Dating After the End of the World by Jeneva Rose
on October 1, 2025
Genres: Fiction / Romance / Action & Adventure, Fiction / Romance / New Adult, Fiction / Romance / Romantic Comedy
Pages: 303
Format: ARC, eBook
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Jeneva Rose takes a big swing outside of her usual genre with Dating After the End of the World, and I was excited to see how she’d pull it off. A zombie apocalypse romance isn’t easy to get right—but she delivers an action-packed, clever, and surprisingly heartfelt story.
Casey grew up the daughter of a doomsday prepper, which is usually the subject of a Netflix documentary but, for her, was just everyday life. Tired of that unconventional upbringing, she left at eighteen, went to medical school, and built a life (and engagement) with a fellow doctor. But when a viral outbreak transforms people into zombie-like creatures and society collapses into chaos, Casey finds herself abandoned by her fiancé and with no choice but to return to her father’s compound.
There, she’s shocked to discover that survival means coexisting with a small group of people—including Blake Morrison, her high school bully and sworn enemy. Blake even dropped the cruel nicknames he tormented her with (“Doomsday” and “Head Case Casey”), which made me laugh even as I cringed for her. The banter and tension between them form the book’s romantic core, and though I enjoyed their enemies-to-lovers dynamic, I did feel the hate at the beginning was a little overplayed. Once the backstory behind the bullying was revealed, though, their relationship started to click.
The action scenes are where this book really shines. They’re vivid and cinematic—I could easily picture which actors I’d cast in a movie adaptation. Between the outside threats, the claustrophobic compound setting, and the unpredictable zombies, the tension never lets up. And at the heart of it all is Casey, navigating her complicated relationship with her father, her reluctant partnership with Blake, and her own resilience in a world that’s literally falling apart. As Casey reflects: “My father didn’t prepare me for the end of the world. He prepared me to start a new one.”
Overall, this felt like a huge feat: blending apocalyptic chaos with a romance that’s both funny and heartfelt. Once I got into the story, I was fully invested in seeing where it went. For me, this was a 4.75-star read—it only lost a fraction of a point for the slightly heavy-handed enemies-to-lovers setup at the start. Jeneva Rose continues to be a must-read author for me, no matter what genre she decides to tackle next.
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