A review by amanda_
Alive by Megan D. Martin

1.0

“Even if I never fucking saw you again, Gage, I was going to spend the rest of my life trying to make myself good enough. For. You.”

Oh, how the cover tricked me once again. This seems to be happening a lot these days. I mean, look at that gorgeous cover. Maybe it's just me, but doesn't it scream hopefulness, considering behind it there's a post-apocalyptic zombie story? A relief for being alive and hoping for a new start even in the midst of chaos? No? Then maybe it's just me, and that's cool.

What Alive really is, is a story about two stubborn people who should look over their priorities. After The Crave hit humanity, 90% of it has been wiped out. We are introduced to Eve. Before The Crave she was the odd person in town. With highly religious parents she is isolated from normal life with her peers and it lead to her being bullied. But that was before. In the after, Eve has grown to rely only on herself, and after her sister gets lost, she is forced to be alone. She decides to search for Olive, but after months of searching she is on the verge to give up, ready to give herself over to the oblivion of being a zombie. Of course, a boy comes to save her: Gage. He's not just a guy, he's the only guy Eve ever loved before The Crave hit. Until he broke her heart, that is. Together - after many fights and stubbornness - they agree to go together to find Olive at the new haven: Eden.

I will give Alive props for being New Adult and not a contemporary romance. But, at the same time, it's so painfully much everything I dislike about New Adult. There's the sex centered romance, an unhealthy possessive hero, an unfavorable view on women, and a stupid heroine. I'm actually sorry to say these things, because I had high hopes for this one. As for the plot, it's dragging on and nothing actually happens. Eve and Gage just head for Eden and bump into a few obstacles, but nothing big enough to hide the slow pacing. Most of the time they're either fighting or thinking about how handsome, hot, and good looking the other is. I'm sorry, but that gets old after about five times.

So, for the romance and our characters then. As I said, Eve loved Gage in the before, but he broke her heart. Through flashbacks this is shown (one of the bigger reasons why the plot went by so slow). Let's just say Eve is the queen on holding grudges. While it's understandable she's upset, one would think after four years of living among zombies, a high school romance wouldn't be so significant. Apart from that, there's almost no chemistry between these characters. Everything they have is appealing appearances. I really couldn't care for their relationship, which is what the book is about.

He sat completely still as she took the head of his thick cock into her mouth. Nothing could have ruined this moment. Not even the disgusting gurghs [zombies] who were desperately clawing to get at them only a few feet away.

No, the romance did not do it for me. It's only about sex and little of connection. And they are both so stubborn. Gage's stubborn trying to prove Eve means so much to him, and Eve is desperate to prove he means nothing even if she kind of thinks he does. Honestly, they should both just get over themselves and move on. Also, when Gage started accusing Eve of being another guy's little bitch because she's helping said guy with his daughter and laugh at his jokes, things went downhill. And, another wonderful snippet of Gage's thoughts on a woman he used to be together with:

She didn’t have many good qualities aside from what lie between her legs, something she was always willing to give.

Yes, he's a real catch. Then we have other quotes like this thrown around:

She welcomed the feel of him pressed against her, like the weak woman she was.

There are a few more elements to this story, but the above was too prominent for me to look past. Especially the last parts. There's a subplot about Olive and what she's going through while away from Eve. However, Olive was such a horrible character it could've been skipped. Yeah, this was obviously not for me, but if you're looking for a New Adult book - despite it's clichés - in another setting than a contemporary one, you might like this.

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