Odium III by Claire C Riley (Review & Excerpt)

Title: Odium III
Series: The Dead Saga, book 3
Author: Claire C Riley
Published: March 23, 2015
Format: Ebook received for review
Pages: 292/Amazon

In this life, nothing is simple…not even DEATH

In the third instalment of the Odium series, having distanced herself from Mikey, Nina is on a mission. She’s seeking a woman who could be the answer to all their problems…or just another nightmare made reality.

Travelling alongside Nova, the two women are faced with countless threats and inexplicable circumstances…just another day in the land of the dead.

But Nina is changing, feeling the strain of this life, and beginning to rethink the choices she’s made and the woman she’s become. New allies will be forged on this road of self-discovery, bonds will be broken, and old enemies will resurface. Nina will be forced to make a decision that could have devastating consequences.

However life is nothing without someone to love, or a family to love you in return. And in this new world, there is only one way to prove that love is still possible. Sacrifice.

Claire C Riley has certainly upped the ante in Odium 3.  Friends, if you are into the apocalypse, then I suggest you catch on to this series in a hurry.

Interview with Madeline Sheehan and Claire C Riley, authors of Thicker Than Blood

Thicker Than Blood

Claire C Riley

Madeline Sheehan

A true friendship never dies. 

Leisel and Evelyn lost everything. Husbands. Families. Friends. Lives that made sense. All they had left was each other, and a friendship that could withstand anything…

Even an apocalypse.

Until one fateful night, the marginal safety they’d come to rely on comes to a vicious and brutal end. With the help of Alex & Jami, both unlikely allies, Leisel and Evelyn are able to escape their shattered sanctuary only to find themselves face-to-face with a much altered, much crueler life where they have to find the way—and the will—to stay alive in a world they no longer recognize.

Traveling across a broken and infection-ridden country; the road-weary group are pitted against endless violence, improbable circumstances, and the ultimate loss.
Everything comes at a price—especially safety, the cost of which could very well strip them of the one thing they’ve tried so hard to cling to: their humanity.

Yet along with all the trials they’re forced to endure, there’s also hope in the form of love. Having loved Leisel from afar, Alex attempts to put the pieces of her fractured heart back together.

But in such a savage world, is there room for love?

In a place of nightmares-made-reality, where the living should be feared far more than the dead, an unbreakable friendship and a love amongst all odds can mean the difference between life and death.

There are friends…

And then there are Leisel and Evelyn.

A few weeks ago I reviewed zombie apocalypse horror novel, Thicker Than Blood, and it was so much more than just zombies and kicking ass.  It explored the friendship of two women that was, well, Thicker Than Blood.  It was a fantastic book, and I highly suggest you read it.  Today I have a mini interview I did with both authors, so I hope you enjoy that!!

Thicker Than Blood by Claire C Riley & Madeline Sheehan (Review)

Title: Thicker Than Blood
Series: Standalone...ish
Authors: Claire C Riley, Madeline Sheehan
Published: January 2015
Format: ebook received for review
Pages: 366/Goodreads

A true friendship never dies. 

Leisel and Evelyn lost everything. Husbands. Families. Friends. Lives that made sense. All they had left was each other, and a friendship that could withstand anything…

Even an apocalypse.

Until one fateful night, the marginal safety they’d come to rely on comes to a vicious and brutal end. With the help of Alex & Jami, both unlikely allies, Leisel and Evelyn are able to escape their shattered sanctuary only to find themselves face-to-face with a much altered, much crueler life where they have to find the way—and the will—to stay alive in a world they no longer recognize.

Traveling across a broken and infection-ridden country; the road-weary group are pitted against endless violence, improbable circumstances, and the ultimate loss.
Everything comes at a price—especially safety, the cost of which could very well strip them of the one thing they’ve tried so hard to cling to: their humanity.

Yet along with all the trials they’re forced to endure, there’s also hope in the form of love. Having loved Leisel from afar, Alex attempts to put the pieces of her fractured heart back together.

But in such a savage world, is there room for love?

In a place of nightmares-made-reality, where the living should be feared far more than the dead, an unbreakable friendship and a love amongst all odds can mean the difference between life and death.

There are friends…

And then there are Leisel and Evelyn.

Of course you knew I wanted to read this book.  I had to.  I've read both authors before, and they are fabulous - so a collaboration had to be just as fab, right?  Right.  And the book lives up to the hype.  Unfortunately, this book took me forever to read - due to my own scheduling.  It really burned me up, because I just wanted to jump right back into this world and find out what happens next!  Thicker Than Blood did a fantastic job of keeping me captivated.

Odium II by Claire C Riley - Review

Title: Odium II
Series: The Dead Saga #2
Author: Claire C Riley
Published: May 2014
Format: Ebook received for review

Fortune favours…the DEAD!

Some secrets are too horrific to ever be forgiven, and some people should never be trusted.

Tortured, starved and on the run, Nina thinks she’s faced the worst that mankind has to offer, but she’s wrong. She may have survived this long, but she’s not come out of it unscathed, and there’s worse to come.

Nina’s trusty Doc Martins are showing signs of the zombie Apocalypse, and she isn’t faring much better. With her snarky attitude guaranteed to get her in trouble, Nina needs to forgive the past, and to live once more in the present, and learn that sometimes she needs to place her trust in other people.

Because when people are faced with the end of times, they’ll do anything to survive.

Last night I finished Odium II by Claire C Riley and I loved every freaking minute!!  This book got back to Nina, and her point of view.  I really enjoyed getting the backstories of other characters in Odium Origins, but I really was happy to get back to Nina.  She is the hero, afterall. 

