The Don’ts of Zombie Hunting by Ashlynn Monroe

The Don’ts of Zombie Hunting by Ashlynn Monroe
Publisher: Changeling Press
Genre: Erotic Romance, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Contemporary
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewed by Astilbe

Coralee Bradley is the only veterinarian in the small town of Davis, Wisconsin. Everything about Davis is tranquil, except for one thing — zombies. Coralee finds herself battling for her life against the same people she called neighbors seventy-two hours earlier.

Injured, Sergeant Jordan Parks seeks refuge with an angelic redhead. When she becomes a threat to their safety there’s only one thing he can do — make love to her. One night of end-of-the-world passion will never be enough — if they survive.

Emily Bradley saved her sister’s skinny ass from zombies. She survived when almost everyone she knows is dead. Now Jordan, her sister Coralee’s apocalyptic squeeze, has led them into a situation filled with chaos and death at Fort McCoy. It’s time for Plan B, and Yankee and Thad are just what the doctor ordered.

Emily and Cora have lost their home, watched friends die, and found love. Still, they are unprepared for the decision that will change everything. Inside of them burns the salvation of humanity, if they can stay alive long enough to realize the cure.

Everyone dies, but not everyone really lives.

The end of the world as we know it doesn’t have to mean physical contact and romance are off the table, too.

Because all three of the stories included here featured the same main characters, were set in consecutive order, and were so closely connected to each other that teasing them apart would be difficult, I’m going to review them as a group.

The zombies made me shudder. This was one of those universes where things quickly spiral out of control and the characters don’t have much information about why people are coming back from the dead or how this disease began. That kept the tension levels high, and I couldn’t stop reading until I knew how everything turned out.

It would have been helpful to have a better balance between the erotic and horror elements of the storyline. There were multiple occasions where characters shared intimate moments under incredibly dangerous circumstances. It was difficult for me as a reader to understand why they kept taking those risks over and over again when they were otherwise pretty levelheaded when it came to dealing with zombies and figuring out the best way to stay one step ahead of these monsters.

The ending made me smile. I was wondering how the tension between these two genres would be resolved since horror tales often don’t end on a happy note while erotic ones almost always do. Without giving away spoilers, I thought the author did a good job of balancing the audience’s expectations in the final scene and wrapping everything up satisfactorily.

The Don’ts of Zombie Hunting was a wild ride.