The Strain Series by Amelia C. Gormley - Release Blitz

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Juggernaut (Book #0.5) 

Strain (Book #1)

Bane (Book #2)

Juggernaut 

They helped destroy the world. Now they have to survive the new one.

Nico Fernández has a charmed life. Working as a high-end escort in his mother's agency beats the hell out of being trafficked for slave wages in some corporate brothel. And no one needs to know about his occasional side jobs, like seducing political and military dignitaries, and "nudging" them with mind-altering agents to swing their votes to favor his longest-standing client.

Zach Houtman's life should be charmed, but isn't. His father, the Reverend Maurice Houtman, in pursuit of political aspirations, insists Zach act as his advisor rather than indulging in his true calling: ministering to the most vulnerable outcasts of society. Politics, however, gradually turn Zach's father away from Christ and toward malicious zealotry, and Zach discovers his campaign is courting violent fundamentalists.

When one of Nico's "special jobs" results in military approval for a weaponized virus that mutates, unleashing a deadly plague to claim billions of lives, Nico and Zach are thrown together. Each burdened by terrible guilt for their unwitting roles in the calamity, they find safety and solace in each other. But the new world is a dangerous, violent place, where the handful of survivors are willing to do anything, and kill anyone, to get by.

My review: Juggernaut

Strain

In a world with little hope and no rules, the only thing they have to lose is themselves.

Rhys Cooper is a dead man. He's spent years hiding from the virus that wiped out most of the human race, but an act of futile heroism has him counting down his remaining days. The timely arrival of superhuman soldiers offers some feeble hope--but only if Rhys can reconcile himself to doing what is necessary to take advantage of it.

Sergeant Darius Murrell has seen too much death and too little tenderness. His job is seeking out the infected to put them out of their misery, or sending the uninfected survivors to a safe haven where he and his fellow Juggernaut troops will never be welcomed. Rhys's situation is different, though. Not only is there an improbable chance that Darius won't have to put a bullet in Rhys's head, but he has somehow managed to get under Darius's skin.

The virus Rhys must infect himself with in order to survive is sexually transmitted, and optimizing his chance of exposure requires him to submit as often as possible to Darius--and the other soldiers. Though the boundaries of morality have shifted in this harsh new world, Darius and Rhys question whether their humanity is too high a price to pay for Rhys's survival.

My review: Strain

Bane

The weapon that nearly destroyed humanity may be their only salvation.

Rhys Cooper once thought he was a dead man. Instead, he's proven immune to the virus that nearly wiped out humanity.

Now the Clean Zone's scientists want to know why. Summoned for testing, Rhys is about to learn first-hand why his Juggernaut partner, Sergeant Darius Murrell, and the rest of his superhuman comrades in Delta Company don't trust the uninfected survivors in the Clean Zone--or the remnants of the government that unleashed the epidemic in the first place.

For a decade, Zach Houtman has yearned for his lover, Nico Fernández, but fear of infection has kept them apart. Separately they keep tabs on the last vestiges of the corrupt government, particularly the head of the Clean Zone's virus research division. Secretary Littlewood seeks to unlock the secrets of the Bane virus. But Nico knows how dangerous Littlewood will be if that ever happens.

Zach and Nico now have the perfect bait to draw Littlewood out: Rhys. But Delta Company isn't about to let Rhys walk into hell alone. They'll take Littlewood down together, or not at all. Even if they succeed, however, for Zach and Nico one question remains: can infected and uninfected people ever be together safely?


My review: Bane

The Author

Amelia C. Gormley published her first short story in the school newspaper in the 4thgrade, and since then has suffered the persistent delusion that enabling other people to hear the voices in her head might be a worthwhile endeavor. She’s even convinced her hapless spouse that it could be a lucrative one as well, especially when coupled with her real-life interest in angst, kink, social justice issues, and pretty men.

When her husband and son aren’t interacting with the back of her head as she stares at the computer, they rely on her to feed them, maintain their domicile, and keep some semblance of order in their lives (all very, very bad ideas—they really should know better by now.) She can also be found playing video games and ranting on Tumblr, seeing as how she’s one of those horrid social justice warriors out to destroy free speech, gaming, geek culture, and everything else that’s fun everywhere.

