Love and Decay Volume 5 (Episodes 9-12, Season 2) by Rachel Higginson

Synopsis:
Zombies- as if that wasn’t enough to ruin any girl’s dream of a happily ever after.

Reagan and friends have to make a critical decision. Will they abandon the storage facility and head for a safer settlement? Or will they return to the compound and rescue it from the Colony’s hold?

Once the decision is made, Reagan and friends find themselves in more danger than ever before. Matthias Allen won’t just let them go, especially with Tyler and Miller in toe. And then there’s the feelings Reagan has developed for Kane. Plus, the ever present threat of a Zombie attack.

It seems everything is working against them to tear them apart and put them in the ground. Friendships are strained, lives are threatened and love is put to the ultimate test.

Love and Decay, Volume Five, is a compilation of Episodes Nine through Twelve in Season Two of Love and Decay. It is a Dystopian Romance Novella Series about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with.

Find it on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22821239-love-and-decay-vol-five
Order it on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1MGcT7l

My Review:
3.5 stars — The volume started off with a bit more bang, and really had me feeling all the emotions.  But I don’t know…I just started losing interest and had to fight with myself over the whole Kane stuff, and somewhere along the way I lost my way.  I just wasn’t as sucked into the storyline…  Now that could totally be a me thing.  I honestly can’t tell.  All I know is that while I had moments of great feels, I just felt like the episodes were missing something for me.  I know part of that is that Reagan goes through so much and I couldn’t always empathize with her….and if I can’t vibe with the characters, then I’m just not going to enjoy myself as much.  And because there was so much bad happening, I missed the lightness that the other characters can sometimes bring to the plot.  The episodes became very Reagan-centric, and I missed the Parker family, and Haley, and even Tyler and Miller.  So yeah.  🙁  Trust me when I say that I’m very upset about this.  I love this author, but the story just went in a direction that didn’t appeal to me personally.

Episode 9:
4 stars — And we’re on the home stretch for this season!! I found this to be a very emotionally charged episode right from the start. Reagan put me through all the feels from her dream, to dealing with the reality of her and Hendrix, and the emotions surrounding Page. And even though I’m having a hard time always understanding Reagan and how she feels, I felt all of THOSE emotions clear as day. She had me even crying for a bit. Now her Kane feelings? I don’t know. I’m still a bit lost on all of that. Again, not that I don’t see bits of goodness and dimension in Kane, but I just don’t buy her “other” feelings for him. I don’t see the chemistry, or get the tummy butterflies that way. Maybe it’s because she spends so much time thinking about how she would never choose him, that I end up agreeing with her (even if she’s only trying to convince herself). Gonna be interesting to see where it goes, even though I do know a spoiler or two for the end of this season….I still don’t know how it’s all going to play out.

Episode 10:
3 stars — This is bringing back apathetic Lenore. I don’t like who Reagan becomes when she’s with Kane. I didn’t like Kane’s love is selfish speech. I thought that was kind of horrific and scary. I know she’s all broken up with Hendrix (which seems for the best frankly), but the stuff before they broke up just pushed my cheater buttons, so I feel like I can’t trust the feelings I thought she had for Hendrix before. Which maybe that works that way for some people, but I guess I can’t vibe since I’ve never had conflicting feelings of love. I don’t know why, but I can’t even *force* myself to be into this new relationship. I got absolutely zero butterflies reading it. It was like watching a car wreck for me. That sounds harsh, but just relaying my feelings. I was so out of sorts from the whole make out scene that I wasn’t even really that invested in the final scene of the episode. Which makes me feel really bad, b/c thinking back on it, it was a very powerful scene. But I didn’t even cry. So I’m left feeling really lost. I’ll keep reading, of course, b/c this is one of my favourite authors. But I’m just feeling sad b/c I’m really not enjoying myself as much as I thought I would. Maybe I just don’t have the right mindset for this kind of story….

Episode 11:
3.5 stars — The first half of this episode was the same as the past few have been for Lenore….just a big ole ball of confusion. I’m still not feeling it. At this point I’m starting to think it’s me.

And then there was the second half that had me bawling like I should have done for the last episode. Not that I’m surprised I was bawling, I do have a heart somewhere in here.

So not sure where this will go from here. I was prepared for this episode, but it still hurt, regardless of what other feelings I have. And I’m starting to wonder if I’m tainted by the things I know….b/c there are fewer surprises and I’m not as invested in certain things as I should be because I know what comes to pass. So my advice is to do everything in your power not to learn spoilers….even though that’s not always that easy.

Episode 12:
3.5 stars — Solid finale, lots of action and suspense, and some crazy turns of events. At the same time, I didn’t feel things as deeply as I expected to. I expected more fallout from Page, but that just kind of got swept to the side at the end. We’ll see, it could be that some of that will be addressed in the next season…but maybe not. So yeah….solid finale, but not groundbreaking for me.