What do you think?
Rate this book
Ashes and Alphas
The dead don’t scare me. But four Alphas who want to claim me? That’s a different kind of nightmare.
I’ve survived this long by staying invisible. Hiding my scent. Trusting no one.
Then I made a mistake. I saved him.
Now I’ve got a half-dead Alpha in my hideout, and the rest of his pack hot on his trail. They say I’m theirs. That they’ve imprinted. That in this broken world, we make our own rules.
But I didn’t survive the fall of humanity to be someone’s Omega prize.
They want my trust.
They want my scent.
They want my surrender.
Too bad I don’t believe in happy endings anymore.
I’ve survived this long by staying invisible. Hiding my scent. Trusting no one.
Then I made a mistake. I saved him.
Now I’ve got a half-dead Alpha in my hideout, and the rest of his pack hot on his trail. They say I’m theirs. That they’ve imprinted. That in this broken world, we make our own rules.
But I didn’t survive the fall of humanity to be someone’s Omega prize.
They want my trust.
They want my scent.
They want my surrender.
Too bad I don’t believe in happy endings anymore.
279 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 8, 2025
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
Did Not Finish
August 2, 2025DNF. I'm just leaving my notes I took until I stopped reading.
🔹 "The pharmacy’s half-open door is an invitation to both life and death, but I accept its risk with a soft inhale and a steadier exhale."
20 pages of these annoyingly vague AND overly descriptive references over and over and over. And it keeps going on.
Page 23 after she's already told us a staggering amount of times how every object in this world is both a danger and a relief:
🔹 "Every fallen and discarded item is a land mine in my mind, a dinner bell I might set off. Every breath is one I’m trying to silence. My senses are on alert, overloaded, a guitar string tuned too tightly. It’s how I survive. It’s how I’ve always survived."
Please get me out of this woman's head 😭
🔹 "I hold myself still again, hearing a muffled thump overhead. It’s soft, like a whisper, a soft syllable on the breeze, and that makes it worse. An intruder's heavy tread I know how to handle, but this? Could be anything. Could be nothing."
Who gave this woman a mic???
🔹 "My eyes scan every shadow for danger and possibility, wanting both to give up and go back and to push forward and get out. Wanting everything. Knowing what it costs to want."
I'm for real laughing now. 24 pages of this and nothing has fucking happened in his book yet.
🔹 "I don’t leave a single supply behind, and each second that ticks by in my mental ledger makes me question the choice. What’s worth more—the time or the haul?
I always want both.
I always need both.
The room contracts, a vice around my chest, the air more poison than breath. I’m aware of my heartbeat like the thud of heavy boots against concrete, a measured countdown until everything falls apart.
I work faster, my urgency red-lining, a thing with teeth that snaps at me. A final push against what it means to have stayed this long."
Yo when every damn sentence in 25 pages tries to emphasize urgency, danger, and allude to past traumas, THEY CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT. This is so heavy handed I'm not in the story anymore. We wouldn't have to be TOLD every breath she takes or move she makes is dangerous if we were being SHOWN instead.
Those quotes were all from the same chapter btw (chapter 2). We never move forward in time without every little thing being mentally analyzed first.
Wait let's review something in these first two chapters for a sec:
🔹 "A snap echoes in the distance...I freeze...Just the settling of old structures..."
🔹 "I keep moving...ignoring the unsettling creak of settling wood and dust-drowned concrete. Knowing each one might not be the structure alone."
🔹 "It’s impossible to know if the noise that echoes next is the structure settling, an undead monster roaming, or my mind fraying."
How many times do we have to read the same damn things??? These aren't the only references to the dangers of seemingly ordinary sounds in these pages alone. I am drowning in the overemphasization of danger here.
🔹 "My hand hesitates, inches from the panel. The pause feels like an eternity. I can almost hear her voice, cutting and sharp, telling me to get out before I see something I shouldn’t. I pull back, my internal debate playing out with more urgency than usual. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t look...The tension in the room vibrates against my skin, urging me to dig deeper, to uncover what she’s hidden away."
Oh so all of the MCs' minds are like this. 😭
They're overrun by zombies and of course the MMC that was passed out and on the brink of death, unable to even walk by himself, joins them in the hand-to-hand fighting. Injuries where?
