Book picks similar to
Rain Must Fall by Deb Rotuno


romance
post-apocalyptic
horror
zombie

Panic/Shock/Psychosis/Mutation


K.R. Griffiths - 2014
    But even the most carefully laid plans can fall apart...Wildfire Chronicles is the acclaimed horror/science fiction series from K.R. Griffiths. This compilation collects book 1 to 3 in one package.Panic (#1)Michael Evans is only in rural St. Davids to maintain a low profile after his time spent as a city cop ended in disaster. The town is perfect for him: isolated. A tiny population. Virtually no crime.Until the night the strange canisters fall from the sky and the town priest starts killing people with his teeth. To Michael, the bloodbath looks like a murder case that the quiet town's two police officers can't possibly handle.But this isn't just a crime scene.And the priest is just the beginning...Shock (#1.5)The team had been told it would be a straightforward mission: enter St. Davids, now little more than a ghost town, retrieve the target and return to base.Trouble is, the target is a man named Victor, and it looks like somebody else got to him first.And St. Davids is anything but a ghost town...Psychosis (#2)Michael Evans, crippled survivor of the massacre at St. Davids, has only one goal left: to find his young daughter. And that means journeying north and discovering that during the five days he spent comatose in an underground bunker the world has changed dramatically.And worse, it's still changing.Struggling to come to terms with a world steeped in shocking violence and ever-present danger, Michael must adapt quickly to a new reality: the virus has already infected the population. But it isn't stopping there...Mutation (#3)The only thing the survivors of the catastrophe in South Wales wanted was a safe place to ride out the apocalypse. The castle looked perfect: high walls and natural defenses that even the infection could not breach.The problem was that someone had beaten them to it. Someone who would stop at nothing to maintain control.Someone with a dark secret that could change everything...

Last Another Day


Baileigh Higgins - 2016
    She escapes, only to find that the horror has spread and now threatens everything she holds dear. With each passing moment, death becomes more certain.Logan returns to his childhood home and teams up with Max, an army deserter racing against the clock to save his family. When the infection outruns them, they face the real possibility that everyone they know is already dead. Or worse, undead.All it takes is one mistake...As the sun sets against the backdrop of the African veldt and living nightmares walk the streets in the shape of their loved one's bodies, humanity's last hope rests in the hands of ordinary men and women called to do extraordinary things.

Love and Decay Omnibus: Season Two (Episodes 1-12)


Rachel Higginson - 2015
     Reagan Willow didn’t think it was possible to feel safe during the Zombie Apocalypse. She didn’t think it was possible to fall in love or find happiness either. But Hendrix Parker has changed all of that for her. Hendrix and Reagan have overcome incredible obstacles to be together and keep their loved ones safe. Through it all, they’ve had each other to rely on. But nothing is certain at the end of the world and even their unshakable love is at risk. So are their lives. Zombies are the least of their problems, as Reagan and friends fight to survive the horrors that wait for them around every corner. They will go up against the undead, a ruthless dictator and the one boy that will do anything to possess her. Love and Decay, Season Two Omnibus is a compilation of twelve novellas in a Dystopian Romance about Zombies, the end of the world and finding someone to share it with.

Love in the Time of the Dead


Tera Shanley - 2013
    But she has a secret. She's immune to Dead bites and has to find the right people to trust with the information. Her team rallies around her to find a doctor who can extract a vaccine from Laney which could fight the virus that ended the world.Sean Daniels leads a colony that provides her team with much needed shelter and supplies. He is obviously interested in Laney. The question is whether he's only intrigued by her as a source for the possible vaccine, or for something more. Tests for the cure might push her body beyond what it can endure, and just as she faces a ghost from her past, her longtime teammate Derek Mitchell hints at an interest in more than just her Dead slaying abilities.Two honorable and alluring men - one colossal decision to make. Despite historically bad taste in men, can she rise above the chaos of the apocalypse and choose the one who deserves her heart? The right choice could mean the difference between surviving...and living.

