Book Blitz + Giveaway: RecruitZ by Karice Bolton

RecruitZ by Karice Bolton
Afterworld #1
Publication date: December 27th 2013
Genres: New Adult, Post-Apocalyptic

Synopsis

Scientists are the new rock stars. The infection has been contained for nearly three months, and the world is celebrating. But humans are still dying. Rebekah Taylor has seen it firsthand. Her husband was killed right in front of her by the very creatures that humans were told they no longer had to fear.

Rebekah is determined to find out who is responsible for the death of her husband and the obvious cover-up. Fueled with revenge, she begins to find answers that lead to one frightening conclusion. The apocalypse might be over, but the battles are just beginning.

 

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About the Author

 

Karice Bolton lives in the Pacific Northwest and is a writer of Young Adult and New Adult books. She loves to read anything and everything. She also enjoys baking, skiing, and spending time with her wonderful husband and two English bulldogs.

Books currently available:
*Beyond Love Series: Beyond Control (Book 1) Beyond Doubt (Book 2) Beyond Reason (Book 3) – Feb. 28th
*Afterworld Series: RecruitZ (Book 1)
*The Witch Avenue Series: Lonely Souls (Book 1), Altered Souls (Book 2), Released Souls (Book 3) Shattered Souls (Book 4)
*The Watchers Trilogy: Awakening (Book 1), Legions (Book 2), Cataclysm (Book 3), Taken Novella (Watchers Prequel)
*The Camp

Karice would love if you stopped by her blog or FB page to find out the latest news on giveaways and upcoming releases, or you can just send her an email. She loves hearing from her readers and responds as soon as she can.

Author's Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

 

Excerpt #1

 

“We can’t run. They’d totally get us before we got away,” I said, hoping he’d correct me, tell me that we had a chance.

He didn’t.

He slammed his fist into the steering wheel and looked over at me. When the outbreak happened, we never looked back. We were always on the move, running from the disease that took our families and friends. That was the key to survival. Never stay in one place. Always stay on the move. Now we had nowhere to move. I glanced over at Gavin and saw the fear in his eyes. Even with everything we’d encountered, his eyes had never held this amount of terror.

“Babe, whatever happens…”

“Knock it off,” I said.

“We have nothing to fight them with, and a horde this size needs a distraction.”

“Don’t you dare,” I hissed, shaking my head. The fear was pulsing through me at an unstoppable rate. “We didn’t live through the outbreak to die now.”

I gritted my teeth, grabbed the civilian anti-zombie kit from under my seat, unzipped it, and looked for anything inside that might help. We were instructed to drop these kits off at government collection stations. I was grateful we never got around to it.

Gavin held down the ignition and reverse buttons at the same time in a vain attempt to override the safety sensors.

“Damn it,” he muttered.

“Try rebooting the car. Turn it off and take the key out. Give it a few seconds and slip the key back in. Maybe if you pop it in reverse before the car can sense the zombies, it’ll let us reverse,” I directed.

He nodded, biting his lip, and turned off the engine allowing the moans of the horde outside to be heard. I took a deep breath and looked out my window that was now completely blocked by tattered shirts and non-oozing wounds pressed against the glass. It would only be a matter of time before they began to break through the glass. The moans turned into a chorus of humming.

“One-Mississippi-two…” Gavin’s words wrapped around me.

I prayed silently to the same God I’d prayed to many nights before. He listened then and I hoped he’d listen now.

I grabbed two knives that were in the kit and flipped the blades open, locking them in place. The anodized orange handles were larger than the actual blades. Not comforting. I handed one to Gavin.

“There’s still a Louisville Slugger on the floor behind us,” Gavin said. His brown hair was cut short. That was one of the first things he did after we were vaccinated. A haircut and a shave to celebrate our survival. He still looked young but not as young as we both did before the outbreak.

I slid toward the center console, crawling as far from the passenger window as I could get. Gavin’s breathing was heavy, and I felt the heat rolling off him as he continued to struggle with what we were facing.

