Zombie Friday — Love & Decay Season 1: Episodes 1 & 2

Posted June 25, 2021 by lenoreo in Buddy Read, Summer of Love 2021, Zombie Friday / 0 Comments

Welcome to Zombie Friday! Currently this is a part of the Summer of Love Celebration being hosted by myself, Lillian from Mom With a Reading Problem and Stephanie from Once Upon a Chapter, but I have a feeling it will extend beyond that. At the moment it’s a way to give ourselves a break from contemporary romance reading, while helping me reread and FINALLY FINISH this series! Every other Friday we’ll be sharing discussions for a couple of the episodes. I wouldn’t call them reviews, I would definitely call them discussions. And here is where I want to triple warn you that as the weeks go on, there will be potential spoilers for the episodes. So I recommend reading them first, and then coming back to see what we thought and comment with your own takeaways — we’d love to hear what you think!

Title: Love and Decay Omnibus: Season One
Author: Rachel Higginson
Published by: Indie
Release Date: April 27, 2014
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 601
Genres: Dystopian, Romance
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon

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

Reagan said goodbye to love when she was forced to run her high school boyfriend over with her mom’s car just to keep him from eating her for dinner. Now, two years later, and in need of a serious shower, she’s just over the entire concept of a soul mate- or really, any kind of mate.

Well, mostly anyway. When she runs- literally- into a group of boys holed up in a relative utopia of peanut butter and bottled water, maybe all hope in the love department is not lost.

But at the end of the world, nothing can be simple. And with a never-ending supply of Zombies, militia, a psycho-stalker and a cult-like community after her, Reagan is going to have to schedule falling in love between hunting and surviving. Hopefully she can last long enough find out if true love can still exist when everything else has started to fall apart.

Love and Decay, Season One Omnibus is the first twelve novellas in a Dystopian Romance about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with.

Episode 1 Discussion

Stephanie: I have to say I really did love the first episode. I’m glad we’re reading them.

Lenore: So so far so good with L&D? I love it when I reread something and I’m just as excited about what’s happening. There is a Hendrix POV of this episode, but I recommend not reading it until we get to know the Parkers more.
2

Lenore: Reagan and Haley are #friendshipgoals for me. Both so sassy and smart and fierce in their own ways.
2

Lillian: Oh my goodness I am loving L&D. Those first few paragraphs I knew I’d love it. The sass and snark are right up my alley I love Reagan and Haley’s friendship. I will admit I caught myself holding my breath a few times. I wasn’t sure they’d all make it out of the store. I think I’m going to love Page. I’m intrigued by Vaughn and Hendrix. I sniff a love triangle forming there with Reagan.
2

Lenore: Page is SO adorable! “Hendrix — THEY have manners!”
2

Lillian: When she said that I knew I’d like her. She’s spunky and so great.

Lenore: And I will neither deny nor confirm (cough) the love triangle.
2

Lillian: It’s kinda obvious
1

Lenore: Nelson’s such a sweetie too.
1

Lillian: I like Nelson. The other two haven’t done much yet so I’ll reserve my thoughts on them. Nelson is the one that was hitting on Haley right?

Lenore: Yuppers. The other two are pretty young (13 and 15 I think?).

Lillian: I wondered the way she described them with patchy facial hair.
1

Stephanie: I loved the snark and sass. I have a confession to make. When you guys said zombie romance….I thought you mean romance between zombies or some zombie/human mix. I LOVE the Iowa rep. Anybody else get a feeling that someone did the author dirty with herpes? That was a pretty specific reference. And she drives the point home repeatedly. I love all of the characters. I think they’re fun. I get the feeling that Nelson is used to being the peace keeper of the group. Page is ADORABLE. I was terrified they were going to lose someone during the shootout. I was not ready. I’m really looking forward to the next episode.

Lillian: The first time I read a zombie romance it was exactly what you described (Warm Bodies) and it was odd. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I looked to see when she originally wrote this and it looks like it came out around the time the HPV vaccine came out. Maybe it was in reference to that? I wondered the same though I’m game to start episode 2 when y’all are. It was all I could do to make myself stop once I started
1

Lenore: ROFL, now I feel like I should ask! She married her high school sweetheart, so I doubt it’s a personal grudge against herpes…I bet anything you’re right Lillian and her imagination took off at the possibility from a STD vaccine.
2

Lillian: Well and there was so much news about it when it first came out. Like there was a small percentage of girls who were sterile and that kind of thing. It was big news then

Lenore: Dude I don’t remember that!! But I’m terrible about being in touch with reality.

Lillian: I only remember it because I was working as a pediatric nurse at the time so we had parents asking us all kinds of questions
1

Lenore: And I’m laughing about the romance with zombies!! I saw the Warm Bodies movie, so I should have clarified. Just a post-apocalypsey type series. Love in the time of zombies (instead of cholera snort).
2

Lillian: If you liked the movie the book is good. Like super dry and snarky. Tyler liked it too
1

Lenore: I’m so glad you’re both enjoying it! I’m totes down for another episode, they’re pretty easy to fit in.

Episode 2 Discussion

Lenore: So Gary was a big ole piece of shit. Ugh, that place was so creepy.
1

Lillian: agree! The place gave me the creeps from the time he opened his mouth until they left.

Stephanie: Yeah, I did not love this episode. It was definitely creepy and made me sad that humans can still suck that way.
2

Lenore: Alas, there’s quite a bit of crappy humanity…it contrasts with the good.
1

Stephanie: Very true.

Lenore: Page continues to be absolutely adorable, and it was fun to see more of King and Harrison. I think they might be older than I initially thought, but firmly high school.

Lillian: I love Page! I love how she’s got those brothers wrapped around her fingers. Now the girls too. She gives them all hope I think and something to fight for.

Stephanie: I love Page so much! I think she was a calculated character on the author’s part. Especially with Reagan mentioning that she wants to do a version of home school. I also for whatever reason really loved the part where she whispered “cuss jar”.
2

Lenore: Especially the part where she’s confused about douchebags and Reagan’s like “yes, Haley owes $2”.
2

Lenore: I never know what to think about Hendrix at this point. He’s so freaking intense and bossy…but at least in this episode you kind of get an idea of why it’s gotten so over the top, what with his desire to keep his family safe.

Lillian: I really like Hendrix and that might just be me reading too much into him. He’s intense, but it’s from necessity. It makes me wonder what he was like before the zombies and if he witnessed something that caused him to be so intense.
1

Stephanie: Yes! Also I kept trying to make Reagan 17 and I’m pretty sure she’s 19. I kept thinking it was so weird that the author was pairing a 17 year old with a 22 year old.
2

Lenore: It’s cause she was 17 when the zombies started.
1

Stephanie: THAT’S what it was!

Lenore: I also appreciated a deeper glimpse into Vaughan. In some ways the brothers couldn’t be more different, but both motivated by love of family.
2

Lillian: That ending though I knew it was too easy for them to get away. I love that they keep going though and don’t go back. The very end is a sweet scene between her and Hendrix
1