drey's library

drey’s thoughts:Ellen Connor’s Midnight is set after an apocalypse, and no I don’t know how it happened because I missed book 1 in the series, Nightfall. (No, I don’t know if it’s described there either.)Rosa Cortez survived that apocalypse, and has managed to build a community of sorts in a ghost town she found in the middle of the desert. The hardscrabble town is stark and rough and brings to mind the frontier towns in the old westerns I used to watch. It’s not paradise, but it’s what they have. And because it’s not easy being beautiful in a world where women are scarce and men resort to savagery and brute force to get their way, Rosa is tough and smart. She not only has a town to protect and provide for, she also has to maintain an aloof persona to keep the admirers away.When Chris Welsh shows up in town, he’s intrigued by Rosa. Then again, who wouldn’t be? But she doesn’t want anything to do with a stranger who may not stay, and whose presence might upset the delicate balance she’s managed to maintain. But the two keep getting thrown together, and can’t help the sparks that fly…I like that this isn’t a romance set in a post-apocalyptic world, but rather a story set in a post-apocalyptic world where the two main characters happen to fall in love. Yes, the second half of the book has plenty of love-drama, but it felt natural (even as I wanted to smack Rosa upside the head!). And for those who aren’t huge romance fans, there’s plenty of action here to satisfy any fantasy/dystopian fiction fan out there. (See, I told you I didn’t know what to tag this with…)The characters are nicely fleshed out, and I could see the story unfolding as though they were real (or as real as could be, anyway). I want more of this world and this series. I now have to pick up Nightfall to see how it all started!drey’s rating: Excellent!