Reign of Blood


Alexia Purdy - 2012
    Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother. The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I'm just hoping to make it to the next Vegas sunrise..."In a post-apocalyptic world, a viral epidemic has wiped out most of the earth’s population, leaving behind few humans but untold numbers of mutated vampires. April is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the remains of Las Vegas one year after the outbreak. She has become a ferocious vampire killer and after her family is abducted, she goes searching for them. What she finds is a new breed of vampire, unlike any she has seen before. Unsure of whom she can trust, she discovers that her view of the world is not as black and white as she once thought, and she's willing to bend the rules to rescue her family. But in trying to save them, she may only succeed in bringing her fragile world crashing down around her.

Zombies: The Recent Dead


Paula GuranAlice Sola Kim - 2010
    Evidently, we have an enduring hunger for this infinite onslaught of the ever-hungry dead. Hoards of readers are now devouring zombie fiction faster than armies of the undead could chow down their brains. It's a sick job, but somebody had to do it: explore the innumerable necrotic nightmares of the latest, greatest, most fervent devotion in the history of humankind and ferret out the best of new millenial zombie stories: Zombies: The Recent Dead.Contents ix • Preshamble • (2010) • essay by Paula Guranxii • The Meat of the Matter • (2004) • essay by David J. Schowxxii • Deaditorial Note • (2010) • essay by Paula Guran29 • Twisted • (2009) • novelette by Kevin Veale54 • The Things He Said • (2007) • shortstory by Michael Marshall Smith64 • Naming of Parts • (2000) • novella by Tim Lebbon128 • Dating Secrets of the Dead • (2002) • shortstory by David Prill142 • Lie Still, Sleep Becalmed • (2007) • shortstory by Steve Duffy171 • The Great Wall: A Story from the Zombie War • (2007) • shortstory by Max Brooks178 • First Kisses from Beyond the Grave • (2006) • novelette by Nik Houser218 • Zora and the Zombie • (2004) • novelette by Andy Duncan239 • Obsequy • (2006) • novelette by David J. Schow267 • Deadman's Road • [Reverend Jedidiah Mercer] • (2007) • novelette by Joe R. Lansdale293 • Bitter Grounds • (2003) • novelette by Neil Gaiman334 • Glorietta • (2009) • shortfiction by Gary A. Braunbeck334 • Beautiful White Bodies • (2009) • novelette by Alice Sola Kim342 • Farewell, My Zombie • (2009) • shortfiction by Francesca Lia Block354 • Trinkets • (2001) • shortfiction by Tobias S. Buckell [as by Tobias Buckell ]362 • Dead Man's Land • (2009) • shortfiction by David Wellington378 • Disarmed and Dangerous • (2009) • novelette by Tim Waggoner395 • The Zombie Prince • (2004) • shortstory by Kit Reed409 • Three Scenes from the End of the World • (2009) • shortfiction by Brian Keene420 • The Hortlak • (2003) • novelette by Kelly Link445 • Dead to the World • (2009) • shortstory by Gary McMahon458 • The Last Supper • (2003) • shortstory by Scott Edelman

The Scourge


A.G. Henley - 2012
    She's never been able to see her lush forest home, but she knows its secrets. She knows how the shadows shift when she passes under a canopy of trees. She knows how to hide in the cool, damp caves when the Scourge comes. She knows how devious and arrogant the Groundlings' tree-dwelling neighbors, the Lofties, can be. And she's always known this day would come—the day she faces the Scourge alone. The Sightless, like Fenn, are mysteriously protected from the Scourge, the gruesome creatures roaming the forests, reeking of festering flesh and consuming anything—and anyone—living. A Sightless Groundling must brave the Scourge and bring fresh water to the people of the forest. Today, that task becomes Fenn's. Fenn will have a Lofty Keeper, Peree, as her companion. Everyone knows the Lofties wouldn’t hesitate to shoot an arrow through the back of an unsuspecting Groundling like Fenn, but Peree seems different. A boy with warm, rough hands who smells like summer, he is surprisingly kind and thoughtful. Although Fenn knows his people are treacherous, she finds herself wanting to trust him. As their forest community teeters on the brink of war, Fenn and Peree must learn to work together to survive the Scourge and ensure their people’s survival. But when Fenn uncovers a secret that shatters her truths, she’s forced to decide who and what to protect—her people, her growing love for Peree, or the elusive dream of lasting peace in the forest.

