Seen at Scott Reads It 
 The Lives We Lost by Megan Crewe is the follow-up to the Way We Fall. I have pretty mixed feelings about this book, one on hand I did enjoy reading but on the other hand it was very basic dystopian. In The Lives We Lost Kaelyn and her friends try to find someone to replicate a vaccine for the devastating "Friendly Flu". 
 The Lives We Lost is filled to the brim with action and romance. The action packed scenes were pretty intense and were definitely a treat to read. The action scenes in The Lives We Lost are realistic, brutal and they really caught my attention. 
 The problem is that the rising action that leads up to the intense action are just so basic. Between each action scene there is just a lot of romance and searching and searching. The gap between the action scenes wouldn't have been much of a problem but the romances between the characters were a bit dull. There was too much of that "I can't be with you" and "How can we experience joy and love when the world is in ruins?" in The Lives We Lost. Crewe tries to set up a love triangle scenario but in my opinion it didn't really work too well. The romance was way too sappy and cheesy for my liking. 
 The romance really slows down the pace of the book and just really frustrated me. If you have a potential vaccine, I would think you would rush to find someone to replicate it before it's too late. Kaelyn wastes a decent amount of time oogling, flirting and deciding who she truly loves. Girl, this is the end of the world as you know it and you're just wasting time flirting. I just can't comprehend how someone would place their love life in front of the needs of the entire world. I understand Kaelyn is only a teenage girl. Again and again she proves that she is capable of so much yet she lacks the common sense that her love life isn't a matter of life and death. 
 I truly did enjoy reading The Lives We Lost but the slow pace and romance were aspects of the book that I really loathed. The Lives We Lost is truly an interesting survival story but it was a bit ordinary. In almost every survival tale that I have read there is always a gang that tries to stop our protagonists, a colony that takes them in, and extreme weather. The Lives We Lost was entertaining but it didn't add anything I haven't seen before. I was a bit disappointed with the ending because I felt like nothing was resolved at all. 
 The Lives We Lost was a slightly better book than The Way We Fall. I really missed the diary format from The Way We Fall but I felt like I connected with the characters in this book. The Lives We Lost wasn't perfect but it still was an entertaining and enjoyable read. I will most certainly read the 3rd book!