Book picks similar to
Unborn: A dystopian thriller by Rachel McLean


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The Forgotten


Jacqueline Druga - 2013
    His ambitions go only as far as his next gig, until the day the earth changes. Millions vanish and a plague sweeps viciously across the globe, killing everyone infected. Three days later … they rise from the dead.Now Del and six others are all that remain. They travel city to city, looking for a safe haven while trying to rid the land of the undead. They believe they are spared for a reason, when actually they are simply forgotten. However, within their group is one individual who was not meant to be forgotten. He must be delivered to sanctuary before the undead completely consume the earth. The Special One is the key to humanity.It will take dedication and sacrifice to complete the mission. Del and the others may be forgotten, but if they succeed, the human race will never forget them.Mankind is promised life after death, it is just never explained what the ‘Resurrection’ really entails.

Escape from Eden


Elisa Nader - 2013
    In Edenton, a supposed “Garden of Eden” deep in the South American jungle, everyone follows the Reverend’s strict but arbitrary rules—even the mandate of whom they can marry. Now sixteen, Mia dreams of slipping away from the armed guards who keep the faithful in, and the curious out. When the rebellious and sexy Gabriel, a new boy, arrives with his family, Mia sees a chance to escape. But the scandalous secrets the two discover beyond the compound’s façade are more shocking than anything they ever imagined. While Gabriel has his own terrible secrets, he and Mia bond together, more than friends and freedom fighters. But is there time to think of each other as they race to stop the Reverend’s paranoid plan to free his flock from the corrupt world? Can two teenagers crush a criminal mastermind? And who will die in the fight to save the ones they love from a madman who’s only concerned about his own secrets?

The First Principle


Marissa Shrock - 2014
    Governors hold territories instead of states, and while Washington, DC, is gone, the government has more control than ever before. For fifteen-year-old Vivica Wilkins, the daughter of a governor, this is life as usual. High school seems pretty much the same--until one day, that controlling power steps right through the door during study hall.When Vivica speaks out to defend her pregnant friend against the harsh treatment of Population Management Officer Marina Ward, she has no idea she's sowing the seeds of a revolution in her own life. But it isn't long before she discovers her own illegal pregnancy. Now she has to decide whether to get the mandatory abortion--or follow her heart, try to keep the baby, and possibly ruin her mother's chances at becoming president.A rebel group called the Emancipation Warriors, who are fighting to restore freedoms once held unalienable, offer her asylum. Can Vivica trust these rebels to help her or will they bring everything crashing down around her? Accepting their help may come with consequences she isn't ready to face.Marissa Shrock's debut novel crafts a chilling story of what may be to come if we allow the economic and moral crises currently facing our country to change the foundations on which we built our independence--and of the difference one person can make when they choose to trust God's lead.

Taken


Zia Marie - 2011
    Instead of responding, I smile. I know exactly which side I'm on. Whichever one gets me the hell out of this place.* * * *All Jackson Smith wanted to do was take his little sister Aubrey to a county fair, but they ended up in the town of Wicker Farm, a place that doesn't even exist on Earth as he knows it. Run by the ambitious and diabolical Governor Richards, Wicker Farm is in the process of rebuilding following a disease that wiped out most of of the population of the state. Anyone who ends up there is expected to stay forever.With the governor's forces everywhere, escape seems impossible-- not that Jackson can even begin to figure out how to escape. That is, until he forms an uneasy alliance with Russell Tremell, the young leader of The Resistance, the rebel group that opposes the governor. If Jackson can lead two lives, moving up the ranks as the perfect Wicker Farm resident while working for The Resistance, he may be the key to getting everyone out. This means bringing the danger even closer, from Richards' security officers and from the temptations that Wicker Farm offers: the type of life he never would have had access to in his world.But after finding himself torn between Charlie, the Resistance wild child, and Sasha, Governor Richards' daughter, the real danger could come from the unlikeliest source-- from falling in love.The first book in the YA sci-fi/dystopian adventure, The Taken Trilogy. "Lost," the second book, is scheduled for a December 2011 release.

Captives


Jill Williamson - 2013
    Now alone, Levi is determined to rescue what remains of his people, even if it means entering the Safe Lands, a walled city that seems anything but safe.Omar knows he betrayed his brother by sending him away, but helping the enforcers was necessary. Living off the land and clinging to an outdated religion holds his village back. The Safe Lands has protected people since the plague decimated the world generations ago ... and its rulers have promised power and wealth beyond Omar's dreams.Meanwhile, their brother Mason has been granted a position inside the Safe Lands, and may be able to use his captivity to save not only the people of his village, but also possibly find a cure for the virus that threatens everyone within the Safe Lands' walls.Will Mason uncover the truth hidden behind the Safe Lands' façade before it's too late?

The Cornish Retribution


Amanda James - 2018
    Her husband Adam was everything to her. But at least the home they shared together in Cornwall provides her with some security. Or does it?Upon returning from a school reunion in Sheffield, where Sam met her old friend, Penny, and an old flame from her school days, Dan, she discovers that Adam had invested money unwisely and she is now penniless.When Penny and Dan, who are now married, arrive in Cornwall to visit Sam, Dan comes up with a way in which Sam can keep the house. He suggests she turns it into a writing retreat. And he is willing to invest.Despite his wife's reservations, Dan gets his way but at what price? Why is Dan so keen to help? Has Sam put herself in harm's way?Amanda James is the best-selling author of Another Mother, Rip Current and The Calico Cat. The Cornish Retribution is a chilling thriller which will appeal to fans of authors like Cara Hunter, Louise Jensen and Greer Hendricks.

