Lust After Death – Daisy Harris

Bane is a liberated killing stein. When he was reanimated and programmed, it was for the purpose of killing for hire. His undead existence was about blood and gore until he was rescued by the zombie underground. Now he repays that debt by working for them to liberate other captive steins. At the time we meet him, he has one more job to do before he gets his “wipe” to erase the horrors of his past. This assignment is to rescue a love-bot; a stein reanimated for the purpose of sex. This stein has been made illegally by a slightly bonkers scientist. Now he has to rescue Josie, with no knowledge of her prior programming, before she is detained by the only legal stein company in the state. As time goes on, he realises how twisted her creator was as the coding reveals that she needs to have mental and physical feedback from a “husband”; this means if she doesn’t get touched by a man she will start to degrade. It also means that she needs a constant mental link to Bane. He doesn’t like being attached to the newbie stein especially as the side effect of this link is that she can now see into the dark recesses of his memories. Bane usually hates being stuck with other bots for any lengths of time but for some reason this one stirs things in him that he can’t deny. With his attraction for her growing, giving her the sensual contact that she needs doesn’t seem to be a bad thing. Problem is the constant mental contact is creating feelings other than just lust. He knows that when they are both wiped they won’t remember each other. He has always dreamed of getting rid of the bad dreams but will he consider keeping them for her?

I’ve never read a zombie romance before, but I will be reading more after this little book. The stereotypical undead monster is gone and in his place is a sub-race of people that have to struggle daily with discrimination. These zombies still eat organs, but the innards and brains are mainly from animals. They don’t age, they can live forever and the little chip in their head can turn them into any “lifers” fantasy. To be honest, the concept was fabulous, but the situation surrounding their creation was distasteful. These bots are created to be either living sex dolls or mindless killing machines. They can be trapped inside their own heads with a simple command and then their creator can make them do just about anything. Bane was created to kill others by faceless cowards. Josie was created to be a “wife” for a creepy bugger, who obviously couldn’t get a live girlfriend himself, making her sexual responses to Bane quite frightening for her. When it turns out she actually NEEDS sexual contact to survive, I wanted to smack that creepy bastard scientist. I was a bit icked out by the thought of Bane and Josie having to have sex because of her needs, but it helped me to think that they were blatantly attracted to each other. The sex scenes are smoking hot by the way…I do like the way Daisy Harris writes sex. This isn’t erotica; its erotic romance, therefore the story takes precedence over the smexing, but I looked forward to the sex scenes.

The story is only 90 pages long but it manages to pack a lot of story into that length. At the beginning of the story, Josie is a newborn in terms of her life experiences and memories. It contrasts sharply with the very adult urges that she has been programmed with and I think this made me more uncomfortable. By the end of the book, she has accepted what she wants/needs and accepted Bane. She can be quite the little manipulator when she puts her mind to it; I loved her and truly enjoyed how she gets her own way. Bane starts the book hating himself and, with the help of the lovely Josie, tries to accept that his past in his past. He is a lovely little hottie and his protective instincts are really quite endearing. As a couple, I feel they worked well. Their shared traumatic experiences with “lifers” gave them a solid foundation and they just built on that. I never doubted that they would have a HEA; they are fabulous together.