Book picks similar to
Bloody Sunrise by Gwendolyn Harper


zombies
romance
post-apocalyptic
apocalypse

Until the End of the World


Sarah Lyons Fleming - 2013
    After all, she’s been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she’s stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents’ cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too. This is difficult enough, but Cassie’s tag along ex-boyfriend and her friend’s bratty sister have a knack for making everything, even the apocalypse, more unpleasant. When the two attract a threat as deadly as the undead to their safe haven, Cassie’s forced to see how far she’ll go to protect those she loves. And it’s a lot farther than she’d anticipated. This, coupled with Adrian’s distant voice on Safe Zone Radio and, of course, the living dead, threaten to put Cassie right back into the funk she just dragged herself out of. Survival’s great and all, especially when you have leather armor, good friends and home-brewed beer, but there’s something Cassie must do besides survive: tell Adrian she still loves him. And to do that, Cassie has to find faith that she’s stronger than she thinks, she’s still a crack shot and true love never dies.

Haven


Claire Kent - 2021
    If he were in a relationship. Or if the world outside this room hadn’t fallen into violent chaos, hadn’t become a constant war we have no choice but to fight. Maybe he would take his time. Be softer. Gentler. Maybe he would smile or even laugh.Maybe I would be different too.Maybe I wouldn’t need his hungry eyes and demanding hands in the dark.But this is how we are together every time.He's not my friend or my boyfriend, but sometimes I go to his room after the sun goes down. I need to. Not for sweet words or soft kisses but because his arms, like the flickering light of that one candle, are the only things that can hold back the night.Haven is a short, steamy post-apocalyptical romance set in the near future after a global catastrophe and includes some violent content and (secondary) character death.

Afterglow


Maria Monroe - 2016
    So when a killer virus and solar storm decimate the country, she’s as prepared as possible to survive. She just needs a motorcycle to navigate the cluttered roads and meet up with her family. Creed, former Marine, is tattooed and tough. He’s scarred inside and out. Loss is no stranger to him, and he avoids getting close to anyone at all costs. When Nina tries to steal his motorcycle they have a vicious fight, but necessity and attraction force them into an uneasy alliance. They travel together through the dangerous landscape, where trouble lurks around every corner and they need each other to survive. But the biggest danger just might be falling in love. Equally as exciting as it is sexy, Afterglow contains graphic sex and some violence, so please read at your own risk. 18+ recommended.

Mercury Striking


Rebecca Zanetti - 2016
    He’s more than muscle and firepower—and in post-plague L.A., he’s her only hope. As the one woman who could cure the disease, Lynn is the single most volatile—and vulnerable—creature in this new and ruthless world. But face to face with Jax Mercury… Danger has never looked quite so delicious…

Pandemonium


Susanna Strom - 2020
    There I find myself face to face with a deadly sexy stranger.Ripper Solis, ex-Army Ranger and current enforcer for an outlaw motorcycle club, protects the people he considers his own. He’s not a nice guy. Not a man a woman turns to for support and comfort. Not the bad boy hero in the romance novels I’ve escaped into for years. Or is he?As law and order break down, and the ever-present threat of the virus looms over our heads, Ripper’s strength and resourcefulness offer an irresistible allure. Sexy and commanding, he’s everything I’ve ever wanted. Our chemistry is combustible.Will love save the day, or will the perilous new world obliterate our future?

Moonshine


Kat Bostick - 2020
    When an unexpected and inexplicable black out thrusts the world into chaos, that’s exactly how she finds herself.Clean water and food vanish as she flees Seattle in pursuit of rumored safety and power further east. The roads are stalked by stray dogs and stray men, both with growing appetites and frightening intentions. It isn’t long before they find her.Running for her life, Liv falls at the feet of an unwilling savior. With a shack, a farm, and a lifetime of survival skills, Joshua is the perfect companion for the apocalypse. If only he wanted companionship.It’s hard to earn his trust and even harder to keep it. At a glance he seems to be nothing more than an off-kilter backwoods prepper with a grudge against humanity, but the longer she looks, the more Liv begins to see the man behind the churlish words and unkempt beard.As reluctant as he is to keep her, Joshua just might need her. After all, no one survives the end of the world alone.

Willow


E.M. Raegan - 2019
     His name is Jason. He hated me. I hated him— while silently hiding how much all that hate hurt deep down inside me. But all that was before. Before everything changed. Before I woke up to gunshots and screaming and death. Now he still hates me, along with his Uncle Paulie and their club brothers. But I don’t hate him. I can’t, not after he came for me. Not after he saved me. Not now that the ravaged are here. They come at you like you’re nothing. With their feral snarls, and bloodshot eyes. Their decaying mouths salivating for a bite of you. They are hungry for life and we are their meal. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to accept it. But I can’t ignore them now that they’re everywhere. Now that the threat of them haunts us every waking moment. But with Jason standing between them and me— I can’t hate him anymore. I don’t want to. *This story ends in a cliffhanger* ***Warning. For readers 18 years and older. Contains explicit sexual situations, possible triggers, dark themes, language, and violence.***

Contagious


Emily Goodwin - 2012
    If I died, it would be over. My worst fear wasn’t of dying, it was of living. Living, while everyone around me had their flesh savagely torn from their bodies to be shoved into the festering and ever-hungry mouths of zombies. It terrified me, right down to my very core, to be alive while the rest of the world was dead." During the Second Great Depression, twenty-four year old Orissa Penwell is forced to drop out of college when she is no longer able to pay for classes. Unable to find a job, she moves in with her aunt in Indianapolis. Down on her luck, Orissa doesn’t think she can go any lower. She couldn’t be more wrong. A virus breaks out across the country, leaving the infected crazed, aggressive and very hungry. Orissa is used to only being responsible for herself. When she finds herself a reluctant leader of a group of survivors, she must make a choice: set aside her issues and help the others or go off alone in search of her own family and friends.