Odium Origins by Claire C Riley (Review)

Title: Odium Origins
Series: A Dead Saga Novella, Part One
Author: Claire C Riley
Published: December 2013
Format: Ebook received for review

When hell claws its way up from the dark depths of the earth, and the dead begin to walk again, for several people the zombie apocalypse doesn’t just mean the end of the world as they know it, it is also the beginning of a brave new life for them. For some it offers freedom, for others a deeper torment and unforgiving life than they ever thought possible.

The coward, the street rat, the hero, and the lovers, everyone has their place. What really decides their fate in this new existence, nature, or nurture? Who they become when the world goes to hell is the true decider on their own humanity, and will ultimately decide their fates.

Forever changed, they have to learn to adapt to this dangerous and dark new world before they become one of the living dead themselves.

Odium Origins is an accompaniment to the novel Odium. It contains several short stories featuring some of the characters that you loved to hate from the novel Odium.

Please note:
This novella may also be read as a standalone book.
If you choose to read it as part of the Odium experience, you can read it before or after reading Odium.

Not too long ago I read Odium by Claire C Riley, and I loved it. Of course, you can get that review link below. Now recently I read Odium: Origins, which is kind of like a prequel, but like most fans, I read it second – and I’m glad I did. Reading Odium first let me focus on Nina, and be angry with the rest of the characters like I wanted. I felt no sympathy for them.

Then comes Odium: Origins. We get the back story on Crunch, Duncan, and JD. OMG. Yes, OMG.

Hey! I got to chat with Claire C Riley, and you can check out what was said!

Claire C Riley

author of Odium

It's better to die by the gun than die by the dead.

Nina’s life was irrevocably changed when humanity’s dead began to rise. 
Now, she lives behind the walls.

The barricaded cities, erected by the government to protect the remnants of civilization, have become a brutal dictatorship- causing the inhabitants within to starve, steal and claw for survival. Life behind the walls has become as terrifying as roaming the zombie-ridden landscape beyond.

Citizens trade what they can to gain food, water, and shelter. Nina has only one currency—her body and she is tired of submitting herself to the greedy hands of the self-proclaimed leaders.

An opportunity to escape presents itself in the fate of a young girl named Emily-Rose. For the price of a stale piece of bread, she is set for banishment from the city, and most likely a horrific death at the hands of the deaders. Nina tells herself that it is sympathy and not self-preservation that makes her follow the young girl out of the walled metropolis, and into the overgrown world beyond.

Unused to fighting the deaders, Nina tries to scrounge for her survival and against her better judgment, begins to care for Emily-Rose. However, when you have a bread-stealing liability providing your only back up, survival seems even tougher. Nina is forced to fight for their lives, and with every zombie slain, she becomes fiercer, faster – a grim reaper with her not-so-sharp butcher’s knife.

Along the path to a safe-haven that might not exist, Nina and Emily-Rose meet Mikey who introduces them to a new life they could not imagine, a life above the ground. However, this new world brings new dangers, and darker shadows than she knew.

Nina finds out that the deaders aren’t the only thing to fear beyond the wall.

And that fear will not be ignored, or Forgotten

So just a short while ago, I read Odium.  You can find the link to that review below.  Anyways - I loved it!  And after I read it, I got the chance to interview the author, Claire C Riley.  Today I have that interview for you! I hope you enjoy it, and if you are into zombies - you definitely need to pick up Odium!  I'm about to read the rest of the series, and I can't wait!

The End Is Here with Odium by Claire C Riley!

Title: Odium
Series: yep... but the name?  I think it's Odium
Author: Claire C Riley
Published: Sept 2013
Format: Ebook provided for review

It's better to die by the gun than die by the dead.

Nina’s life was irrevocably changed when humanity’s dead began to rise.

Now, she lives behind the walls.

The barricaded cities, erected by the government to protect the remnants of civilization, have become a brutal dictatorship- causing the inhabitants within to starve, steal and claw for survival. Life behind the walls has become as terrifying as roaming the zombie-ridden landscape beyond.

Citizens trade what they can to gain food, water, and shelter. Nina has only one currency—her body and she is tired of submitting herself to the greedy hands of the self-proclaimed leaders.

An opportunity to escape presents itself in the fate of a young girl named Emily-Rose. For the price of a stale piece of bread, she is set for banishment from the city, and most likely a horrific death at the hands of the deaders. Nina tells herself that it is sympathy and not self-preservation that makes her follow the young girl out of the walled metropolis, and into the overgrown world beyond.

Unused to fighting the deaders, Nina tries to scrounge for her survival and against her better judgment, begins to care for Emily-Rose. However, when you have a bread-stealing liability providing your only back up, survival seems even tougher. Nina is forced to fight for their lives, and with every zombie slain, she becomes fiercer, faster – a grim reaper with her not-so-sharp butcher’s knife.

Along the path to a safe-haven that might not exist, Nina and Emily-Rose meet Mikey who introduces them to a new life they could not imagine, a life above the ground. However, this new world brings new dangers, and darker shadows than she knew.

Nina finds out that the deaders aren’t the only thing to fear beyond the wall.

And that fear will not be ignored, or Forgotten.

Yay zombies!  Ok, well, no, that would suck (not!) and we would all be in trouble (not me...ok, maybe me).  But either way, I love reading about them!  I've heard awesome things about Odium, and I couldn't wait to read it.  But first - I had to look up what Odium freaking meant!!  Odium: general or widespread hatred or disgust directed toward someone as a result of their actions. Oooh, Ok - I get it!  Especially after reading this book!