I would like to thank author Alexia Purdy for granting me a copy of this e-book to read in exchange for an honest review. Though I received this e-book for free that in no way impacts my review. My overall rating for the collection of stories that make up this omnibus sits at a 3.5, and it is solidly on that marker. This of course makes the decision of which way to round the end result very difficult, but ultimately I've determined to round down to 3 stars.

The omnibus is a decent read, but after a while the main protagonist, April, feels a bit stagnant, neither maturing nor regressing for any length of time. The action is solidly written, though the supporting characters at times have stronger appeal than April herself, which makes it somewhat disappointing when their story lines simply fade away. Had April shown a greater range of emotions, and solid emotional growth, I feel this series could have been much stronger.

Goodreads Blurb:

Included in this omnibus package are books 1-3 with 2 extra bonus short novellas.

Reign of Blood (Reign of Blood #1)
"Never tease anything that wants to eat you. My name is April Tate and my blood is the new gold. Vampires and hybrids have overrun my world, once vibrant with life, but now a graveyard of death shrouded in shadows. I fight to survive; I fight for my mother and brother. The journey is full of turns that I am quite unprepared for. And I'm just hoping to make it to the next Vegas sunrise..."

In a post-apocalyptic world, a viral epidemic has wiped out most of the earth’s population, leaving behind few humans but untold numbers of mutated vampires. April is a seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the remains of Las Vegas one year after the outbreak. She has become a ferocious vampire killer and after her family is abducted, she goes searching for them. What she finds is a new breed of vampire, unlike any she has seen before. Unsure of whom she can trust, she discovers that her view of the world is not as black and white as she once thought, and she's willing to bend the rules to rescue her family. But in trying to save them, she may only succeed in bringing her fragile world crashing down around her.

A dynamic new approach to the overdone themes of vampires and dystopian societies, the breath of fresh air this book brings to the genres is both much needed and well done. April, a girl who should be starting college and worrying about things like clothes, her manicure, and which boy to date, is instead holed up in a mountain bunker with her family, fighting for their survival.

For some unknown reason, the virus that reduced the population to a fraction of its size, also destroyed humanity as we knew it. So far the only exceptions we know about are April, her much younger brother, Jeremy, and their mother. Ever since they stumbled upon it, they've been living in a well-stocked, house-sized version of a panic room in the mountains above Las Vegas. Being practical they still head down into the city during the day to stock up on supplies from the grocery stores, etc. Thus far they've only encountered the brainless, feral vampires.

When her mother and brother are abducted, April vows to get them back or die trying. And she's taking out her anger on the feral vamps everywhere she goes. But one miscalculation and suddenly she's being rescued by something she's never encountered before. A human-vampire hybrid. It appears someone changed the rules of the game, without telling her. Now she's left to navigate a whole new world, determining friend from foe, while still remaining her laser-like focus on rescuing her family.

The moral dilemmas April faces continue to increase as some of the monsters she faces retain a semblance of humanity, something she thought was gone forever. Suddenly her challenges increase as she is thrust back toward her old world, yet stuck living in the new. This is a solidly engaging read, with likable characters, and moral issues that challenge both April and the reader alike. There are many questions that remain to be answered, and new discoveries that raise many new questions, all of which April will have to deal with as her small family tries to heal from their respective ordeals. Book two promises to be just as intriguing as the initial entry into this series.

*******WARNING: If you haven't read book one, stop here. There are spoilers for the first book in the review for the second!*******

Disarming (Reign of Blood #2)
The world has changed. One must adapt to survive or hold on to the crumbling shards of humanity.

April continues to hold her fragile world together, but the ties that hold her family together are quickly unraveling. Rumors of a massive human underground settlement draw her to the shadows of the city once more in search of other survivors more like her, even with the hybrid vampires opposing her every move.

The darkness hides secrets along with the continued threat the Feral Vampires create, but a greater evil hides within the city. Something tells April that the humans will be less than welcoming of her, and that's if she can find them before the Vampires do. Joining sides with the enemy might be the only choice she has left.

The sequel to Reign of Blood easily fulfilled the expectations of excitement and suspense that was set for it in the previous book. April continues to hold out hope that things will get better and return to her new 'normal,' the life she'd grown accustomed to before her family had been ruthlessly kidnapped by a rival hive of hybrids.

While this book contains more than its share of action, some of it is on a more adult level - meaning that April no longer just reacts to the world around her. She is actually beginning to think ahead, as much as is possible in a world where almost everything is an unknown.

Emotionally April does a bit of growing, but she's a long way from mature. Just because she is now the decision-maker for her family doesn't mean she's mature. If anything she is more confused now than she was before encountering Rye, Miranda, and the rest of Blaze's hive of hybrids. She is so strongly attracted to Rye, yet she can't find a way to break through the barrier she's erected to protect herself. Is Rye willing to wait for her to figure it out? And can he forgive her the choices she's made, or will they destroy their relationship before it even truly began?

This book brings may choices, often where the options are simply the lesser of two evils. But many are caused by impetuous, or even selfish, behavior. Will those involved learn their lessons and be able to walk off into the sunrise, or will it spell the end for April and Rye? And maybe even the end for April herself, or Blaze's hive? Will April find what she's searching for, and if she does, what will the end result be? What about her goal to find 'a family' for Jeremy, especially if anything should ever happen to her - at least until her mother recovers (if she recovers at all)? Clearly this book resolves many issues, but it has created at least as many questions as those April faced before. More in fact, now that she's had to step up into the parenting role and make the decisions for her small family.

