A curious concept. Post-apocalyptic world and we don’t know what happened, but people are scared of those who are different.
Our focus is on a small community who live on a lake. They look out for those they call The Restless Ones, and the only time they truly fear is winter. Winter is when the ice comes, the lake freezes and the zombies can come.
Peter, our main character, has never felt as if he fits in. Interested in sewing and other activities unsuited to this outdoorsy life, Peter harbours a secret crush on his neighbour, Cooper, who is the original outdoor hero. Two seemingly polar opposites, but it’s okay – this love is definitely reciprocated and the story is about how the pair can use their feelings for each other to try and make a difference to their world.
When Peter fails to check ID of someone trying to come ashore, he sets in motion a quite unusual sequence of events. He comes to question everything he has been told since he was little. Nothing is quite as it seems, and the question is to what extent this can change people’s lives.
At its heart this is a romance, but there’s suggestions of a bigger story coming into play. I enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting to, but I did feel the latter part of the story was a little frenetic. We don’t know exactly who certain characters are or how they just happen to turn up at the right time, but there’s certainly more to these scenarios than we’ve been told here.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this in exchange for my review.