I’d recently celebrated discovering my romance niche–dystopian romance. A Google search led me to some recommendations for Maddy Barone’s “After the Crash” series, so I plunked down the $0.00 to give it a try.
What.the.hell.
Carla survived a plane crash, but when she and another woman walk to find help they find themselves offered as prizes in a “Bride Fight” because the plane actually crashed 50 years into the future after nuclear war and meteors destroyed the planet which somehow means there are no women. So a bunch of men beat each other up to claim Carla as their wife and (yay!) a hot guy won her but (boo!) he’s a werewolf. That’s seriously like page 1, people. Page 1.
So, now poor Carla is taken back to new wolf-hubby Taye’s den, where all his other wolf friends walk around naked and eat a lot of steak. (WHERE ARE THEY GETTING THE STEAK!? THERE IS NO MENTION OF COWS!). She’s pretty scared, because it’s been max 2 days since she survived a plane crash and found out that all her loved ones are likely dead, and there are no more modern amenities, and she’s basically a slave, but the dude didn’t immediately rape her so let’s not dwell. He might be loveable. Let’s give him a chance.
Taye is super into wooing his new alpha female, so he’s prepared to give Carla some time to come around. Like, maybe a day or two. As long as she sleeps in his bed, never touches another man, and tries to come around to taking care of most of the cooking and cleaning for 100 men. He is such a super gentlewolf that it takes Carla no time at all to realize that she really won the post-apocalyptic prize with Taye. At one point, she realizes that she totally forgot to send for any help for all the people dying in the plane, but you didn’t see them walking for days in high-heeled boots (!) while carrying their purses (!) to get help, now did you?
This was blissfully short and I read it in an afternoon. I only one-star for DNFs, so the brevity earned an extra star. Rules are rules. (EDIT: No. I just can’t. It’s a one. A one that I finished. I will live with my rulebreaking shame.) I also honed my mental red pen skillz, as I ticked off edits in my head.
Anyone have any other dystopian romances to recommend? The Google did me wrong.