I wanted to love this but couldn’t get into it. It felt like too many random literary tropes and subgenres all mashed into one book. The romance just came out of nowhere with little build up and the supernatural elements seemed disconnected. I appreciated the humor of the main character, but everything was just too randomly put together. I appreciate the chance to review.

A sweet paranormal romance for folks who are newer to the genre. The relationships felt real and unforced, but the story felt a bit long for the plot.

I was looking forward to this book a lot based on the description and the hype surrounding it but sadly, this book just wasn't for me.
Our FMC just wasn't for me I fear. Her character just really infuriated me for being in her late 30s because she seemed to act too immature for her age (even during a zombie apocalypse.

This was so promising but underdelivered. I was confused most of the time and was unsure where the plot was even going half the time. The romance felt rushed and random. The "Gaston" jokes also got old so quick.

Oh nooo!! I loved this book entirely too much and that ending is how I find out it’s the first in a series?? This one isn’t even released yet, how will I manage the wait?? 😩 I’ve consistently enjoyed Olivia Dade’s books, but I think this is only the third one that I have given 5 well-deserved stars. It was so fun and funny but also serious and emotional at times, with surprisingly wonderful world-building. I loved it so much. And I wasn’t being dramatic for effect. I am truly distraught at the thought of waiting for the sequel. And it’s pretty clear from that ending what the basic premise will be and I am really excited to find out what happens next.

this was fun!!! i loved the pet names, i really enjoyed the pacing and the concepts, but overall this fell a bit flat for me overall. i think this style of writing just isn’t my cup of tea, but edie… i love you!

This was like if you threw The Walking Dead, The Last of Us, and What We Do in the Shadows into a romance blender. Yes, they are fighting for survival from zombies, they’re not sure who they can trust, and they have seen horrific things. BUT, they’re also using Nicki Minaj songs as a battle distraction and giving each other shit as a love language (particularly in the form of Disney reworked lyrics, IYKYK). I laughed out loud several times, this was truly so much fun! I was invested in the storyline and my romance-seeking-heart enjoyed the relationship between Max and Edie. This book was the perfect blend of campy and bawdy with a lot of heart and humor. If you enjoyed Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe or How to Help a Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein, I think you’ll enjoy this book.

I guess I get how this could be a fun apocalyptic rom-com for some. For me, it just didn't work. To be honest, I didn't really know what I was getting into, but I'm always game to try something new and different. A zombie breach brings neighbors Edie and Max together to fight off the undead. They learn that there may be more to each other as well as what was behind the breach.

I was overwhelmed with the amount of non-human species introduced in this novel, and unfortunately, we don't get much world building or explanation of how things became they way they did. Instead, we get an insta-love with some steamy stuff and a bit of fun banter and not much sustenance. I do believe this is book 1 of 3, but for me, I do believe it will be 1 and done.

I do recommend for others to give it a try, though. Especially if zombies, vampires, and other non-human characters are your thing. and you find them sexy. 😂

ZomRomCom
By: Olivia Dade

Thank you @berkleyromance for free book and @prhaudio for the #gifted audiobook. #berkleypartner #berkley All opinions are my own.

“A burrito was what she had. Thus, a burrito she would use.”

Zombies are on the loose when Edie jumps in to save her seemingly sweet neighbor Chad from the undead. Only after she is taken to his underground bunker does she learn that Chad is actually a vampire named Max (first name, Gaston) who has become very protective of her. Armed with a dangerous plan and some memorable side kicks, Max and Edie soon decide to work together to save the world.

Who knew that I would be this charmed by a zombie romcom! Was it silly in parts? Yes, absolutely. But, did I laugh pretty much the whole time I was reading it? I did. This book won’t be for everyone but the banter was super fun and the story was well written. I enjoyed both Edie and Max and thought that the minor characters brought so much quirky goodness to the story. The Gaston references however stole the show and were my favorite parts, hands down!! Overall, if you are looking for a quick and entertaining read this Halloween season, then you should give this one a try.

Read if you like:
✩ Paranormal Romance
✩ Vampires
✩ Neighbors to lovers
✩ He Falls First
✩ Grumpy Sunshine
✩ Plus Size Rep

This is fun! We have a world with established (and contained zombies). But the zombies are a huge threat if they breach containment. And they do. Then we have Edie, whose parents died defending her from zombies in the first wave, and Chad/Gaston/Max, her airhead/vampire/social media sensation neighbor. And they have to team up and go on an adventure to save the world!

