Tag Archives: Kendra Elliot

TEOTWAKI / Zombie Fic / Post Apoc. / Prepper

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On most issues, particularly social issues, I’m quite progressive. But I’m also a lover of TEOTWAKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) fiction. I read a lot of it and I reread my favorites over and over. The thing is a lot of these books are very much, well I guess you would say Republican. It’s a bunch of American Patriots getting a bunch of guns and building themselves a bunker to save themselves from the Democrat hordes. I’m being glib but you get the idea.

But there are also writers who are not that crazy-town and honestly they are amongst my favorite authors. So if you want to get in touch with your inner prepper these are 6 books that I think are quite interesting without being (too) political.

  1. A Merciful Death (by Kendra Elliot) –– set in rural Oregon, Mercy Kilpatrick is an FBI Agent who comes from a family of preppers and she’s one too.
  2. Mordacious (by Sarah Lyons Fleming) –– after the zombie apocalypse a group of survivors trapped in New York city do their best to deal with the undead and bandits.
  3. Love in an Undead Age (by A.M. Geever) –– set many years after the zombie apocalypse, the city council controls the vaccine while the Jesuits control the food. The Jesuits want to make the vaccine free for all.
  4. End of Summer (by S.M. Anderson) –– the only male author in this list and also the most conservative book, but it’s just so well written. A virus wipes out 96% of the world’s population. A rag tag group of soldiers, marines and civilians band together to rebuild the world.
  5. The Lucky Prepper (by Emma Zeth) –– set in England so no guns. This book owes a lot to The Day of the Triffids, the original TEOTWAKI book. There are bad guys and good guys but it’s not violent at all.
  6. The Last Hours (by Minette Walters) –– so technically this is historical fiction, it’s set in England during the plague (14th Century), but it has everything you would find in zombie fiction so I’m including it here.

I rate all of these books quite highly. I’ll just automatically buy Sarah Lyons Fleming and A.M. Geever and the audiobook comes out I’ll buy those too.

In the Pines (by Kendra Elliot)

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Romantic Suspense

An eccentric millionaire leaves a cryptic clue that alludes to a fortune hidden somewhere in Eagle’s Nest and treasure hunters have flocked to the area. Greed and desperation quickly turn to violence and murder. And adding to the town’s troubles, a woman and her young child have disappeared.

FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick and Sheriff Evan Bolton investigate the missing woman and her child while Mercy’s husband Police Chief Truman Daley tries to keep a lid on the craziness flooding his town.

Some books feel like home and there are characters that feel like family.

Harry Potter, Amber Farrell, Mercy Thompson, and anything written by Sarah Lyons Fleming are that for me.

And Mercy Kilpatrick.

It’s hard to be objective when you love a series as much as I love this one. 5 Stars.

The Silence (by Kendra Elliot)

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Romantic Suspense

A paranoid conspiracy nut is murdered outside Portland, and Detective Mason Callahan catches the case. While at his home he stumbles upon a plot blow up a government building but as the police race there a sniper starts shooting, killing and injuring multiple police officers.

With the killer seeming to taunt the police and leads thin on the ground, Ava and Mason find themselves in the killer’s sights.

The Silence is an entertaining book that bends under the weight of the unlikeliness of the plot.
Was it too much?
It probably depends on where you are coming from. If you want a police procedural that’s true to life, this isn’t your book. But if you want some entertaining romantic suspense you’ll probably love this book despite the few liberties the author takes.

Many thanks to Montlake and Netgalley for providing me with this review copy

A Merciful Promise (by Kendra Elliot)

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Romantic Suspense 

Mercy finds herself seconded to the ATF to infiltrate an anti-government militia. Intelligence suggests they have illegal firearms and explosives and plan on acting against the government.

Meanwhile her fiancé, Truman, is investigating a series of execution style murders in his town.

The Mercy Kilpatrick books are a rare pleasure for me. These are the books I wait for and when I finally get them I just want them to go on forever. A Merciful Promise is another seat of your pants adventure in a series that is yet to disappoint me.

Many thanks to Montlake Romance for providing me with this review copy.

Widow’s Island series

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Close to the Bone (by Kendra Elliot)

 

FBI Special Agent Cate Wilde is back home on a remote Pacific Northwest island recovering from a gun shot wound when she skeletal remains are discovered and she is. Together with the island’s new doctor who also happens to be the island’s  coroner she investigates a murder that happened many years ago.

A Bone to Pick (by Melinda Leigh)

 

Sheriff’s Deputy Tessa Black gave up her career as a detective with the Seattle PD and returned to Widow’s Island to care for her ailing mother who has dementia.  She thinks her life will be one of turning a blind eye to the island’s marijuana supplier and investigating petty crime. But when one of the island’s artists is gruesomely murdered she finds herself once again investigating the violence she thought she had left behind in Seattle.

Kendra Elliot and Melinda Leigh are regular collaborators.  They must have published over a dozen books in the Rogue River series and its many sequels.  Now they have put those series’ to bed and have started this series set on an archipelago loosely based on the San Juan Islands in Washington.

As with Rogue River these books are short with a page count somewhere around 100 for each of them.  That is both a strength and a weakness.  They are quick and entertaining, you could polish them off on a lazy Sunday afternoon. But that is done at the expense of story and character development which will happen over time with each new offering.

The thing that makes these books just a little bit better than the competition is likeable characters and the two authors are plainly enjoying themselves.

Many thanks to Montlake Romance and Netgalley for providing me with review copies of these books. 

Mercy Kilpatrick series (by Kendra Elliot)

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Romantic Suspense

I’m not entirely sure how to review this series. Honestly, I’m supposed to be reviewing Book #4 A Merciful Silence, but while I’m sure you could pick up book four without having read the first three I think the series is better if taken as a whole.

Mercy Kilpatrick grew up within a community of preppers.  These are the people who are preparing for TEOTWAWKI (the end of the world as we know it). They have a lot of guns, they know how to grow and can food, they are survivors.  Some of them are paranoid and honestly unhinged others are just self reliant folks who are good to have around in a pinch.

Then as a teenager she was forced to leave. Her family shunned her and she found herself having to make her own way in the world. Now after many years away she is an FBI Agent and has returned to the town she ran away from to investigate a murder.

This series is Romantic Suspense at its best. Honestly I often struggle with the genre, I find the level of violence troubling, but while this series does have that –– there is murder and violence –– the underlying story is strong and the characters make it worth the effort.

So highly recommended with the one caveat that there are occasional graphic depictions of violence. Even with that I’m rating the series 5 stars.

A review copy of A Merciful Silence (book 4) was given to me by the publisher.