Wildflowers by Kylie Scott is live!
A fast-moving post-apocalyptic romance that is surprisingly light-hearted, this is an enjoyable read.
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Blurb
Don’t miss this heart pounding apocalyptic romance from New York Times bestselling author Kylie Scott!
There’s only one person Dean Wallace wants to save from the end of the world: sunshine girl from across the street. She’s always smiling. Who knows, maybe she can teach him a thing or two about how to live? But saving her against her will is harder than he expected.
Astrid Hardy doesn’t know what to think when she wakes up in her hot neighbor’s basement. He says he wants to protect her from the deadly virus threatening to collapse society. But that sounds like paranoid conspiracy theory nonsense, and losing her sh*t seems like the correct response.
As they watch the downfall of the world play out online, hear approaching gunshots, and smell smoke from nearby burning buildings, it all starts to seem horribly realistic.
With almost everyone they know dead, and law and order gone…how will they navigate this new world together?
Review
3.5 stars
A fast-moving post-apocalyptic romance that is surprisingly (and somewhat bizarrely) light-hearted, this is an enjoyable read.
Dean and Astrid are neighbours. They haven’t really interacted in the past, but they’ve noticed each other, and their relationship jumps straight into close-proximity mode when Dean kidnaps Astrid and traps her in his basement. It’s creepy, yes, but it’s done with the best of intentions as there is a wildly deadly pandemic on the loose. Dean recognises what’s coming and he takes Astrid to keep her safe, undoubtedly saving her life, even if she can’t quite see that yet.
“By your own reckoning, even in the worse-case scenario, thousands of people are going to survive this. There will be others out there for you to be friends with. Many of them like-minded, forward-thinking souls such as yourself. Companions far better suited to the task of living in the post-apocalyptic landscape that you believe our once great nation will become. And this is wonderful news, because you can open the cage door and set me free. Which is, in essence, setting yourself free from the staggering burden of the immense amount of guilt and shame you’ve placed upon yourself by doing this deeply and profoundly shitty thing to me.”
Of course, they eventually have to leave the basement, and they head off on a journey to find a safe haven for themselves to start fresh, with Astrid relying on Dean’s ex-military survival skills, and him hoping that she’ll eventually come around and fall for him as hard and he’s fallen for her.
“Here’s the thing…I have feelings for you.”
“I assume they existed in some part of you. But are we talking in the pants or the heart?”
“Both.”
“So you want to fuck me, but you also want to cuddle me and listen to me speak nonsense?”
“That honestly sounds like a perfect date to me.”
Along the way they encounter the usual post-apocalyptic fare – violence and death, the search for food and shelter, encountering survivors, and finding a way to start all over again, while avoiding the inevitable gangs and the fight for resources. I enjoyed watching them journey through it all, and even though this is a really quick read, it’s a satisfying story.
Don’t go into this book expecting a gritty post-apocalyptic drama. This is not that story. There are pockets of emotion when they reflect on their losses and see the devastation around them, but they move on from it really quickly and just get on with surviving and rebuilding, with Astrid cracking jokes the whole way. It was a little odd, but I got on board, and I enjoyed this one, though didn’t feel overly invested.
Still an entertaining read though – 3.5 stars.
An Advanced Reader copy was generously provided by the author for an honest review.
About the Author
Kylie is a New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today best-selling, Audie Award winning author. She has sold over 2,000,000 books and was voted Australian Romance Writer of the year four times by the Australian Romance Reader’s Association. Her books have been translated into sixteen different languages. She is based in Queensland, Australia; living and working on land traditionally owned by the Jagera people.
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