Posted on  21/08/2024 12:50:50

My rating: 5 dark stars


And this book would make a badass blockbuster movie!!!

Copy received from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you Julia Ash! This was an AWESOME read!!

Survival wouldn't just happen; she'd make it happen.
Let anything or anyone try to stop her.

Fan Art by The Magic Book Corner

In a post-apocalyptic world, where bioterorism threatened to wipe out the humanity as a whole, Ruby Spencer is 'The One and Only'. She had always had a knack for outrunning death, for surviving the impossible. She suspects it could be because of an in utero blood transfusion she received. A transfusion that saved her life and no doubt had contributed to her blood's unusual complexities. Because her blood was special. It was the only thing that had resisted the infection unleashed through bioterorism and provided a cure.
Ruby's blood had saved humanity.
Until it didn't.

The pathogen mutated and the new strain seemed to have no cure. Not even Ruby's blood could counter it. Humans are now turned into walking zombies and there doesn't seem to be any solution in sight. The U.S. Special Warfare Council tries to deal with the escalating Extinction Level Infection (ELI) and needs the best minds acutely focused on the fight ahead. Ruby being one of them.

Fan Art by The Magic Book Corner

But Ruby had recently become a new mother and her priorities have shifted. Safety for her child and a peaceful life with her husband are more important to her now than her job. something that doesn't sit quite right with neither her colleagues, nor the president herself. To prevent Ruby from quitting and get her back into the game, they send her and her husband Clay on a a low-risk mission to Taiwan where they’ll consult with scientists analyzing the new strain of infection to try and find out anything new about it.

As it turns out however, the low-risk mission is not a LOW risk at all. Things go to hell-in-a-handbasket pretty quickly and Ruby finds herself separated from her husband, kidnapped, imprisoned and thrust into a perverse war game between superpowers, where she’s the prize. She's what everybody wants.
Only she doesn’t know why. Or even how her abduction relates to the ELI crisis.

What Ruby will do and what all she and her husband will go through, I'll leave that for you to find out. But if you'll see all those twists coming, I'll eat my damn boots!
And yes! I'm pretty confident you won't be catching me with a mouthful of leather any time soon.
This is one hell of a ride with an end that will sweep you off your feet.

The One and Only is a fast paced adventure from cover to cover. It grabbed me from the very first paragraph and kept me glued to the pages till the very end.
The beginning is a little slow action-wise but that is beautifully compensated with the scientific mystery of the infection. The why and the how behind it, which Ruby and her husband try to figure out.
And when the ball starts rolling action-wise, you'll be stuck at the edge of the seat biting your nails until the very end. Shit happens when you least expect it, to keep you on your toes. And even when the odds are clearly in the good guys' favor, perhaps getting the jitters should serve as a good warning.

Fan Art by The Magic Book Corner

I loved both Ruby and Clay as characters. Wonderfully fleshed out and as real as they get. Their dynamic is one rarely met and absolutely refreshing. With Ruby the strong one and Clay her trusted sidekick. They complement each other so beautifully that they practically leap off the pages.

The side characters were also not forgotten. Unlike those from other books, that pass through the pages and are easily forgotten, these side characters here are ones you will remember. Because this author doesn't cut corners in their build up either. I found myself rooting for several of them along the way. And that rarely happens.

And then we get the bad guys: Quinton Oxford, Vladimir Volkov and their scientist. All three bona-fide psychos! One a real Einstein - of the twisted variety and the others downright unhinged.

Ox is however the worst.
A despicable traitor, turncoat and bad to the bone, Ox is a nasty piece of work who doesn't give a rat's fried butt on anyone's opinion and tramples on everyone and everything that gets in the way of his plans. And what I found the best about him as antagonist was that little insight into his motives. That little glimpse which showed from where it had all begun. Because no human is purely good or purely evil. We all have both light and darkness inside. Until something happens that tips us over the edge.

As far as zombie books go, this one is absolutely refreshing! Now don't get me wrong. It does have it's fair share of those hair-stand-on-end descriptions of creepy stuff that any horror fan will love.

'The thick liquid looked alive, escaping from the body and creeping, like reaching fingers, inching over the concrete. He had been told the tar-like goo left a zombie corpse in search of a new host. Talk about getting the creeps - like on steroids.'
This book has creeps galore!

But what set it apart and made it downright addictive, was the perverse war game between the superpowers, set on an absolutely plausible and believable premise and complemented by realistic military and fight scenes, as well as sound scientific explanation. A brilliantly mastered mix that I cannot help but admire. One that set this book straight on my Best Reads List for this year.

Ruby reminded me a little of GI Jane in her perseverance and will to survive