Title: Praying for Rain (Praying for Rain #1)
Author: B.B. Easton
Genre: Romance
Edition/Pages: Audiobook, 6 Hours 27 Minutes
Goodreads page

Summary

For the last year, everyone in the world has been having dreams about the world ending on April 23rd. As the day approaches, society begins to collapse. Now just days before the end of the world, violence and destruction have taken over. Rain Williams is ready – the end of the world means she no longer needs to feel anything. Until Wes shows up and convinces her that they can survive.

Overview

Overall I don’t think this book was terrible, but it was most definitely not for me. I didn’t connect with the relationship and the twist just didn’t work for me. I can 100% see why so many people love this, it’s sadly just not my kind of story. If you’re into post-apocalyptic romance, I’d say disregard my review and give this a shot.

➸ POV – This is told in alternating chapters from Rain and Wes’s POVs

➸ Rain Williams – 19, Addict, Dealing with grief/trauma, Waiting for the world to end.

➸ Wes Parker – 22, Foster child, Musician, Personal Motto: “Everyone Leaves”, Believes he can survive the end of the world.

➸ Audiobook – I listened to this audio so I figured I would comment on the narration… because I didn’t love it. The faux southern accents were definitely cringey. But the male narrator… the voice he used for female characters was borderline offensive. He made everyone sound so whiny and childish. I actually had to speed up his sections to get through them as quickly as possible.

➸ Content Warnings: Suicide, Murder, Drug Abuse, Grief, Depression/Anxiety, Gun Violence, Death of an Infant, Child Neglect, Foster Care System

What I Liked

➸ I thought this entire story was SO unique. I’ve never read anything like this and I really appreciated reading something so completely different.

➸ The dreams & devolution of society created made this such an atmospheric, almost spooky, read. You really get into the heads of these characters as they deal with horrifying dreams about the end of the world and their ability (or inability) to deal with them. I love the look at how society as a whole collapsed once everyone thought they were going to die. I definitely got drawn into the world and atmosphere.

What I Didn’t Like

Unfortunately quite a bit…

➸ I felt very uncomfortable with the way Wes talked about Rain. In one breath he would comment on how young, innocent, and child-like she was but in the next he would talk about wanting to undress her. It was odd and… uncomfortable.

➸ Ughhh… another book that romanticized unprotected sex. Can we please stop doing this? These 2 characters met about 2 days ago and they’re already doing this? Not okay.

➸ Speaking of which – this entire romance was a giant case of insta-love. There was absolutely no build up. One second, Wes is kidnapping Rain to get food and the next he’s in love with and risking his life for her. It made no sense to me and hindered me from ever connecting to the romance.

➸ This ending… About half way through the book I thought to myself “hm… I’ll be really annoyed if…”. And then it happened. I don’t know, it just didn’t work for me and I do not plan on continuing on with this series because I don’t think I will like the direction it goes in.

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Overall, this just wasn’t the book for me. I think this is really unique story with an audience that will absolutely adore it. Sadly I’m just not that audience, so I won’t be continuing on with this series.