Flash Bang


Meghan March - 2014
    But vicious—and false—rumors are destroying her professional life. That all ceases to matter when a plane crashes in downtown Chicago and the entire city goes dark, and she realizes she’s just witnessed the kick-off to the apocalypse. Armed with a backpack of supplies, she leaves Chicago, intent on resetting her skewed priorities and seeking shelter at the family farm with her father and sister. She’s injured and running for her life when she stumbles directly in the crosshairs of two men who just might be her salvation . . . and her greatest temptation.

Edge of Obsession


Megan Crane - 2016
    Strong to her core and with a mission of her own, Helena knows she doesn’t have to be their captive for long.However, despite all the terrible things she’s heard about these brutal beasts, Helena is overcome by intense desire for the one ruthless man who has taken her. As their passion escalates, Helena will have to trust in Tyr in order to save both what’s left of this desolate, torn-up world…and herself.

Mortality


Kellie Sheridan - 2013
    There was no way to know that the miracle vaccine would put everyone at risk for a fate worse than un-death. Now, two very different kinds of infected walk the Earth, intent on nothing but feeding and destroying what little remains of civilization. When the inoculated are bitten, infection means watching on in silent horror as self-control disappears and the idea of feasting on loved ones becomes increasingly hard to ignore. Starving and forced to live inside of the abandoned high school, all Savannah wants is the chance to fight back. When a strange boy arrives with a plan to set everything right, she gets her chance. Meeting Cole changes everything. Mere survival will never be enough.

The Midamerica Zombie Half-Breed Experiment


Better Hero Army - 2013
    When Tom, the son of a powerful Senator, becomes stranded in the Plagued States of America while searching for his lost sister, his only hope of survival rests in the hands of a few grizzled veteran zombie hunters and a mysterious half-breed zombie woman he thinks may know where to find his sister.

Dead Haven


Flint Maxwell - 2017
    He's written about them for years. So when Jack's mother passes away in a freak car accident involving a half-eaten deer and a pack of cigarettes, he also knows something's up. Now, Jack and his fiance, Darlene, are forced to go back to the dreadful town of Woodhaven, Ohio for his mom's funeral. But what he doesn't know is it might be their funeral, too. A few months before Jack and Darlene's arrival, a mysterious flu-like virus swept through the town, infecting nearly every citizen. Now, like ticking time-bombs ready to explode, everyone is dropping dead. But they aren't staying dead. No, they're coming back as flesh-eating zombies. Not only will Jack Jupiter have to bury his mother, confront high school bullies, and save Darlene, but he'll have to fight the dead in order to stay alive. And these aren't like the zombies from his books. These walking corpses are real.

Zomblog


T.W. Brown - 2010
    ...Loving father... ...Dutiful worker... ...Aspiring rockstar. He had no idea if anyone would care, or take the time, to read his daily blog entries about his late night observations. But what started as an open monologue of his day-to-day life became a running journal of the firsthand account detailing the rising of the dead and the downfall and degradation of mankind...

Wranglestone


Darren Charlton - 2020
    But when winter comes, there's nothing to stop them from crossing the ice.Then homebody Peter puts the camp in danger by naively allowing a stranger to come ashore and he's forced to leave the community of Wranglestone. Now he must help rancher Cooper, the boy he's always watched from afar, herd the Dead from their shores before the lake freezes over.But as love blossoms, a dark discovery reveals the sanctuary's secret past. One that forces the pair to question everything they've ever known.An action-packed and thought-provoking debut, for fans of Patrick Ness, Marcus Sedgwick, DREAD NATION and The Walking Dead.

Beyond Armageddon IV: Schism


Anthony DeCosmo - 2011
    For Trevor Stone, however, what began as a straightforward battle for survival has grown into a complex campaign against both external and internal adversaries. While his forces confront a human/alien alliance, Trevor finds that his most dangerous enemy is much closer to home. Schism is the fourth installment in the five-part Beyond Armageddon series and features massive battles over the skies of California, a conspiracy that will shake the foundation of humanity's empire, and a conversation with the gods. Get Ready. Hold on. Choose your side.