I loved it. There's plenty of delightful absurdity mixed with real danger mixed with zombie movie essentials (abandoned shopping mall?) mixed with wide world of supernatural creatures. I laughed out loud and I absolutely cried near the end. This balance is what I want for a fun summer ride.

Plus we have a fat heroine and a vampire who's obsessed with her? Yeah. All day.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Overall, this was an ok romantic-comedy book. The humor was absolutely filled to the brim and sometimes overwhelming and overused in certain situations and phrases. Edie, our heroine, was definitely quirky with her silly antics. Max, our male lead, was an alright character and overwhelming in his efforts to keep Edie safe. The zombie world is tense and unique in how the zombies were created, along with the plentiful number of Supernatural and Enhanced characters. This book just didn't really click with me, and the characters weren't really impressive. If you are looking for an extremely quirky, filled the humor zombie apocalypse book, this is it.

I really wanted to like this, the concept sounds hysterical and fun. But I could not get into it. The FMC was just obnoxious. All she did was say these quick little quirky one liners and speak in sarcasm. It was giving "I'm not like other girls" in an obnoxious way.

There also felt like so muchhh set up and backstory, for a standalone. Maybe it comes into play later? I'm not 100% sure since I DNF'ed around 25%.

I really tried. I came back to it multiple times but I just couldn't do it.

One star because I DNF'D at 45%. While the story was very interesting and the characters were fun, it just felt like there was a larger piece of the story that was missing. Almost like this was a standalone in a paranormal series with an already built world that we as the reader were expected to have known about.

This light hearted supernatural romance with a vampire is an utterly ridiculous book… which is a type of book I usually enjoy! So I was excited to get early access to read it. Sadly, this book left me confused and unsatisfied.

Every character felt like a caricature of all the books I have read before.
We have Edie- silly goofy girl next door. Awesome to see plus sized representation, but one of her key character points is she constantly is snacking on heavily engineered food products to the disgust of other characters. She lives in her childhood home a stones throw away from a zombie containment zone because of sentimental reasons (but like girl, get out of there! There’s zombies in your backyard!) She is a specialty soap maker (??) and also content creator for soaps.

The love interest is Gaston/Max/Chad- yes he goes by three different aliases and for the first 30 pages there is no explanation and so for a while I thought Chad (a stoner guy) and Max were different people but no stoner Chad is Max’s alias? In his free time he is a beauty and fashion influencer (??) whose highlight reel includes knee high uggs, mime make up and crochet briefs (which Edie has saved as a video file on her phone to watch at her leisure??)

The two of them are the last remaining people who live in the inner circle of a zombie containment zone. And what do you know, the zombies have escaped and it’s somehow their duty to warn the world? It’s unclear why they don’t have more governmental oversight for the zombies which theoretically a major threat.

Oh did I mention this world is full of every supernatural you can think of? Yes, you meet witches, oracles, fae, demons and so much more. There is so much world building that could have been done but most of the time it is just a casual mention and moving on. I still don’t know what “Enhanced Humans” are, there is no outright explanation and they are just mentioned as something other than normal humans.

Overall, I think Dade tried as best as they could to write a supernatural romance (they admitted it’s their first one). And for a first time it’s pretty good, but it’s lacking in the strong world building which is a big part of this genre. I wish she cut half of the ideas in the book and really simplified and it would have both made more sense and feel complete.

This book was such an absolutely delight to read- start to finish. Edie and Max captured my attention from chapter one, and from there I got really invested in their world.

I had a lot of fun with the paranormal aspects of this- I thought the zombie lore was interesting and enjoyed the other magical side characters they encountered along the way. I especially loved the mall scenes and the people there!

This book also had me laughing out loud MANY times, and I really loved the campy, funny tone.

And on the romance side, our vampire pretty boy Max was DOWN BAD from the START and it was so cute how in love he was and how much it contributed.

Overall it was just a whole lot of fun

"Vampires are pansexual."

I haven't read an Olivia Dade book since Spoiler Alert but this book looked very Anna and the Apocalypse so I knew I needed to read it ASAP.

Edie is so quippy and funny! I loved all the banter between her and Max (not Chad). All of the bits they did and jokes they made were honestly the best. I was laughing so hard during this book. And there's a certain song I was humming the entire time. Shout out to Olivia Dade for putting the "Com" back in "RomCom". I love couples that laugh together and tease each other and play around because it's so cute and special. This book excelled in all things humor.

