Lendle

The Old World is dead. Alone and starving, her only salvation is him.Born in a secure compound amidst the ashes of a world long dead, Claire Ainsley knows her place in the world: work her assigned job, live with her assigned husband, and keep her head down and her mouth shut. She knows what every compound resident has been taught: the world outside is a Wasteland, and the only thing more terrifying than leaving the compound is being forced to confront those who live outside—the ones left behind.But her safe, contained life is destroyed when she narrowly survives an attack conceived from within the compound itself. Only by fleeing into the terrifying Wasteland, a vast wilderness populated by bloodthirsty, cannibalistic Wastelanders, can she escape a violent end at the hands of her fellow compound dwellers.Captured by the very savages she feared, she is saved by John Madigan, a mysterious and capable survivor—and a Wastelander. She tries to deny the instant chemistry she feels with a man that is one moment terrifying, the next patient and caring, but eventually, neither can resist the blazing passion between them. But the Wasteland is harsh, and her time with John fleeting. As his personal mission comes to an end, he must return to his homeland, leaving her with little choice but to learn to survive without the man whose protection is her only salvation in an uncompromising post-apocalyptic landscape.The Wasteland of this world has not been kind to those unchosen.The Wastelander is a slow burn, forced proximity, soft enemies to lovers post-apocalyptic/dystopian romance with elements of forbidden love, opposites attract, and "touch her and die." It is the first book in a steamy post-apocalyptic romance series that follows John Madigan and Claire Ainsley as they navigate a dangerous world where lessons are brutally learned and love is challenged by hidden threats, political conspiracy, and the daily grind of survival.