Ultimate Blog Tour: ‘After the Green Withered’ by Kristin Ward

I’m so excited to be involved in this huge, never-before-on-Earth-happened book blog tour!

When Dave first asked me if I thought it was possible or not (he asked many, and though most people loved the idea, of course there were a couple of non-believers, as always), I immediately became very jumpy! Enthusiasm is not beginning to describe what I felt… yeah, it was about to be a long shot. But it was so worth a try, and I’m so glad we’re doing it! And after all, so many people, so many bloggers have got on board! My heart is full, guys. This is such a great community we have here!

But enough about the tour… let’s talk about the book in question! After all, that is what this is all about.

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About the Book

(Goodreads/Amazon/Books2Read)

They tell me the country looked different back then.

They talk of open borders and flowing rivers.

They say the world was green.

But drought swept across the globe and the United States of the past disappeared under a burning sky.

Enora Byrnes lives in the aftermath, a barren world where water has become the global currency. In a life dominated by duty to family and community, Enora is offered a role within an entity that controls everything from water credits to borders. But it becomes clear that not all is as it seems. From the wasted confines of her small town to the bowels of a hidden city, Enora will uncover buried secrets that hide an unthinkable reality.

As truth reveals the brutal face of what she has become, she must ask herself: how far will she go to retain her humanity?

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About the Author

Kristin Ward has loved writing since middle school but took thirty years to do something serious about it. The result is her Best Indie Book Award-winning novel, After the Green Withered, followed by the sequel, Burden of Truth. She lives in a small town in Connecticut with her husband, three sons, and many furry and feathered friends. A SciFi geek to the core, she is fueled by dark chocolate and coffee and can be heard quoting eighties movies on a regular basis.

Twitter

Website

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My Thoughts/Review

Discovery:

I have to admit that before this tour, I have never heard about this book. What a shame! I’m glad I discovered it, at least now.

Brainstorm:

Even the promise of this book was good, but I liked it even more than I expected!

What happened in this book was astonishing, but not in the over-the-top catastrophic plot after an apocalypse kind of way – what makes it terrifying is that it’s realistic.

It’s so realistic that I can actually see these things happening in the future. I mean, they could. And I don’t say that because I’m generally cynical about the people and our future, and our behavior (well, I AM, but I don’t SAY it BECAUSE OF that.). What happens in this book is… a very likely scenario. And that’s scary.

Okay, I won’t say more about the story, go read it and figure it out yourself! 😉 (if you haven’t already)

It’s one of those very rare times, when reading a book I got so into the story that I didn’t care I wasn’t that much into the characters. I’m a very character-driven reader, so it’s a huge statement. The characters were interesting, but they had way more potential than that was actually shown in the book. However, I think that it’s mostly because of what the world is like in the story. When people don’t trust each other, and in general entertainment is not an option at all, when everybody has their own specific, monotonous task in society, than you have very little chance to get to know them well. So, though I hope that in the sequel this will change a bit, I totally get why it is necessary. What’s more, it totally completes the world-building (which is very good, by the way)!

Let’s Give It a Grade!

1. Story: 5/5
2. Characters: 3/5
3. Style: 4/5
4. The Subjective Factor: 5/5

• GPA: 4.25

Uniqueness:

I’d say the realistic world-building is the best thing about this book. It’s spot on!

Recommend to:

Fans of dystopias, especially if you like the ones that are not too complicated. Ones that you can actually believe to be the future.

Drink tip:

Water. Lots of, lots of water.

Music room:

‘Dreamer’ by Ozzy Osborne (Listen to it, even if you don’t like the kind of music Ozzy does. This one is…different. )

Future:

This is the second book in a short time that made me feel the immediate need for downloading the sequel, and wow, that hasn’t before happened in a long, long time! I’m lucky with my reading these days. I haven’t yet acted on it this time, though, because I’m drowning under a HUGE pile of TBR, but I’m really tempted… very, very tempted. UPDATE: by the time this post is getting published, I already read the sequel… Yes. I’m weak.

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Please, don’t forget to make a stop at the other blogs hosting the tour!

Since there are so many participants in this giant tour, there’s a separate banner for each day, so please, bear in mind that these ten blogs are only the tip of the ice berg! I don’t know the exact number of blogs participating, but it is around a hundred which is fantastic! It also means I can’t possibly tag everyone, so here it is: the banner for today!

And here are the others for all the other days:

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If you don’t want to miss the other 9 days’ posts (there are many reviews, first chapter reviews, and also interviews), check out the following tags on Twitter: #thewritereads #ultimateblogtours #afterthegreenwithered !

Also, if you’d like to know what’s going on in the book blogger community, regarding this tour, or because of our #blogoftheday & #reviewoftheday project – or just in general, follow @The_WriteReads (if you’re not following already)!

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Guys! I’m so happy to be a part of this, and I love reading all your posts! It’s like a huge buddy read, everyone read the book around the same time, everyone discusses it, and it’s so great to see we have a common project! Don’t you guys feel like…belonging?

I know I do!

Hugs 🙂 Huge ones.