I listened to the box set. Book 1 was pretty good. The rest of the review covers beginning with book 2.
The story was mostly talking about sex or young teens “necking” and fondling each other and the adults mostly ignoring or condoning it (though stopped short of under aged people actually have sex, thankfully).
As important as connection and relationships are, and I suspect would be in an apocalypse, the ongoing telling of match-making, horny adults and young teens, kissing and fondling became prominent over character development and survival. It just went on and on and on…
There was no main antagonist so no buildup of any real individual or group accomplishments. Just quick, short encounters with groups amounting to “you do this and you do that, good we killed them all.”
There was never a sense of desperation.
The Romance Novelist was bursting at the seem begging to come out from start of book 2 until the end.
Loved grandma’s letters.
Kevin Pierce’s narration is always 100%