*******WARNING: If you haven't read the first two books, stop here. There are spoilers for the both books contained within this review of the third book!*******

Amplified (Reign of Blood #3)
Who wants to be the prey in a world full of hunters?

In the aftermath of the end of her world, April Tate decides that it's high time to leave the city that never sleeps, Las Vegas. After learning the origins of a Zompire Plague remedy, she risks her life to steal the antidote, makes the decision to separate from Jeremy for a while, and joins a small band of new and old comrades on a trip to the Pacific Coast. There they search out a legendary hive of vampires who are more than just wild, blood drinking creatures, they could be the very people she needs to help her.

On a mission to save the last of humanity, April will use the antidote to save some from eternal damnation, but will her decision bring hope for the future or create an ever bigger, unforeseen devastation?

Though essentially as full of action and violence as the previous books, this one seemed to leave April in the depressed rut that she'd slipped into during Disarming. Being bonded to her former arch-nemesis, Christian, but desiring to love only Rye, has left April even darker than she was before. She spends much of this book trapped in her head, whining. While that's understandable, it tends to grate on the nerves after a bit.

Instead of maturing throughout this part of the story, April seems to be regressing. She remains insistent that everything be done her way, which struck me as a bit odd, seeing as she's certainly not the most powerful being in this strange new world. At least, not most of the time. Sometimes she is the biggest badass around, even if she is a petite little thing. Why does she feel entitled to behave as if she's the alpha all the time, and even more puzzling, why does everyone allow it?

Somehow she has become surrounded by a few astoundingly loyal friends, and they put up with her constant attitude. Instead of learning to focus on the positives of the situation, she dwells on the negatives, and often creates more friction than was necessary. Thankfully her core group of friends stick it out, and help her begin to move forward into a slightly more optimistic outlook. The idea of a cure also has much to do with this refreshing adjustment to her attitude.

It is nice to see April finally begin to mature in her thinking, although it seems to be a case of too little, too late - at least for me. Where she was once gung-ho about the possible cure, she slowly begins to question the realities of using it. It breaks through her thick skull that this 'cure' may cause more problems than it solved. And she finally figures out the tremendous challenge involved in determining who would be responsible for creating enough, and ensuring that they were fair in getting this cure to all beings that were once human. Not too mention the fact that there would be many reluctant to give up their newly created powers. Who would want to go back to being a powerless human when they could retain all the benefits the virus gave them? Who would choose to become fully human again while there would still be those with extra strength, speed, mental abilities that could be used to compel them against their will? All it would take is one person turning down the fabled cure to cause the whole house of cards she'd created in her mind to come tumbling down.

Additionally, the end of this book felt rushed to me. All this buildup, only to be wrapped up in a handful of pages. New characters introduced, only to be glossed over once they've completed crucial roles. Conflicts were shown, but no resolutions provided. And above all, some of the main questions set out in the first book are never answered, as well as lesser questions remaining unanswered even though those events were set up to allow for a much larger impact, but never came to fruition. It all left me wondering if another book is actually planned, particularly in light of what is said during the final pages. Knowing another book is following would certainly make the ending of this book more palatable. Without that information I find myself judging the end of this book/series more harshly than I might otherwise have done.

Resonant (Reign of Blood Prequel)
Surviving is worse than death…

As the first days of the end of humanity tumble across the city of Las Vegas in the form of an overwhelming viral infection, turning almost everyone into vampire-like creatures, April Tate will find out what it really means to survive. What does it take to make it out alive in a place where everything is but a withered echo of its former self, and death does not come willingly?

A very short prequel, this covers material that's already been dealt with in the novels. However it does offer a bit more detail, and some specific scenes that were never before mentioned. Reading it as the starting point for the series would certainly be more beneficial and prevent the feeling of repetition I got from reading it after the novels.

Elijah: The Miel Chronicles
(A Reign of Blood Companion Story)
These are the journeys of Miel, the Keeper of the journal.

The workings of heaven are shrouded in mystery and myth, leaving us to only theorize as to what awaits us when we pass.
There are those among us however, that are special cases.
These are good people that have committed a horrendous crime, such as murder.

This is an interesting tale that is somewhat about Elijah, and also about angels and heaven. Miel is a lesser angel who keeps a journal for the head of a court of angels, angels tasked with deciding those unusual cases. The cases that were not clear cut, but rather needed direct oversight to determine which way the soul would be sent. And in the face of this viral vampiric outbreak, this court was overrun, as it took a bit of time for the souls of the infected to disappear, creating huge opportunities for souls to become mislabeled and sent to the wrong destination.

Mile is tasked with finding one case that could save all those touched by the infection, be they infected or not. And somehow, through the journal of Elijah, she may have found the case to do the job. Or at the very least she may have discovered the foundation required to allow their court to continue. Certainly a creative look at the overarching story in relation to the status of the souls of all involved. Not too mention showing us a glimpse of Elijah that was never even hinted at in any of the previous books. A worthy addendum to the series as it stands. ( )