You can contact Amelia on Twitter, Facebook, GoodReads

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BANE by Amelia C. Gormley

BANE by Amelia C. Gormley

 

Pages: 279

Date: October 8, 2015

Details: no. 2 Strain

            Copy received from Riptide 

            Publishing

            Through NetGalley

E-book

The blurb:

The weapon that nearly destroyed humanity may be their only salvation.

Rhys Cooper’s unique immunity to all three strains of the virus that nearly annihilated humanity has brought him the unwanted attention of Clean Zone scientists. They’ve summoned him for testing—ostensibly in the hopes of finding a vaccine—but Rhys’s partner, Darius Murrell, has good reason not to trust any government. He and his comrades in Delta Company were unwitting test subjects for Project Juggernaut, the military experiment that gave them superhuman abilities and unleashed the pandemic. Doubting the government’s intentions, Delta Company refuses to let Rhys go alone.

Fear of infection has kept Zach Houtman and his lover Nico Fernández apart for a decade. They meet rarely, just long enough to coordinate their spying on the head of the government’s virus research division. Secretary Littlewood is a vicious predator, and they suspect he’s trying to acquire the strain of the virus that would make him superhuman. To stop him, they need the perfect bait: Rhys.

For Rhys, helping them might cost him his relationship with Darius—or his life. For Zach and Nico, even if their plan succeeds, they still face the ultimate question: can infected and uninfected people ever live together safely? 

My thoughts:

I’m not entirely sure what to say about this book. I mean it was good…very good. More than that, Bane gives a satisfying conclusion to the story that started in Strain. But that is also my problem, this is the conclusion of a story I’ve lost myself in. From the moment I met Rhys and Darius in Strain I have been spellbound by their story and it is sad to have to say goodbye to them, Zach and Nico and all the other Juggernauts now.

Don’t get me wrong, I can’t fault the way the story ended. I’m delighted that Amelia C. Gormley managed to find a way to give the book a positive and hopeful ending without asking me to accept implausible or too good to be true scenarios. When I finished reading the epilogue I could see a possible future for the characters I’d grown to love and the world they live in. It was also clear that the struggle to rebuild a world had really only begun. The chances of getting it right had improved greatly, but there was no guarantee humanity would get it right this time around either. If the story had to end, this was an ending I could happily live with. I’m just not happy the end had to come.

A lot happens in this book. All the threads from Strain and Juggernaut are pulled together in Bane in a credible fashion. The characters were as captivating as they had been in the previous books, and I find they’re still playing on my mind even though some time has passed since I finished the book.

Unlike with the previous books I don’t really want to get into the storyline, for two reasons. First of all I don’t think I can do it justice. I’m both as afraid of saying too much as I am of not saying enough, so I’ll let the blurb do the outlining for me. Because, and that’s my second reason, I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing this book without prior knowledge, without knowing what to expect and without having any idea how a positive ending might even be possible. I would not want to deprive other readers of what was, for me, an exhilarating reading experience.

I’ll keep this review short and sweet so, and will end it with the same words I ended my review for Juggernaut with, because they are as true today as they were then, and apply to the full trilogy.

“I’m very impressed with everything Amelia C. Gormley has achieved in these books. Her writing is masterful, her characters multi-dimensional and her devastating story-line draws you in and holds you captive long after you’ve finished reading the last chapter.”

Ps. There’s a part of me that will never stop hoping to meet these characters again at some point in their future.

                          

JUGGERNAUT by Amelia C. Gormley

JUGGERNAUT by Amelia C. Gormley

 

Pages: 378

Date: August 9, 2015

Details: No. 0.5 Strain

            Copy received from Riptide

            Publishing through NetGalley

E-book

The blurb:

They helped destroy the world. Now they have to survive the new one.

For rentboy Nico Fernández, it’s a simple job: seduce a presidential advisor to help cement approval to launch Project Juggernaut. He’s done similar work for General Logan McClosky before, and manipulating people for his favorite client beats the hell out of being trafficked for slave wages in some corporate brothel.

