First published 2026
Maisie Bennett carries weapons in her utility belt and has never made it past a first date. The anxious doomsday prepper decides to lose her virginity as a new virus spreads across the country. She matches with Dr. Everett Greer, a film professor still reeling from personal tragedy who only agreed to the date because his friend catfished Maisie to get him socializing again. Their awkward dinner takes a deadly turn when the GI virus starts killing people and bringing them back as flesh-eating zombies. Suddenly Maisie's paranoid preparations make perfect sense. She teams up with the unprepared professor and his cat Chicken for a dangerous journey north to safety. Maisie teaches Everett survival skills while he introduces her to movies, travel, and intimacy. The mismatched pair grow closer as chaos spreads around them, but their budding romance faces the ultimate test when both their lives and hearts hang in the balance.
Genres: survival, horror, adult, adult-fiction, post-apocalyptic, contemporary-romance
Vibes: darkly-comedic, emotional, fast-paced, gritty, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, forced-proximity, found-family, opposites-attract, slow-burn-romance
Period: contemporary
Paperback
Content warnings: death, gore, violence