*This title will be released on January 24, 2012*

Title: Horizon Author: Sophie Littlefield Series: Aftertime #3 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Post-Apocalyptic, Urban Fantasy Excerpt: Yes Source: Netgalley Reviewed by: Abigail Paperback: 400 pages Publisher: Luna; Original edition (January 24, 2012) ISBN-10: 0373803427 ISBN-13: 978-0373803422 Sexual Content: References to sex. A scene of sensuality. References to child molestation Rating: Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.

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**This title will be released on July 19, 2011*

Title: Rebirth Author: Sophie Littlefield Series: Aftertime #2 Cover Art: N/A Genre: Urban Fantasy/Dystopian Excerpt: No Source: Netgalley Reviewed by: Abigail Paperback: 384 pages Publisher: Luna; Original edition (July 19, 2011) ISBN-10: 0373803397 ISBN-13: 978-0373803392 Sexual Content: A couple sex scenes. Attempted rape. References to gang rape and torture. Rating: Near Perfect - Buy two copies: one for you and one for a friend.

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Description

The end of the world was just the beginning

Civilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. But Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back—she and Ruthie will be happy.

Yet with the first winter, Cass is reminded that happiness is fleeting in Aftertime. Ruthie retreats into silence.

Flesh—eating Beaters still dominate the landscape. And Smoke, Cass's lover and strength, departs on a quest for vengeance, one that may end him even if he returns.

The survivalist community Cass has planted roots in is breaking apart, too. Its leader, Dor, implores Cass to help him recover his own lost daughter, taken by the totalitarian Rebuilders. And soon Cass finds herself thrust into the dark heart of an organization promising humanity's rebirth—at all costs.

Bound to two men blazing divergent paths across a savage land, Cass must overcome the darkness in her wounded heart, or lose those she loves forever.

Review

REBIRTH is part The Walking Dead, part The Road, and part something totally new and engrossing.  AFTERTIME threw us into a chaotic post apocalyptic world along with Cass and let us experience the first horrors that eventually destroyed life as we know it.  As the title suggests, REBIRTH is a new beginning both for Cass and those who survived the zombie apocalypse, a beautiful and baleful story of horror and hope.

Like every good dystopian book, there is plenty in REBIRTH that will incite.  We met the Rebuilders briefly in AFTERTIME, but in REBIRTH, we are fully immersed into the totalitarian regime that is forcibly seizing control of the new world.  The evils unearthed within their command center are sobering and shocking.  Littlefield writes so expressively, so vividly, that she wrings every drop of rage possible out of her readers.  And just when you think the situation can’t get any worse, that the depths of human depravity have been well and truly plumbed, there is something far worse to come.

Despite those heavy scenes, which are prevalent, it’s the characters that make them bearable.  More than bearable.  The Aftertime world is meant to be terrible, but the characters, the relationships, they are what make it worth fighting for.  They make every small victory into a triumph that fuels all our hope.  It’s an amazingly well balanced thing and one that Littlefield excels at. 

Equally well written are the characters.  Cass is a woman driven by compulsions.  Before, it was her addictions.  Aftertime, it was reclaiming her daughter.  In REBIRTH, she is once again seeking to rescue someone she loves and carve out whatever possible future this world can offer.  90% of REBIRTH is told from Cass’s POV, but there are a few chapters each given to Dor and his daughter Sammy, both of which added a new level of perception to Aftertime that Cass alone couldn’t.  Given the way REBIRTH ends, I wouldn’t be surprised if additional POVs make it into the next book. 

You need to read this book.  You will be disturbed, you will be compelled, and you will not be the same.  I died a tiny bit when I read the last page and found out that the next book in the Aftertime series, called HORIZON, won’t be published until February 2012.  That’s a long time to wait for something so good.  Check out the book trailer for a peek at the cover.

Previous Books in Series	Also Reviewed By:
#1 Aftertime – 5/5 #1.5 Survivors	Offbeat Vagabond - 5/5 A Book Obsession... – 5/5 birth of a new witch – 3/5