Review: Aliens, flesh eating zombies and teenagers, oh my
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 9, 2012
In a world taken over by a deadly virus known as Nero Disease which turns people into flesh eaters, there are pockets of uninfected people living in isolated areas. One such group lives on the Isle of Smythe in England.  Smythe is not a democracy; there is a council to make the laws and the military to enforce them.  Everyone is expected to pull their own weight, man, woman or child; it makes no difference.  Sixteen year old Wisteria Kuti is a tracker, along with her mother Lara and her partner, Lt. Andrew McDowell, her job is to go outside the walls of Smythe and into the deserted town of Norton to track, count and "cure" biters (as the infected are called) if necessary.  On one such mission, Wisteria ends up getting separated from her mother and Andrew and cornered by biters. Thinking she is going to die, she tries to fight but she's lost her gun and only has her sword. All seems hopeless and Wisteria is sure she is going to die.  Out of nowhere, a teenage boy comes to her rescue. She passes out and wakes up surrounded by luxury in a beautiful penthouse in London.  Her rescuer, Bach, lives here with his steward, Felip, and his best friend, Enric. Soon Wisteria will find that Bach and company are not normal teenage boys.  Circumstances soon change for the worse, and Wisteria and Bach find themselves on the run.  Without the help of Bach's friends or Wisteria's family, Bach and Wisteria will learn to rely on each other as they face biters, cannibals, and a mysterious paramilitary unit known as Red Phoenix.  Wisteria learns that no one can be trusted. Things are not as they seem on the Isle of Smythe, and even though she knows she has never met him before there seems to be some strange connection to Bach.Ms. Leyton drops the reader into a world gone mad where people live in fear of becoming infected, everything is rationed, and there seems to be no hope for mankind.  This is a gritty, dark world, where there is very little beauty and children grow up much too soon. We see it through both Wisteria and Bach's eyes, each with a different view, yet both strangely connected to each other.In some ways Wisteria is your typical teenager. She goes to school every day, she has a crush on the popular boy, and is picked on by the popular girls.  She also is one of the few who have been off the Isle of Smythe. She carries a sword and she knows how to use it.  Poor child was obviously having hormone issues since one minute she was thinking Bach was all that, and the next she was mad as a wet hen at him.  And speaking of Bach, slight spoiler alert here, he is not of this plane, which might excuse his less than pleasant personality.  He redeemed himself every once in a while, but he certainly put Wisteria through the wringer more than once.There are a number of secondary characters who round out the cast.  From Bach's life there is Enric and his Thayn, Piper, who is a sort of human servant that has basically had her brain reprogrammed to live to serve her master.  Bach's manservant is Felip, who is part human and takes care of Bach and Enric.  Neither Enric nor Felip come across as likeable, but of the two, Felip was the more likeable.  Bach and Wisteria meet up with a young teenage boy named Garfield who ends up helping them out of a tight spot and who from time to time provides us with some comic relief.  Back home on the Isle of Smythe, we see a good bit of Wistera's mother, Lara and occasionally get glimpses of her brother along with the kids from school and the head of the military, Major Coles pops in and out.Now the good, the bad and the ugly.  The ugly - There are some scenes that are a little disturbing and quite a bit of violence, normally I would say this is no problem given the story line but some are pretty graphic for a YA book.  There were times when they were with Garfield's people that I had to "look away".  The bad - the world that Ms. Leyton built for Bach and company is a little complicated; I never did truly get a handle on it.  The good - at its core this book has a good story and for the most part, kept me interested.  I think the book could have used another pass with a good editor but for a first book, Ms. Leyton has done well.Member of the Paranormal Romance Guild Review Team