didn't take me long to start reading it, however those that had read it warned me there was a cliffhanger so I left it until Allegiant came out.

I still don't even have a copy of Allegiant because the paperbacks aren't out yet, and of course it will need to match but I decided to go ahead and read Insurgent anyway.

For me though this book was really split in two.

The first half I enjoyed, found the pace to be fairly good and the story kept me guessing what would happen, but soon after reaching just half way the tumblr book blogs decided to break their no spoiler posting rule or didn't tag their spoilers for a funny text post floating round.

Comparing the actors of TFIOS and Insurgent and their roles and ahem certain events.

Hah. Brilliant. Thank you.

So for the last half I struggled to get through this book as I knew what happened in the third and was basically pulling a very pissed off face at the book when I was reading it.

I'm really gutted about this because I think I would have enjoyed it more if this hadn't happened or if I hadn't let the spoiler ruin my enjoyment of the book.

I did however really enjoy getting to see inside the opposing faction and the factionless, and seeing how these people tackled things.

The downside of this I do think things may have run a lot smoother if Tris would've just actually talked to Four and other people too, and realising asking for help is not a weakness.

But I guess that isn't part of Tris' character or her strong points.

I must say thought that for most of this book I felt it was a good and solid three stars, however the ending really made it for me and bumped it up to four stars because to have it explained exactly why the factions exist and why divergence is hunted for really made the story feel a lot strong and more realistic.

I look forward to the finale of the trilogy but I don't think I'll be rushing to it any time soon, thanks tumblr.

April & May Wrap Up

April & May Wrap Up
So as you can see I'm a little behind with things, I'm behind with a lot of things and I've also made another change, I've lowered my reading goal my ten because I just can't seem to get stuck in lately with reading and blogging. It is a shame because I really enjoy it but I've also found myself being a little more sociable with a few friends which is great.

Women Author Challenge
6. Bird After Bird by Leslea Tash
7. Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
Total: 7 / 20

Indie Fever Challenge
5. Bird After Bird by Leslea Tash
6. Assured Destruction by Michael F. Stewart
7. Assured Destruction: Script Kiddie by Michael F. Stewart
Total: 7 / 24

TBR Pile Challenge
N/A
Total: 4 / 24

Shelf Stacking:
Dear Killer I pre-ordered last year as it has a release date for end of 2013 but it got pushed back a lot and I'm not sure why, I'd actually forgotten about it until it arrived, Cinder I won thanks to a tumblr giveaway and A Discovery of Witches I've received for review. I'm very happy about all three of these books and even more so that I've stopped my spending and freebie lurking. Hopefully my to be read pile will start to look more manageable once the year is over.