Resistant

By: Jennifer Reynolds

Narrated by: Margi Stephens

Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Before the outbreak, Sahara was a high school teacher living alone in a small Alabama town. She saw her life as nothing more than endless days of teaching children Shakespeare and nights reading paranormal romances. She was happy with her life, as quiet and mundane as it was.

After the outbreak, Sahara becomes a warrior traveling across the country in search of sanctuary. She spends her days and nights killing zombies, searching for food, trying to maintain her sanity, and if Daniel has his say, finding love.

How will Sahara help those who are left find safety and stability in a world full of nightmares? Will she stop resisting the man she loves and open her heart, knowing that he may not live through the next second let alone the next year? Join Sahara and her people in a fight against creatures set out to devour them and the unknown threat controlling them to find out.

©2015 Jennifer Reynolds (P)2016 Jennifer Reynolds

Narrator mismatch

I have to admit that I did not finish this book. The story is OK if you can get past the main character (who is an idiot) but it’s not terribly imaginative when it comes to the genre. The bigger issue is the narrator. I just don’t believe that she’s the voice of the main character or any of the other characters for that matter.
This was included in my audible escape subscription otherwise I would be returning it.

A smashing hit with a great narrator!

I was given an audio copy in exchange for a honest review.

First of all I have to say that I'm in love with Sahara. I found her to be an amazing point of view. She captivated with her personality from the beginning and I found myself not being able to stop. The story line flowed nicely and everything kept up with a fast pace. My favorite part was near the beginning when they woke her up and she was throwing shade left and right while not wearing pants. That is the moment when I knew I found my heroine. I loved the world that Reynolds built. It was a different take on the zombie outbreak and I really enjoyed it. It has qualities that you are familiar with but are different as well. I was overall extremely impressed and look forward to reading more from this author since this is the first work I have read from her. I would recommend to this to my zombie and dystopian loving friends.

Now let's talk about the narrator. The narrator did such a fantastic job telling Sahara's story. I was blown away with how well she captured the emotions behind each word. I know I'm going to be a huge fan of the narrator and will follow their career. I really enjoyed all aspects of this novel.

zombie apocalypse story with romance

Resistant is a post-apocalyptic zombie novel by Jennifer Reynolds. Sahara was a normal high school teacher in a small town. One day, she realized she had begun to prepare for a zombie apocalypse when she subconsciously starting sensing an uptick in zombie fascination. And one day the zombie apocalypse arrived at her hometown. After weeks of surviving, a group of armed people enter her barricaded home, discover that she is resistant to the zombie virus, and adopt her into their group. As Sahara morphs from a high school teacher into a zombie fighting warrior, she also finds love in their group. As they travel, trying to find out how the government is dealing with a problem, they must deal with the trials of living in their new reality full of zombies and crime. Meanwhile, Sahara must come to terms with and learn how to define her relationship with her potential newfound love.

This was an odd novel in that it tied together the zombie apocalypse story with romance. And the zombies didn’t seem like they were really the main focal point of the story. But rather, zombies were just the overall driving motivation for what the group was doing. But the real story ended up being more about people, good and bad. The central driving event in the novel was actually a crime conducted by human beings rather than the zombies. I liked the premise, with a strong female protagonist learning how to become a leader. However, her interactions with other women and the men in her life seemed fictionalized and this made it hard to believe and easy to become exasperated with Sahara. I would have liked to learn more about what is happening on a global scale.

The narration by Margi Stephens was well done. She did a good job of capturing Sahara’s exasperating voice, especially. The production quality was good and I would recommend this story to anyone who likes romance novels set in unique environments.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

[If this review helped, please press YES. Thanks!]

good story awful narrator

Book was good but the narrator was awful. she sounded like an old lady and the main character is young. I finished it but I was cringing most of the time. storyline reminded me of the walking dead series.

Loved it!

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Definitely! I have lot of friends who love zombie stuff and this book really nails what it might be like.

What other book might you compare Resistant to and why?

Maybe The Walking Dead only less soap opera and more realistic.

What about Margi Stephens’s performance did you like?

Margi did a great job. She is clear and uses good intonation and various voices for each character. She also sounds southern and Sahara, the main character is southern so her voice fits well.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

I'm not great with tag lines maybe something like: Are you resistant to the virus or will you turn?

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed listening to this story. Jennifer Reynolds builds character using the feelings and inner workings of the human mind. She interprets actions with what a character is feeling. Not many authors do that and she does it well.

The story takes place over a number of years. In the beginning people are aware that a zombie apocalypse could be somewhere in the futures horizon. Some people take this more seriously than others. Either way when it happens some precautions have been put into place. It turns out there is a small population who are resistant to the virus. No one really knows how the virus started but they have ideas that somehow the military is involved.

Sahara, the leading lady is an ordinary school teacher who lives a simple solitude life. Which becomes even more lonely after the virus spreads and she is barricaded inside her house alone. It isn't until a group of survivors come beating on her door that she realizes how lonely she's been.

Without giving away more of the story I recommend this book completely. It's entertaining, fun and a bit realistic.

Well written story and erotic scenes.

One of the reasons I really liked this story was the erotic scenes. In most erotica the male lead is an dominant alpha male bordering on A-Hole personality disorder, but not in this story. Instead the hero is a caring male that expresses himself by his actions. His dominance is a part of his personality that he slides into when the situation calls for that type of response. Reynolds has well developed characters that are not plug-in dominant hero/submissive heroine. Her female lead is a reluctant leader that takes on the jobs no one else wants to do because they need to be done. She has insecurities that many women in relationships can identify with. The world she finds herself in is restructuring itself in the same way she is also changing. They both become harder, more decisive.
The intimate scenes were tender, loving and consentual. They were also red-hot. The first starts out a slow burn that builds to a bonfire. Subsequent scenes change it up as in any long-term relationship. Sometimes they're dirty and quick and other times cover an entire afternoon. The approaches and positions vary also. I appreciate Reynolds writing an erotic tale in which the hero asks for consent. It flowed well in the scene and was sexy. I find the whole subtext that "No" doesn't really mean no if the heroine is saying it very disturbing. Reynolds takes consent to "Yes, Yes, Yes!"
The book was well written with a very realistic beginning to the story. I would like to listen to more of this tale. Reynolds had many characters that I want to hear more about like Charles or how baby Michelle grows up. It would be interesting to follow the tales of the characters at the conventions who gave talks as survival zombie experts.
The narrator did a very good job as well. She had distinct voices for each character. She did well as both male and female voices. She put a lot of inflection in her voice. The reading was fluid and easy on the ear. She expressed emotion well without being over the top. Both the author and narrator created a wonderful story I would listen to again. Actually, I have listened to it twice already.

Ugh DNF

The main female was so incredibly strong headed and annoying that I couldn’t even get half way through the book.

Fantastic!

This book is all around just a great book. I was searching for a second one towards the end (there isn't one). I highly recommend this book. The main character acts like a normal woman. The character development and thought that went into it is A+ work. The narrator is good but I agree she's a bit of a mismatch. Give it a listen!