I dug around in the bottom of the bag for the zombie deterrent. My hand clasped around the ADD, also known as the Audible Distraction Device, and I dropped the kit to the floor.

The car rocked back and forth as the number of beasts grew on both sides, creating a trance-like rhythm that was terrifying.

“Grab the bat,” Gavin instructed, his voice low.

Excerpt #2

“One-Mississippi-two…” Gavin’s words wrapped around me.

I prayed silently to the same God I’d prayed to many nights before. He listened then and I hoped he’d listen now.

I grabbed two knives that were in the kit and flipped the blades open, locking them in place. The anodized orange handles were larger than the actual blades. Not comforting. I handed one to Gavin.

“There’s still a Louisville Slugger on the floor behind us,” Gavin said. His brown hair was cut short. That was one of the first things he did after we were vaccinated. A haircut and a shave to celebrate our survival. He still looked young but not as young as we both did before the outbreak.

I slid toward the center console, crawling as far from the passenger window as I could get. Gavin’s breathing was heavy, and I felt the heat rolling off him as he continued to struggle with what we were facing.

I dug around in the bottom of the bag for the zombie deterrent. My hand clasped around the ADD, also known as the Audible Distraction Device, and I dropped the kit to the floor.

The car rocked back and forth as the number of beasts grew on both sides, creating a trance-like rhythm that was terrifying.

“Grab the bat,” Gavin instructed, his voice low.

I slid my hand to his knee, squeezing it hard before I reached behind us and grabbed the wooden weapon.

The challenges we faced living off the land paled in comparison to what we faced confined in this car.

Gavin turned the engine on and sunk it into reverse, only to be stalled right where we were.

“Pedestrians in minimum safe distance,” the car warned again.

“Shut up!” I shouted at the car’s inhuman voice.

An oily residue smeared against the glass all around us from their bodies touching and gliding along the surfaces. They were crawling on the hood, metal pops sounded with every dent created. Their bodies slowly snaked up the windshield as they climbed toward the roof. Their mouths opening, jaws clicking as they tasted our scent. That was all we had separating us from zombies—glass. It would be only a matter of time before they mangled the metal above us and shattered the glass around us.

“If I get out of the car, I can distract them and you can run. I need you to run,” he said slowly, his eyes locking on mine.

“No way. I’m not—”

The glass shattered, interrupting my objection. The shards of glass crumbled down the door and into Gavin’s lap. Several mismatched arms shoved their hands through the nonexistent barrier, reaching for Gavin as I let out a scream and lunged with the knife in hand.

“Don’t watch what happens, babe. Promise me you’ll look away,” his voice pleading, as he struggled against the fleshy fingers that twisted and pulled at his shirt.

Thoughts

My very first zombie book was a mess and a DNF for me. I didn't see a point in any part of the story and I couldn't see a plot whatsoever as I read it. From then on I swore off zombie novels. Until one of my favorite authors of all time (JULIEEEEE Kagawa!!) wrote a zombie novel and I thought, if someone can rid my aversion to zombies, it'd be her. And holy baloney, she did. The Blood of Eden series is now up on the pedastal with all my other favorites even though the level of romance in that series is laughable. It's her writing. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's so good.

Along the way I did come across other YA zombie novels and they've been good! Reading the synopsis for RecruitZ reminds me of all the good things I love about a good zombie story and other stories. For one the protagonist looks super badass (always major brownie points), and the plot and all sounds like a really promising dystopian.

Anyway, there's gonna be TWO giveaways below and I hope y'all enjoy it! Go read RecruitZ! It's definitely on my TBR pile, I'm just debating whether or not I should request a review copy of it. :P

 

Every blog participating in the blitz from Febuary 17th to 23rd will be giving away an ecopy of RecruitZ. So yeah, I'm giving one away too! *COOLIO* It's going to be international and the giveaway here will end 2 weeks from now on March 4th, 2014. Good luck! :))

 

 

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Grand Prize Giveaway: $10 Amazon Gift Card + a zombie kit (incl. an I heart Zombies tee and some other zombie things)

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Thank you for visiting! :))