It's been like a day (actually I can't be bothered to remember the exact passage of time) and she's telling them her full trauma because one of them read her journal about it and how else would deeper emotions be established this quickly in a story? (/s)
Nothing is actually explained in this story. I'm 68 pages in and we're still getting vague references to the past with nothing useful about how they got to this point in the world given to us. These guys "lost [their] pack before" and like we're supposed to feel sympathy but we're not given any other information. Were they bonded before? Did they have an omega before? How many other pack members were there? How devastated are they? Bc they say it so nonchalantly.
Maybe we're told later but idk because around this point when I read, "We've all imprinted on you," and had an immediate pavlovian-renesme response, I was done.
I read ahead and wasn't surprised by the ending. I was really looking forward to this because it combined two of my favorite genres. I'll have to keep hoping I find different books that do that.
---
Random quotes I saved from the first few chapters that annoyed tf out of me when combined with pages and pages of them:
I go to the place where I keep the weapons. A row of silent, lethal guardians lined up against the wall. They're as polished as anything in this grimy world can be, reflecting what little light seeps through. I make sure they are. They have to be. It's them or me, and I know who to pick.
I remind myself I can get out when I need to. I can run if I want. But I already know the lies in that. The lie is this place, the idea that I'm anything but trapped here, trapped by my own hand. Caught, like they’ll catch me.
The uncertainty wraps itself around my thoughts, a constant shadow of doubt. I hesitate. Not for the first time. A quiet curse escapes me as I press the pin into place.
(She's literally just placing a pin on a map to mark something for later😭)
I think back to last night and the shots that followed me home, wondering if they'll haunt me forever. But it's better than being found. I won't let myself be found. Every note is a moment of time I might not have. I can't let them slip away.
A platform rests along the back wall, just wide enough for my sleeping bag under it. The distance from floor to platform is laughable, only enough for me to tuck myself away like a ghost. Like I'm already gone. I catch myself wishing I was, knowing I won't be.
🔹 "The pharmacy’s half-open door is an invitation to both life and death, but I accept its risk with a soft inhale and a steadier exhale."
20 pages of these annoyingly vague AND overly descriptive references over and over and over. And it keeps going on.
Page 23 after she's already told us a staggering amount of times how every object in this world is both a danger and a relief:
🔹 "Every fallen and discarded item is a land mine in my mind, a dinner bell I might set off. Every breath is one I’m trying to silence. My senses are on alert, overloaded, a guitar string tuned too tightly. It’s how I survive. It’s how I’ve always survived."
Please get me out of this woman's head 😭
🔹 "I hold myself still again, hearing a muffled thump overhead. It’s soft, like a whisper, a soft syllable on the breeze, and that makes it worse. An intruder's heavy tread I know how to handle, but this? Could be anything. Could be nothing."
Who gave this woman a mic???
🔹 "My eyes scan every shadow for danger and possibility, wanting both to give up and go back and to push forward and get out. Wanting everything. Knowing what it costs to want."
I'm for real laughing now. 24 pages of this and nothing has fucking happened in his book yet.
🔹 "I don’t leave a single supply behind, and each second that ticks by in my mental ledger makes me question the choice. What’s worth more—the time or the haul?
I always want both.
I always need both.
The room contracts, a vice around my chest, the air more poison than breath. I’m aware of my heartbeat like the thud of heavy boots against concrete, a measured countdown until everything falls apart.
I work faster, my urgency red-lining, a thing with teeth that snaps at me. A final push against what it means to have stayed this long."
Yo when every damn sentence in 25 pages tries to emphasize urgency, danger, and allude to past traumas, THEY CANCEL EACH OTHER OUT. This is so heavy handed I'm not in the story anymore. We wouldn't have to be TOLD every breath she takes or move she makes is dangerous if we were being SHOWN instead.
Those quotes were all from the same chapter btw (chapter 2). We never move forward in time without every little thing being mentally analyzed first.
Wait let's review something in these first two chapters for a sec:
🔹 "A snap echoes in the distance...I freeze...Just the settling of old structures..."
🔹 "I keep moving...ignoring the unsettling creak of settling wood and dust-drowned concrete. Knowing each one might not be the structure alone."
🔹 "It’s impossible to know if the noise that echoes next is the structure settling, an undead monster roaming, or my mind fraying."
