Saturday, October 19, 2013

BOOK REVIEW...Red Hill by Jamie McGuire

Title:  Red Hill
Author:  Jamie McGuire
Publication Date: October 1st 2013 by Simon & Schuster
Goodreads URL: HERE
Plot:  When the world ends, can love survive?

For Scarlet, raising her two daughters alone makes fighting for tomorrow an everyday battle. Nathan has a wife, but can’t remember what it’s like to be in love; only his young daughter Zoe makes coming home worthwhile. Miranda’s biggest concern is whether her new VW Bug is big enough to carry her sister and their boyfriends on a weekend escape from college finals.

When reports of a widespread, deadly “outbreak” begin to surface, these ordinary people face extraordinary circumstances and suddenly their fates are intertwined. Recognizing they can’t outrun the danger, Scarlet, Nathan, and Miranda desperately seek shelter at the same secluded ranch, Red Hill. Emotions run high while old and new relationships are tested in the face of a terrifying enemy—an enemy who no longer remembers what it’s like to be human.

Set against the backdrop of a brilliantly realized apocalyptic world, love somehow finds a way to survive. But what happens when the one you’d die for becomes the one who could destroy you?

Red Hill grabs you from page one and doesn’t let go until its stunning conclusion. This is #1 New York Times bestselling author Jamie McGuire at her unforgettable best.

MY REVIEW:

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"We were surviving, but every passing day felt less like living."

The good: Heart stopping and emotionally gripping! The plot was solid, the pace was “just right”, and the characters packed a whole lot of heart and realism! ♥

The bad: Certain characters I grew to love didn’t make it. But other than that, no constructive criticism to give. My thoughts: Before reading this, I was extremely weary and skeptical about Jamie McGuire venturing into zombieland. As a self-proclaimed Jamie McGuire fangirl and a zombie lover (*hey, I love the tv show “The Walking Dead” and the movie “World War Z”) I was like….errr???..zombies?!?!


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  But, boy am I glad that I did take a chance on it!!


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In Red Hill, you will be thrown into three simultaneously story lines going on at once that in the end correlate to one another. At times, I found myself going “OMG, it was HIM!”, “Why did he/she die?”, and “Oh, so he did live!”. No, the book’s focus is not romance nor is there a zombie or some sort of paranormal romance. It’s just a group of humans finding each other in the tryst of chaos and some of them finding love/companionship in one another.

But anyway, moving on...

During the course of the story, I particularly found myself taken with Scarlet, the single mother of two young girls. While there are other notable characters, she stood out the most to me. Scarlet’s strength and will to survive ran bone deep. Of course though, basically all of it centered on reuniting with her daughters but her instincts and reactions were so honest and realistic. At one point, she kind of goes crazy but in all honesty, every responsible mother with a heart would do the same if she were in Scarlet shoes.

“The doctor’s ranch was the perfect place to survive the end of the world. But it wasn’t surviving unless my girls were there with me. So I watched the road, sometimes looking so hard I could almost see them.”

At the ending of the story, my heart soared and broke for Scarlet since she received her happy ending.

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 For others though, lives were lost, hearts were broken, but all in all in the end…

“At Red Hill, we made our own destiny; raising our children in the safest way we could, and protecting each other in a world made of nightmares and uncertainty. The eight of us had carved a place there, and we were more than surviving. We were living.”

Trust me, this is a worth read! I cannot emphasize this enough. It was so well-balanced and interconnected that I “tripped out” a couple of times. A+ Ms. MsGuire!!


My Rating:

-Overall : 9
-Plot : 8.5
-Writing : 9
-Characters : 9
-Cover : 8


Where to get your copy!:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble

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