Vengeance by Courtney Konstantin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Max Duncan is one of three siblings on the run from a government organisation who want her head, she is recovering from the torture she experienced at their hands and she has a family around her, but her thirst for vengeance against the man who tortured her is haunting her days and nights where she has nightmares of her being in that chamber again and this time not surviving. She is struggling with life in the group because of this, but the apocalyptic circumstances she finds herself in allow her to forget that her troubles when she is out on runs, or fighting for her life against the undead.

As she settles in for another meal with her family, not just joined by blood but by jointly held experiences she cannot stop thinking about the missed shot and the consequences of leaving this particular person alive, but she aspect she is struggling to accept the most is the person who missed that shot, it is a relic of thinking from her childhood, but something she is trying hard to change, but everyone around her is feeling the resulting tension. The one person she can count on though is her partner and her child’s father, this is only enforced when they go out hunting together to gather some fresh meat for the group, plus the few days break from the tension will be good for everyone, not just Max. When they get back to their home base, they find that there are four of the undead there and have to delay their entrance to deal with the threat, then after moving them as far away as possible so as not to draw attention to themselves, then after they have cleaned up a family meeting is called, this is where they find out that they need to find someone, Max is not impressed and feels that it isn’t something they should be focussing on and also that the individual isn’t someone they should or can trust, instead it should be finishing what they started and getting rid of her torturer, there is a discussion where everyone weighs in their opinion and in the end she is overruled and the decision is made to find them.

As the plan is put into action, they also take the opportunity to find out about their other important person, however, the news is not what they want to hear but they agree that at least they have some idea on what is going on, but they take advantage of the opportunity to gather supplies from the gas station they stopped in before they head back, but it is an escape by the skin of their teeth when a large horde of the undead attack them as they are leaving. As the news of what they found is broken to the group, Max decides that they need more information and that she will be the one to go and get it, so she sets out with her favourite hunting partner to scout out locations and find a scavenger party so that they can abduct one of the members and get them to spill the information they know, however, albeit they got some more information, it doesn’t go quite to plan and her partner gets injured during the confrontation, this leads to them taking longer to get home and in the meantime becoming trapped due to the severity of the injuries and lo and behold, the person who comes to their rescue just happens to be one of the people they are looking for, but will they end up being a friend or foe in the days to come and will the information which they have gleaned during the run be enough for them to formulate and execute a plan to finally put a rest to all their troubles?

This post-apocalyptic thriller will leave you strung out after being whirled around on an emotional rollercoaster as the scenarios play out and decisions are made, this fast paced story is full of action and suspense throughout and will leave you wanting to read until the end.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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