Review: Highly Engaging, Great Story, Relatable Characters, Well Painted Environment.  Abrupt Cliffhanger.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 11, 2014
A Tracey Ward fan, I greatly looked forward to BATW...Book 2 in a what is planned as (so far) a 3 book novel tracing the adventures of Joss, Ryan and Trent in post-zombapoc Seattle, WA.I'm not going to venture into Spoilerland except to say that J & R's relationship continues to flower under or in spite of the the terrible world in which they occupy.  Their relationship is set out in a very realistic way to make the story work (Ward always does this well and it's a signature aspect of her zombpoc books beginning with the Quarantine series).  Initially I questioned how young adults might deny their hormones and sail around one another locked inside wistful Friend Zones, but that's just the way it rolls with Ward.  It's not particularly "real" but...oh yes, Susannah, it works as a story-telling artifice.Stars Awarded For:1. J & R's relationship and the way it is told.  At heart this is a romance, not a zombpoc survival adventure...although it is darn fine adventure yarn too.2. The adventure yarn itself. Creative and absorbing.  The Hive scenario is superbly crafted.3. Draws you in and keeps you there.  One of those very few zombpoc novels that keep you gagging for more because you care about the characters and wonder what fresh revelations lurk around the corner.  Cliche time: page turner, hard to put down.4. Great dialog and Joss Reflections - you really get inside her mind.  A keynote plus which lifts this well above par.Star Taken Off For:1. Plot holes.  Big ones.  Like Indiana Jones movie scripts they're right there but you can skip over them reasonably easily. Most readers won't go into "forensic mode", so no major grief or drama on this score.2. Editing needed more work.  I'm not a typo-huntin' freak but it was fun discover these howlers and clangers like a currents in a burger bun.3. Abrupt Cliffhanger Ending.  It's darn good one though and I understand full well why Tracey Ward is rolling this series out in Volumes.  Make no mistake you get a full clump of pages for your money (unlike some other authors using this publish-on-the-fly model)...so don't angst about it.  More for noting than anything else.4. My more mature policy is to award 5 Stars for truly stellar, top-shelf books which are near-perfect. (Fight grade inflation!) Hence a 4 Star denotes an Excellent Read with a some minor flaws.  Tracking?