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Ben Linus' adventures in Wonderland

I love books. I'll read whatever thing I found close. So books, you have just been warned.

Great zombie fiction!

— feeling happy
Of Royal Descent - Ember Shane
Of Royal Descent is the first book in The Doyle Hawthorne Series. It's a zombie book with a quite original take on the subject, though it can be classified as paranormal romance. We all know that I don't read too much of that genre and that when I do, beware, because bad reviews are coming. This is not the case, I enjoyed this book and I'm going to tell you why I think it stands out against the others.
 
Doyle Hawthorne is college student with adoptive parents. One day, while helping his father with some boxes full of old stuff, he discovers cryptic letters written by his biological grandfather. All of them were addressed to his grandmother and they seem to conceal vital information about a traumatic event in the past. With a little help from his best friend, Chuck, Doyle discovers his grandfather is alive and take on a journey to visit him. As soon as they approach their destination, weird things start happening to Doyle and his body. This book is all about that transformation.
 
I really enjoyed the technical details Ember Shane developed as an explanation for this "disease" Doyle is experiencing. The process is quite unique and interesting, though one part of it reminded me a bit of the book Partials by Dan Wells. I'm talking about the importance of the pheromones, though I think Of Royal Descent used that aspect in a better way.
 
Now, I'm going to list a few things that I didn't like. The first thing is that the love interest is a nurse at the same facility Doyle can be found. It seemed to convenient for the development of the story. The romance was a little rushed but there are certain technicalities related to the "disease" aforementioned for it to be that way.
 
At the end there are a few twist plots that I liked. For example,
it is mentioned that Addy has probably lied to Doyle about the injection and that Jenny is some kind of weird creature too.
(show spoiler)
 
I really think these twists set a good course for the next book and I'm very excited to continue reading about this story.

 

Another thing that bothered me were a few typos, but nothing major. It's evident that sometimes the auto-correction function of the word processor made a little bit of mayhem.

 

A detail I loved was that many of the names of the characters are formed by joining a name or surname from two famous author. For example, Edgar Bradbury and Wells Stevenson.

 

So, it's a fast-paced and light read with lots of blood and a little bit of romance. A great take on the zombie world.