Title: RebirthAuthor: Sophie Littlefield (site)
Published: July 26th, 2011 by Luna
Pages: 384
Buy: Amazon / Book Depository
Rating: 4.5/5
Synopsis: Civilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. But Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back—she and Ruthie will be happy.
Yet with the first winter, Cass is reminded that happiness is fleeting in Aftertime. Ruthie retreats into silence.
Flesh—eating Beaters still dominate the landscape. And Smoke, Cass's lover and strength, departs on a quest for vengeance, one that may end him even if he returns.
The survivalist community Cass has planted roots in is breaking apart, too. Its leader, Dor, implores Cass to help him recover his own lost daughter, taken by the totalitarian Rebuilders. And soon Cass finds herself thrust into the dark heart of an organization promising humanity's rebirth—at all costs.
Bound to two men blazing divergent paths across a savage land, Cass must overcome the darkness in her wounded heart, or lose those she loves forever. (Goodreads)
Review: Sophie Littlefield has gained a lifelong fan in me. I've even added her crime series to my To-Read list and I never read crime novels. Rebirth was even better than Aftertime. It was one of those books that won't let you go when you are away from it. I kept thinking about the characters, wondering what was going to happen when a certain secret came out, going over my favorite scenes again and again, wishing I could pull the car over and just read. It bordered on obsession. I haven't had a book and it's characters grip me this hard since I read Stacia Kane's Downsiders series. I still wonder about them sometimes. As soon as I'm caught up on the books I need to read, I'll be re-reading that series.
Rebirth continues a short time after the conclusion of Afterlife. Cass has managed to make a nice little life for herself, but everything crashes down around her pretty quickly. This is partly brought on my her self-destructive behavior and partly by a message from the Rebuilders. It broke my heart to see her finally happy and then have it explode. She makes a Bad Decision and then continues to make it worse and worse until I thought I was going to cry. You're in her head the whole time, so you see why she's doing these things. You get a glimpse at her twisted logic, but what she doesn't realize is that all of these decisions are based upon the (flawed) assumption that she is worthless. It drove me nuts! (But in a good way). One thing that was different about this second book was the change in perspectives. We got to learn a lot more about some of the other characters in the series (sadly, not the one that I really wanted to learn more about). It made the situation she was creating even more tense and sad for the reader. I got to see what he was thinking too, watched as he slowly began to change his feelings...which is going to lead to a very interesting showdown in the next book. Yes, I suppose this has all been very cryptic, but I don't want to give it away. Go read the book! I can't wait for the third, I was very disappointed to not have any resolution to a certain problem at the end of Rebirth. Things are about to get very, very complicated and I can not wait!
My review for the first book, Aftertime, is here.
