The Eden Trilogy: Omnibus Edition Kindle Edition

I was captivated by this series after my first glimpse in The Raid. This new world novel is something unlike anything else that we have experienced in the blossom zombie novels. The concept of robots taking over at first glimpse might seem a little outlandish, but I firmly believe Keary Taylor can make anything work. She created a story that slowly introduces you into an alternate reality. One in which technology is quite literally almost the end of human kind. The only chance of survival is the very things about us that make us human, and our ability to process thought unlike computers. Taylor incorporates a suspenseful love story between Avian, West, and Eve that will keep us guessing. I personally fell in love with all three of these characters, and could find reasons for the outcome to sway either way. Eve is a power house character, and I love Taylor's ability to create her soft and hard all at the same time. This is a young woman that knows how to take you down, but she will only at the cost of those she loves. Avian and West are both wonderful men that prove time and time again the lengths at which they are willing to go to be the protector. It is almost impossible to choose, and I must add that I personally chose wrong. The conclusion was not at all what I had expected, and I love a story that can turn the tables on me. Eden is a powerful post apocalyptic story about hope and survival. There are many lows of heartache, but this is a book of progress. I am anxious to continue and see just where this story will take us.
~BookWhisperer Reviewer Jax~

Pretty fun read, although also pretty evident these were self-published. There are the standard grammar and typo errors you tend to see in self-publications which likely are fine for some people, but they really pull me out of the narrative when I have to stop and reread sentences to understand what they were supposed to have meant. I also found the style of starting a new paragraph every 1-2 sentences overly dramatic, but that is personal preference.

That said, it's a great little story with compelling (albeit not the most complex) characters. I stayed in it until the end because I always wanted to see what would happen. While it's true that it's a familiar YA world (post-apocolyptic landscape; few humans remain) the actual mechanism of human destruction was interesting and unique, which made the storyline on their attempt to reclaim the world also interesting and unique. I read some reviews that complained about the love triangle aspect - I enjoyed that element and thought it was handled well (remember folks, this is a YA read! Not a Jane Austen novel). As long as you know what you're getting yourself into with the writing, I would definitely recommend this as a fun summer read.

This is a decently well written story with an interesting twist on the standard zombie apocalypse. Its not quite 5 star material for the reasons I'll outline below but its worth a look. Id give it 3 1/2 if I could. Its better than a 3, but barely a 4.

(The long review)
The good-
For starters, the "zombies" aren't dead. They are humans with an out of control nanotech infection that turns them into an unthinking cyborg, called a Bane, in a matter of hours whos only desire is to infect others with just a touch. Banes that have been around a long time are smart, fast, and powerful. The nanites were supposed to help humanity live longer healthier lives, but of course something went terribly wrong.
Its a nice change from the typical "random virus causes everyone to either rise from the dead or get all CHUD-y" (that name comes from a bad 80s movie of the same name, a chud is basically a still living "fast zombie", stronger and faster than a human and completely feral and aggro)
I wont spoil any character development, so Im not going give any plot details until I have to.

The story is well written. Main chars do have development, and even some "flavor chars" get developed. Theres a few minor spelling errors, mostly homophones like chord (as in music) instead of cord (a thin woven rope), peaking (as in dropping LSD(?!)) instead of peeking (sneaking a glance) and so on. But they dont really distract from the book, unlike many other indie books I had to 1-star and spend an entire review talking about how the book was unreadable due to writing mechanics. So thats a plus.
The characters, for the most part, are well written and their motivations make sense, minus a few annoyances. Most of the plot is good, again minus a few annoyances in the last book, which I will outline in the "plot spoiler" section.