There are some of those classic cheesy elements you'll find in a lot of paranormal romance like Warm Bodies or Twilight, but it's not overdone and I had a good time with it all. I thought the worldbuilding was balanced well with the story. There's just enough information and it's not focused on too heavily - pretty similar to Bride in that regard! There are even some cool graphics/maps at the beginning of the book to really set the scene.

We do get some interesting side characters in the last 3rd of the book. I really liked how everything came together and the ending is pretty epic (and sets up for a sequel just FYI) but I do kind of wish we got our band of misfits a little earlier. It's tough because I'm sure that would've messed with the pacing and the romance but I love a ragtag gang and just wish we got to know them more and got more emotional moments with them to make me fall in love with those characters like I did our main characters. That being said, it didn't mess with me enjoyment, I still think this is a really fun book!

If you're a fan of the movie Anna and the Apocalypse and Ali Hazelwood's book Bride you'll probably enjoy reading Zomromcom :)


Thank you so much to Berkley for the advanced copy!

Armed with only a burrito, when Edie sees her neighbor Chad in peril of being zombie food, she launches into action. What she isn’t aware of is that Chad is actually a very old, very powerful vampire whose real name is Gaston (yep) who can take care of himself. This unlikely duo aligns to figure out why zombies have breached their holding area and who is behind the shifty circumstances surrounding their release. But as they cut off zombie heads and meet a cast of characters, can an aloof vampire and a ray of pure sunshine find their happily ever after?

Thanks Berkeley for this advanced arc! I liked the book (three stars is a like in my book). I loved Edie and deeply appreciated the fat representation. She was quirky and hilarious (and my millennial self loved all her clever Gaston songs). Max was a fun MMC and I loved his alpha protective demeanor. The spicy scenes were wonderfully spicy!

The world was interesting, and I’m interested to learn more. The ending sets up another book, so I’m looking forward to continuing.

Edie lives in a near-deserted neighborhood. The pros: it's cheap, it holds memories of her late parents, and her only neighbor is a pleasant stoner-bro who mostly leaves her alone. The cons: it's in the closest containment zone to the zombie compound. But there hasn't been a zombie breach in 20 years, so she's probably safe. Until the only weapon she has against her first zombie in two decades is a burrito, and she needs to save Chad from being attacked. And then maybe Chad isn't so helpless after all? He's saving her? And has an enormous underground lair? And a fridge full of blood? Maybe his name isn't even Chad? It turns out Chad was an adopted persona, and her neighbor is a vampire named Gaston "Max" Boucher. And they learn they have a lot more in common while fighting zombies and saving the world.

I signed up for bonkers, and I got bonkers. Olivia Dade delivers with her strong prose, explicit open-door scenes, and a motley crew of paranormal characters just trying to make friends in a world where military-experiment-gone-wrong genetically modified zombies are quite literally banging on the walls. It's zany and over the top, and a dramatic escape. Dade has a knack for well-rounded characters and deep emotional complexity, and somehow despite the absurdity of this setting, she still hits on her signature style.

Dade does not spend a lot of time worldbuilding, choosing instead to toss you into a containment zone and fight your way out along with Edie and Max. There's a map at the beginning of the book, and I found myself referring to it a few times to understand what it meant and how it fit with the story. Ultimately, this is contemporary romance with paranormal creatures with a few rules Dade has invented, so don't spend too much time trying to figure out the setting.

I enjoyed the heck out of Zomromcom, and it's one I can see myself rereading when I need a fast-paced romp.

Zomromcom is a fun, fall read. It's spicier than I expected. And less scary than it should be, weirdly. The banter between main characters is so much fun there are laugh out loud moments. It's a like a fun summer read, but for fall.

Zomromcom is a grumpy x sunshine romance following neighbors Edie and Max, as they find themselves stuck together in the middle of a zombie outbreak. After calling for help, the two realize no one has gotten their signal and they need to alert everybody to stop the worst from happening. However, as they quickly discover more may be afoot than just an outbreak, the two decide to rally in all the help they can find to fight back.

This was a really rough read! Jumping straight into a modern world with a zombie outbreak and magical beings, and given basically no world building and history is not how I like to start my books. The romance had so much potential but I just felt like it was all over the place. The story and plot gave the setup for a perfect slow burn with tension as they fight to save the world, but we get extreme instalove instead. Sure Edie and Max had stellar banter and were cute together, but the way they just jump straight into a relationship was weird. Another thing that drove me crazy was the ending, not only was it extremely rushed, but after surviving a major zombie attack and saving the world, I felt like the characters deserved an epilogue and we got nothing. I see the potential for the series, but unless with next book gets a major upgrade, I don't think I can read it!