Zach Houtman feels called to work with the most vulnerable outcasts of society. But his father, the Reverend Maurice Houtman, insists that Zach work for him instead as he runs for Senate. Zach reluctantly agrees, but is horrified to see his father leave behind Christ’s mandate of love and mercy to preach malicious zealotry and violence instead. Zach even starts to suspect his father is working with fundamentalist terrorists.

When Project Juggernaut accidentally unleashes a deadly plague that claims billions of lives, Nico and Zach are thrown together, each bearing a burden of guilt. With only each other for safety and solace, they must make their way through a new world, one where the handful of people left alive are willing to do anything—and kill anyone—to survive. 

My thoughts:

When I read Strain, almost eighteen months ago, the book took my breath away. It shocked me, enthralled me and left me thinking about the subjects it broached for days after I’d finished it. In fact, there are still days when the story-line or a detail from it jump into my mind and bring me back to the events in that book. With the amount of books I read it is safe to say this is not something that happens very often.

So when I discovered that both a prequel and a sequel to Strain were to be released in quick succession this summer I was a very happy bunny. Juggernaut tells the story of how the virus that wiped out most of the human race came to be unleashed upon the world through eyes of two young men who unwittingly find themselves caught up right in the middle of the disaster.

Nico Fernández is a celebrated rentboy who doesn’t think twice about doing his favourite client, General Logan McClosky, a favour. The night with the presidential advisor leaves Nico traumatized and injured but that is nothing compared the devastation he experiences when he realises his compliance was instrumental in setting of a global disaster of unimaginable proportions. My heart broke for this charming young man on many occasions during this story. The guilt he carries with him everywhere is overwhelming. Add to that the fact that he is a highly tactile person and suddenly finds himself afraid of intimacy and it’s difficult not to be touched by the turmoil he’s going through.

Zach Houtman is the quintessential  good guy. Very religious he firmly believes that God’s message is one of love and tolerance. When his preacher father veers off to a political career, Zach doesn’t like the changes this brings and he fears his father may be in cohorts with religious terrorists. By the time he is faced with the choice between saving a stranger and staying with his father and younger brother, Jacob, it isn’t a dilemma anymore and he leaves. From that moment forward Zach tries to define faith as a personal rather than a universal truth. His journey as he comes close to losing his faith altogether is a thing of beauty.

The young men are attracted to each other and Zach has remarkable little problems embracing his feelings for Nico (or Nico himself for that matter). The fact that Nico has infected himself with the Alpha strain of the virus puts serious limits on how close they can get though.

Zach and Nice travel towards what they hope will be safety together only to be separated. Individually they have to find the courage to live in a world where all the rules have changed and the love they’ve developed for each other may never have a chance.

I loved this book almost as much as I loved Strain but reading it was somewhat of a strange experience for me. It was wonderful to read about the events that led to the story as described in Strain and Nico and Zach were wonderful characters and very easy to fall for. In fact, I think it’s impossible to read about these two men and not have your heart break for them while you wish a solution will be found somewhere, somehow. The dilemmas they face and the constant choice between selfish desires and what is best for all involved made this a heart wrenching and captivating book.

However, despite the book being a prequel it felt at times like an ‘in between’ story, a bridge between what we’ve read before and what may happen in the next book, Bane. Juggernaut , as far as I can tell, gives the reader all the information they need for a climatic conclusion. I’m not sure which book I’d advice readers who haven’t read either Strain or Juggernaut yet, to read first. What I can say is that this book can easily be read before Strain and that I didn’t miss the information provided in this prequel while reading Strain. And, more than that, now that I have all the necessary information and all characters are in place, I can’t wait to read Bane (coming September 21^st).

The world as created by this author in these books is fascinating because the premise of a military super-weapon creating  a devastation as described is, to me, all to plausible. Watching these characters as they try to hold on to common decency and their morality in a world that doesn’t invite or accommodate either is as inspiring as it is heartbreaking and I have no doubt Bane will tear me apart as the characters I’ve come to love face what will without a doubt be unimaginable decisions and sacrifices.

I’m very impressed with everything Amelia C. Gormley has achieved in these books. Her writing is masterful, her characters multi-dimensional and her devastating story-line draws you in and holds you captive long after you’ve finished reading the last chapter.