The bad-
For starters, theres a lot of romance. No sex descriptions - it all happens off scene with a chapter segue like "and he wrapped his arms around me as our bodies meshed together", so its not graphic. But theres a huge stupid love triangle through most of the first and second book between the heroine and two guys vying for her attention as she tries to figure out who she is (a major plot point so I wont go into more detail) Of course she chooses one eventually, and the other acts all butt hurt and does dumb dangerous unrealistic-for-the-endtimes stuff and they punch each other out a couple times like highschoolers.
I'm female, (and based on the writing style I think the author is too) but I cant stand romance novel style romance, especially in my sci fi. Chars being in love is OK, vying for affection is ok, occasional descriptions of tender moments or the char mulling over/reacting to emotions here and there, great. But not when the main char spends pages agonizing over their feelings and the men in the love triangle act like boys, theres lots of "mushy stuff", and the main love interest is like Adonis, and he and the heroine are "i cant live without you i love you so much you are my reality" mushy constantly. That bugs me.

Its still a decent read, but thats one of the main annoyances. The others are a deus ex machina and the heroine becoming an ubergod, both in the last book. And then the series ending.

*plot point spoiler alerts ahead*

First, the deus ex machina. A Bane shows up wearing a helmet, but does not attack. His face is still human. He still has all his mental faculties and can speak, which is explained away by the helmet hes wearing having some kind of anti nanite field that he built when he found he was infected. He also happens to be one of the main scientists who built the original nanite serum who conveniently knows a way to stop all the Banes permanenently using the heroine. Thats.... convienient.

Second, the heroine learns for reasons I wont go into that she has the power to control one or two Banes, command them. Then something happens and she has the power to control hundreds at a time. She can order them to suicide, freeze in place, find others of their kind and kill them, dont touch humans, serve her high tea. Whatever. So suddenly a terrifying unstoppable enemy becomes less harmless than a single average shambling zombie. Blah.

Its like the author either wrote herself into a corner or got bored and wanted to wrap the series up, not sure which.

And the ending... God! it seems the author wanted both to have the heroine die a tragic noble death and live happily ever after. So she does both. 10 days after the heroine died saving the world and is buried as her love mopes around in the now safe and Bane free world, she miraculously comes back to life and unburies herself due to a ridiculous plot twist, involving her twin sister cutting the heroine and herself sharing blood with her secretly (way earlier they learn they both were experimental prototypes for the nanites and they are the only ones who have the nanites work the way they were supposed to.) and lives happily ever after. Whhhhaaa?? It is described as "if she did this to anyone else they would turn into a Bane but since they are identical twins the nanites went to work rebuilding her body the way they were supposed to". Yet theres plenty of scenes where the heroine is injured/bleeding and is bandaged, especially before she knows what she is. Even if it took blood to blood contact for someone with the "good nanites" to infect others, all it would take is a tiny cut to touch her blood to turn someone into a Bane. Stupid.

If the author absolutely needed to have the heroine live happily ever after, I can think of a few ways just off the top of my head to make it work better than it was written... Example: she flatlines on the operating table and they sadly announce time of death after frantically trying to save her. Her sister comes up with the blood idea, and the scientists say "if your nanites enter anyone else theyd just deactivate as they recognized they were out of their host, but since youre identical twins...etc" (avoiding the "why didnt anyone bandaging her before she knew she had Bane nanites turn into a Bane" issue).The sister tries it, and for days there is no change as the heroine's love mopes around. People say he should give up.Suddenly when examining her body in an imaging machine the scientists notice active nanites. A few days later she wakes up...etc. I came up with that in 5 mins. Its still bad, but way less so.

Overall, this trilogy is decent though. Better than a lot of apocalypse/zombie books out there. Its got some major flaws, but fans of the genre will enjoy it, especially if you like romance.

I was enjoying the sci-fi. Enter new boy. Okay, it's obviously going to be a love story more than a sci-fi story. Groan. Hope it's not terrible.

Realize an existing boy is also going to be in the mix. Double groan. But maybe it won't be a crappy love triangle story all the way through...

Made it 20 chapters in and just couldn't take any more. The terribly written love triangle garbage completely overwhelmed anything else. It's hard to read a book when you're rolling your eyes every 30 seconds.