After Eden


Helen Douglas - 2013
    On the face of it, he's a typical American teenager. So why doesn't he recognise pizza? And how come he hasn't heard of Hitler? What puzzles Eden the most, however, is the interest he's taking in her. As Eden starts to fall in love with Ryan, she begins to unravel his secret. Her breakthrough comes one rainy afternoon when she stumbles across a book in Ryan's bedroom - a biography of her best friend - written over fifty years in the future. Confronting Ryan, she discovers that he is there with one unbelievably important purpose ... and she might just have destroyed his only chance of success.

Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s


Robert Christgau - 2000
    It was a fertile era for new genres, from alt-rock to Afropop, hip hop to techno. Rock critic Robert Christgau's obsessive ear and authoritative pen have covered it all-over 3,800 albums graded and classified, from A+s to his celebrated turkeys and duds. A rich appendix section ensures that nothing's been left out-from "subjects for further research" to "everything rocks but nothing ever dies." Christgau's Consumer Guide is essential reading and reference for any dedicated listener.

Justified Misfortune


Lori Matthews - 2020
    The former Navy SEAL accepted a position as a Personal Security Specialist, a job that didn't leave much free time. He never expected his visit to his hometown to turn into another job. His former High School flame has been arrested for murder but Hudson's gut instinct is she didn't do it. All he has to do now is prove it.For Sunny Travers, being back in Canyon Springs is bittersweet. She desperately misses her life in California but her grandmother needs her. Sunny's world flips upside down when she's arrested for killing the local hero. Now the citizens of Canyon Springs have turned against her and she's forced to accept help from the man who broke her heart all those years ago.Hudson knows Sunny hasn't forgiven him. Hell, he hasn't forgiven himself for how he left things but all his emotions take a back seat when someone tries to kill Sunny. Can Hudson protect Sunny long enough to apologize to her and right old wrongs or will the killer get to her first?

2446-89: Stassi's Diary


Sophie Davis - 2016
    I know, that sounds like the dramatic ramblings of a seventeen-year-old girl, but it’s the absolute truth. Until today, I was an orphan, an uneducated ward of the government with no employment prospects on her horizon. But as of today, at least one of those is no longer true. I may never know the parents who abandoned me at the age of four. And by most people’s standards, I will always be more streetwise than book-smart. But I have been offered a job. For the first time in my life, I am looking ahead to the next phase of my life, instead of focusing on a past I cannot change. Ironic, considering how little I know about my new employer and the position I’ve been offered…which is precisely nothing at all. **2446-89: Stassi’s Diary is the prequel novella to The Syndicate (Timewaves Series, #1)**

Many Strange Women


Parker J. Cole - 2014
    After all, he needed that kind of wife to help him escape from his sordid past.Celeste Martin made a deal with Solomon. She'd be his ugly wife. All she wanted in return was his name. She was in love with her sister's fiance and he would be the only man she'd ever love.Solomon had no idea that he'd find his wife fascinating. Celeste didn't know that one taste from her husband's lips would have her wanting more. Yet many strange women were between them.Could Solomon ever escape from his past?Could Celeste ever love her husband?

Eve (or: 'How to be a Zombie and not Murder Everyone')


Cesar Vitale
     Eve is an 18,000 word novella originally published as an ongoing story on Reddit's Writing Prompts forum by user /u/psycho_alpaca.

The Maid (The Selection #3.3)


Kiera Kass - 2015
    This is a bonus scene from The One, last book of the The Selection Trilogy.Lucy's point of view and a special scen with the new guard.

The Mash House


Alan Gillespie - 2021
    In the same village, Donald is the aggressive distillery owner, who floods the country with narcotics alongside his single malt; when his son goes missing, he becomes haunted by an anonymous American investor intent on purchasing the Cullrothes Distillery by any means necessary. Schoolgirl Jessie is trying to get the grades to escape to the mainland, while Grandpa counts the days left in his life.This is a place where mountains are immense and the loch freezes in winter. A place with only one road in and out. With long storms and furious midges and a terrible phone signal. The police are compromised, the journalists are scum, and the innocent folk of Cullrothes tangle themselves in a fermenting barrel of suspicion, malice and lies.The Mash House uses multiple narratives to weave together the parallel lives of individuals in the village. Each fractured by the fears and uncertainty in their own minds.

Finding Charlie


Katie O'Rourke - 2015
    When Charlie vanishes without warning, the people who love her are worried sick. Even if the law considers her an adult at nineteen, Charlie's still the baby of her already broken family. Older sister Olivia is determined to figure out what's happened. She finds a lost cell phone, an abandoned car and a shady boyfriend she's never met before. And he's not the only secret Charlie's been keeping.This disappearance feels uncomfortably familiar, reminding Olivia and her father of another loss years before. But this will be different, Olivia swears. Charlie's coming back.