Review: Amazing characters woven deeply into the plot. Haven ends with a major bang!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 02 15, 2014
The Breadwinner was good. But Haven, the second installment of The Breadwinner Trilogy, was excellent. Haven begins with the remaining survivors from the previous book blindly making their way by boat in hopes of finding a safe haven. Samson, Veronica, Ben, Juliet, and brothers, Andrew and Clyde wake in the morning to find they're much closer to land than they realized. As the Emerald City towers come into view, a single figure stands waving from the 24th floor balcony. Gary, a former resident of the towers now lives alone in the ritzy towers with the "eaters". There is something about Gary that never quite earns this reader's trust, and his actions feel like he always has an ulterior motive. Is Gary the goofy Englishman he portrays or is there something more sinister hiding behind the facade?Haven introduces a second group of characters and follows their experience from the morning of the outbreak. Michelle, her roommate Lulu and Lulu's cousin Zack quickly discover they are out of their league and become sitting ducks as they watch the chaos from their apartment window. Michelle is the clear leader of the group and hatches a plan to head to the mall where she and Lulu work as hairdressers where they find others who survived the ordeal.Veronica's group follows Gary's plan of going to the mall to convince the others to join forces and, as with any good zombie book, that plan goes sideways and people are lost. Kopas has penned Michelle as the perfect antagonist. The drastic contrast between her and Veronica's personalities creates a well-rounded arc. Quite often zombie tales boast raging marauders, but readers don't usually get to see and feel what spurned their actions. Haven allows readers to watch as a normal woman is driven to madness in the new world. This new reality points Michelle down a dark path to commit acts that earn her the title of sociopath. Not only must survivors contend with flesh eating zombies, but the festering descension among their own ranks they didn't see coming.Stevie Kopas' talented writing shines bright in her second release. Her ability to give readers the full view of multiple characters and dynamic story lines without drowning in long narratives makes Haven a fast and easy read. The standout winner in Haven is it's character progression. The plot is woven tightly within each character and morphs fluidly throughout the book as personalities change and the group's interactions become strained. The plot twists and character development kept the pace exciting and made it easy to keep my interest piqued to continue reading.Haven ends with such a bang that readers will scream for more. I know this because I kept trying to urge my eReader to move beyond the last page. What's to come in book 3 is strongly foreshadowed and this reader can't wait to see how it all pans out. Will anyone survive the H ell about to reign down on them? Haven has earned every bit of this five star rating, and then some.