State of Emergency


Summer Lane - 2013
    But when an electromagnetic pulse takes down the United States, she's forced to kick into full survival mode when she gets separated from her father. Yeah. Things suck. But with the help of a handsome soldier named Chris, she just might find her dad without getting into serious trouble.Emphasis on might. Oh. And there's the matter of avoiding getting killed in a world that's quickly turned into an active war zone. It's going to change Cassidy's life.It's going to be a major pain in the butt.New Adult/Young Adult Contemporary Romantic Adventure

The Darkness We Crave


Katie May - 2018
    On the beach drinking margaritas? In the arms of a lover? How about in a shit-ass resort run by your shit-ass parents? I have always lived my life as the perfect daughter. At seventeen, I had no other option than to follow my parents' strict regiment. Did I mention that they're assholes? The world didn't decide to suddenly end. Oh no, that would be too easy. Instead, it was a series of events that led to its eventual demise. Earthquakes, tornados, and a mysterious virus that turned people into raving lunatics. Fortunately for me, I have the help of seven handsome men to combat the coming storm. Literally. Declan, an enigma from my past. Ryder, a flirty musician. Asher, the sweetest boy I had ever met and probably the only one that I don't want to kick in the balls. Tamson, shy and timid, with a past I'm aching to uncover. Ronan, my sarcastic leprechaun. Fallon, the stoic leader. And, finally, Calax (but he doesn't really matter because I kind of hate him and want him to fall on his head and die). I will have to learn to rely on these boys and myself if we're going to survive the apocalypse. This is a slow-burn reverse harem series. Warning: This book deals with sensitive issues such as abuse, rape, and suicide that some readers may find triggering. Reader discretion is advised.

Juniper Unraveling


Keri Lake - 2017
     Papa says everyone has a story that deserves to be told. Most begin years ago, after the second bomb hit, unearthing a deadly contagion that divided the population into the pure, the infected, and the Ragers. Many recount the moment we rose up from the ashes and started anew. Others tell of the day we built a wall to keep them out. For some, they’re nothing more than the vestiges left behind—a simple name carved into the knotty bark of a Juniper tree. My story begins with a boy. A mute, from the other side of the wall, known only as Six, who touched my heart in ways that words never could, and gave me the courage to face my darkest truth. Juniper Unraveling is a full-length standalone romance set in a post-apocalyptic world.

Writing on the Wall


Tracey Ward - 2013
    Since Joss watched her parents die at the hands of a nightmare, a nightmare that stalks her even now, all these years later. That's the problem with the Risen - they refuse to die.But Joss is a survivor. A loner living in the post-apocalyptic streets of Seattle. It's a world dictated by Risen and the looming threat of the Colonists, a group of fellow survivors living comfortably in their compounds and patrolling the wild, looking to "save" the orphans of the end.Orphans like Joss.Like Ryan.As a member of an all male gang, Ryan is a threat as real as the Risen, a threat Joss avoids at all costs. Then one night their paths cross and Joss makes a choice that goes against all of her instincts. A choice that will threaten everything she has.Now a new outbreak is imminent and the Colonists are closing in. Joss' solitary, secret world will be blown wide open and the comfortable numbness she's lived in for the last six years will burn away leaving her aching and afraid.And awake.

100 Days in Deadland


Rachel Aukes - 2013
    In its place rose a new species: vicious, gruesome, wandering monsters with an insatiable hunger for the living. There is no government, no shelter.Still in her twenties, Cash has watched her friends die, only to walk again. An office worker with few survival skills, she joins up with Clutch, a grizzled Army veteran with PTSD. Together, they flee the city and struggle through the nine circles of hell, with nothing but Clutch’s military experience and Cash’s determination to live. As they fight to survive in the zombie inferno, they quickly discover that nowhere is safe from the undead… or the living.This is the beginning after the end.(100 Days in Deadland is a modern remake of Dante's Inferno, the classic tale on the horrors of hell... zombie apocalypse style!)

Nightfall


Ellen Connor - 2011
    Growing up with an unstable, often absent father who preached about the end of the world, Jenna never thought in her wildest nightmares that his predictions would come true. Or that he would have a plan in place to save her-one that includes the strong, stoic man who kidnaps and takes her to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest.The mysterious ex-Marine named Mason owes a life-debt to Jenna's father. Skilled and steadfast, he's ready for the prophesied Change, but Jenna proves tough to convince. Until the power grid collapses and mutant dogs attack-vicious things that reek of nature gone wrong.When five strangers appear, desperate to escape the bloodthirsty packs, Jenna defies her protector and rescues them. As technology fails and the old world falls away, Jenna changes too, forever altered by supernatural forces. To fight for their future, she and Mason must learn to trust their instinctive passion-a flame that will see them through the bitter winter, the endless nights, and the violence of a new Dark Age.

Broken World


Kate L. Mary - 2014
    Then her car breaks down and she’s faced with a choice. Give up, or accept a ride from redneck brothers, Angus and Axl. Vivian knows the offer has more to do with her double D’s than kindness, but she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to reach her daughter.The virus is spreading, and by the time the group makes it to California, most of the population has been wiped out. When the dead start coming back, Vivian and the others realize that no electricity or running water are the least of their concerns. Now Vivian has to figure out how to be a mother under the most frightening circumstances, cope with Angus’s aggressive mood swings, and sort out her growing attraction to his brooding younger brother, Axl. While searching for a safe place to go, they pick up a pompous billionaire who may be the answer to all their problems. Trusting him means going into the middle of the Mojave Desert and possibly risking their lives, but with the streets overrun and nowhere else to turn, it seems he might be their only chance for survival.