In the post-apocalyptic Midwest, now a ravaged dust bowl, former guardsman Derek Covington must find help for a sick boy. With nothing but memories of all he lost, Derek crosses the desert alone in search of the doctor who saved his own life ten years ago. Drifter gangs who loot and pillage don’t dare come near, for Derek has a formidable weapon: a prosthetic arm with a deadly blade.
For a decade, Dr. Lidia Sullivan has fantasized about the handsome guardsman who’d been in her care. And now she can’t deny his dangerous request. But as they make the treacherous journey back to Old St. Louis, they must contend with much more than fierce desert winds and their unthinkable attraction. A fearless gang has spotted Lidia—a rare woman—and will fight Derek to the death to get her. And though he risks his life to save her for the sake of the child who needs her, she fears there’s one thing Derek will never risk: his heart.
There were moments when I was nearly positive that the sole purpose of the narrative was to give the two main characters a reason to be alone so they could hump. And I really don’t know what to say about the book beyond that…
Well ok, that’s a lie. The story is set in an alternate reality where we fucked things up and now no food will grow and it made the dust bowls of the great depression look like the sand box at your local playground. People have, predictably, become dicks. There is rioting, looting, burning, etc. Derek goes to save his foster mother and bad shit happens. He ends up in a hospital where he falls in love with the Doctor who tends to him… so obviously he leaves her. You probably won’t realize it from the blurb, but all of this is the first 30ish% of the book.
Then 10 years pass… and now you get the added bonus of groups of men on horseback who like to kill, loot, and plunder. Of course women are a now precious commodity. I’m not going to get into how unfair I think that is, because I have a feeling that should the apocalypse happen, the “women as breeders” scenario is likely. Derek is back seeking a doctor for a young boy, finds Lidia and the “romance” is off to the races.
I gave this book a 2.5. It offers a tantalizing peak at what could have been a truly interesting world. Out of the back window of the hump express. All aboard…
