The Empty City: Survivors #1

Hunter, Erin. The Empty City: Survivors #1
21 August 2012, Harper Collins

Lucky is a golden retriever who prefers to be a loner rather than run with the pack, but when a "Big Growl" devastates the city, he manages to escape from the "Trap House" with fellow inmate Sweet, a dog who had a pack before she was captured by the "longpaws". Making their way out of the dangerous city in search of food, the end up in the suburbs, where Lucky manages to reconnect with his litter mate, Bella. With Bella and a variety of leashed pets, Lucky manages to find food, try to stay out of fights with meaner dogs, and establish a safe shelter for his group, most of whom know very little about surviving without humans. Book #2, A Hidden Enemy comes out 7 May 2013.
Strengths: It is impossible to describe how devoted some middle grade readers are to the Warriors books. This series will make those readers who secretly prefer dogs very happy. Fortunately, the dogs only have one name each, so it was much easier to follow the story. (Unlike the cats, who get a new name every time they sneeze!)
Weaknesses: Talking animals. *Sigh* Just not my thing, although I was relieved that these were about dogs. Still, the odd view of the world, dog "terms" for things, and general animal mythology just makes no sense to me. This was very similar to Dayna Lorentz's  The Storm. (Dogs of the Downed City #1), a series which I rather enjoyed. Erin Hunter is just one of those phenomena that I will never understand!

Condie, Ally. Reached.
13 November 2012, HarperCollins

This sequel to Matched and Crossed continues to follow the love triangle of Cassia, Ky and Xander. Xander is a medic trying to fight the plague, Ky is a pilot who gets it, and Cassia... afraid I got bad fantasy amnesia with this and am not really sure what Cassia was doing, aside from running around with a red silk dress and papers with poems written on them under her clothes while trying to decide if she should be with Xander or Ky. Oh, yeah, she has to figure out what's up with the entire ruling structure of her world, too. The first two books are very popular, and there have been MANY complaints that it has taken this long to get the order with this book in it. If you liked the series, I'm sure you read the book. If you have the others in your library, this is the third and final book. Just don't get confused-- the order of this series is green, blue, red. It's the Stiefavter Shiver, Linger, Forever series that is blue, green, red. (And that's about werewolves. It's a popular series in my library.)