How many times do we have to read the same damn things??? These aren't the only references to the dangers of seemingly ordinary sounds in these pages alone. I am drowning in the overemphasization of danger here.
🔹 "My hand hesitates, inches from the panel. The pause feels like an eternity. I can almost hear her voice, cutting and sharp, telling me to get out before I see something I shouldn’t. I pull back, my internal debate playing out with more urgency than usual. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t look...The tension in the room vibrates against my skin, urging me to dig deeper, to uncover what she’s hidden away."
Oh so all of the MCs' minds are like this. 😭
They're overrun by zombies and of course the MMC that was passed out and on the brink of death, unable to even walk by himself, joins them in the hand-to-hand fighting. Injuries where?
It's been like a day (actually I can't be bothered to remember the exact passage of time) and she's telling them her full trauma because one of them read her journal about it and how else would deeper emotions be established this quickly in a story? (/s)
Nothing is actually explained in this story. I'm 68 pages in and we're still getting vague references to the past with nothing useful about how they got to this point in the world given to us. These guys "lost [their] pack before" and like we're supposed to feel sympathy but we're not given any other information. Were they bonded before? Did they have an omega before? How many other pack members were there? How devastated are they? Bc they say it so nonchalantly.
Maybe we're told later but idk because around this point when I read, "We've all imprinted on you," and had an immediate pavlovian-renesme response, I was done.
I read ahead and wasn't surprised by the ending. I was really looking forward to this because it combined two of my favorite genres. I'll have to keep hoping I find different books that do that.
---
Random quotes I saved from the first few chapters that annoyed tf out of me when combined with pages and pages of them:
I go to the place where I keep the weapons. A row of silent, lethal guardians lined up against the wall. They're as polished as anything in this grimy world can be, reflecting what little light seeps through. I make sure they are. They have to be. It's them or me, and I know who to pick.
I remind myself I can get out when I need to. I can run if I want. But I already know the lies in that. The lie is this place, the idea that I'm anything but trapped here, trapped by my own hand. Caught, like they’ll catch me.
The uncertainty wraps itself around my thoughts, a constant shadow of doubt. I hesitate. Not for the first time. A quiet curse escapes me as I press the pin into place.
(She's literally just placing a pin on a map to mark something for later😭)
I think back to last night and the shots that followed me home, wondering if they'll haunt me forever. But it's better than being found. I won't let myself be found. Every note is a moment of time I might not have. I can't let them slip away.
A platform rests along the back wall, just wide enough for my sleeping bag under it. The distance from floor to platform is laughable, only enough for me to tuck myself away like a ghost. Like I'm already gone. I catch myself wishing I was, knowing I won't be.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Did Not Finish
August 22, 2025Why say few word when lot do trick?
I honestly think I'd really like this author's writing style if they just toned it down like 50%. I don't need a metaphor or simile every other sentence, I don't need multiple paragraphs talking about how the heroine heard a floorboard creak and all the emotional ramifications of that experience for her. I thought initially that this was just the heroine's mind and she's this hermit slowly going insane, so her internal monologue is overwrought and full of navel-gazing. But no, the heroes have the same voice as her lol.
In contrast the dialogue was kinda cliche. During the zombie fight early in the book, they're saying things like "Was wondering when you'd throw a party," and "Can't let you have all the fun." When she's patching another one up and checking for bites, he says "We usually buy dinner first." It was just incongruous to me that the internal monologue is so heavy and dense, but when the characters start talking suddenly we're in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The 'last stand against the zombie hoard' was a nice moment to bring them together and convince Sage to let them stay with her, but then the snooping and the journal reading happened and I was like... y'all been in this woman's home for less than 24 hours and you're already digging around? Then the double-whammy of having Silas and Ronan's back-to-back chapters start with a deluge of metaphors and similes made me DNF. I thought I was gonna get a break from being in Sage's head, but they sound just like her... T-T
I honestly think I'd really like this author's writing style if they just toned it down like 50%. I don't need a metaphor or simile every other sentence, I don't need multiple paragraphs talking about how the heroine heard a floorboard creak and all the emotional ramifications of that experience for her. I thought initially that this was just the heroine's mind and she's this hermit slowly going insane, so her internal monologue is overwrought and full of navel-gazing. But no, the heroes have the same voice as her lol.
In contrast the dialogue was kinda cliche. During the zombie fight early in the book, they're saying things like "Was wondering when you'd throw a party," and "Can't let you have all the fun." When she's patching another one up and checking for bites, he says "We usually buy dinner first." It was just incongruous to me that the internal monologue is so heavy and dense, but when the characters start talking suddenly we're in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The 'last stand against the zombie hoard' was a nice moment to bring them together and convince Sage to let them stay with her, but then the snooping and the journal reading happened and I was like... y'all been in this woman's home for less than 24 hours and you're already digging around? Then the double-whammy of having Silas and Ronan's back-to-back chapters start with a deluge of metaphors and similes made me DNF. I thought I was gonna get a break from being in Sage's head, but they sound just like her... T-T
June 10, 2025
I didn't hate it but I also didn't love it.
FMMMM.
Imprinting.
Bonding.
Ritual; because bonding wasn't enough?
If you're looking for spice like a typical Omegaverse pick another book.
It had some zombies just not what I was expecting. 🤷🏼♀️
FMMMM.
Imprinting.
Bonding.
Ritual; because bonding wasn't enough?
If you're looking for spice like a typical Omegaverse pick another book.
It had some zombies just not what I was expecting. 🤷🏼♀️
June 12, 2025
Ashes and alphas
Sage is an Omega who has lived on her own for three years in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. She sets traps and other various ways to detect trouble at her door. On a standard medical supply run to replenish her med supplies she runs into a hurt alpha and decides to save him against her better judgment.
After she does a quick Field triage, the alpha she saves pack finds them. Ronan is the hurt alpha, his angry distrustful twin Tobias, Silas is the quiet observer and Jax is the friendly golden retriever alpha.
Sage ends up taking the four Office to her little home she created in the middle of disaster . She fixes up Ronan‘s leg and tells the alphas that they have to leave after Ronan‘s better. However, with the scent of blood in the air, a massive hoard of the undead tries to break into the perimeter of her home.
Silas learns an important lesson regarding a woman’s diary.
This story has betrayal of past friendships, kidnapping and trafficking. A pack that would do anything for you and a refuge camp for survivors.
Sage is an Omega who has lived on her own for three years in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. She sets traps and other various ways to detect trouble at her door. On a standard medical supply run to replenish her med supplies she runs into a hurt alpha and decides to save him against her better judgment.
After she does a quick Field triage, the alpha she saves pack finds them. Ronan is the hurt alpha, his angry distrustful twin Tobias, Silas is the quiet observer and Jax is the friendly golden retriever alpha.
Sage ends up taking the four Office to her little home she created in the middle of disaster . She fixes up Ronan‘s leg and tells the alphas that they have to leave after Ronan‘s better. However, with the scent of blood in the air, a massive hoard of the undead tries to break into the perimeter of her home.
Silas learns an important lesson regarding a woman’s diary.
This story has betrayal of past friendships, kidnapping and trafficking. A pack that would do anything for you and a refuge camp for survivors.
June 28, 2025
I usually don't drive into too many Apocalypse books since I've gotten bored with a few and had to DNF. I can honestly say, I really enjoyed this one. I like how Saiya Summers went into more detail on other aspects of the book besides just zombies and made this universe bigger than just that. Things don't exactly move slow between out FMC and our MMCs but at a decent pace when you consider all the factors involved. I wouldn't consider this a quick read since there is a lot of details but it was definitely worth the read!
August 19, 2025
DNF @ 20% (page 57 of the ebook)
I’ve found quite a few errors so far. Repeated sentences, misspelled words. Also names not adding up…One character introduced as Silas and then on the chapter heading with the character name it’s Salias. I assume it’s a type like the many others, but come on.
In need of editing. Until that happens, I wouldn’t recommend.
I’ve found quite a few errors so far. Repeated sentences, misspelled words. Also names not adding up…One character introduced as Silas and then on the chapter heading with the character name it’s Salias. I assume it’s a type like the many others, but come on.
In need of editing. Until that happens, I wouldn’t recommend.
August 9, 2025
I like a good apocalypse book, this isn’t one.
Omegaverse, apocalypse - and yet the overly descriptive internal whining from the FMC just drove me made. It is RH, but it’s still not a great book for me.
Omegaverse, apocalypse - and yet the overly descriptive internal whining from the FMC just drove me made. It is RH, but it’s still not a great book for me.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews