Publication Date: May 21, 2024
Two boys fall in love in a deadly world, but it’s the secrets they keep that might kill them.
Seventeen-year-old Zach was visiting his uncle in a small Montana town when a mysterious illness ripped through the world. Most died, but those who survived the Infection became mindless killers, spreading the disease with a single scratch. Now, a year later, civilization lies in ruins, and Zach is the town’s sole survivor. Desperately lonely, he longs to return to his family in Seattle, but his fears hold him captive.
Eighteen-year-old Aiden is on a critical mission for the covert Scientific Collective, delivering vials whose contents could cure the Infection. Tortured by his boyfriend’s death, he welcomes the risks of the perilous journey. When a militia attacks Aiden, he flees to Zach’s town.
The boys escape together and soon form a bond as they comfort each other in this desolate and broken world. The farther they travel, the more their affection grows, as do the forces pulling them apart. But their greatest threats are the secrets they keep. Zach hides details of his uncle’s death, and Aiden conceals the vials’ sinister origins. In order to survive, they’ll have to confront the truths that could tear their love apart.
Desolate. Forsaken. Isolated. The world is in ruins. Two young men are surviving in different ways as Paul Michael Winters brilliantly unites their paths in Together In a Broken World.
An illness has swept the planet as water simultaneously ravages all coastlands. What can survive this? Humankind? The deadly virus? Revenge? Maybe love alone can transcend.
Zach has built a fortress in a bank as he fights off “The Infected.” His mechanical skills will up his odds of survival. But it has been a year since the residents of the small town where he was vacationing have mysteriously died off. He has witnessed up-close bodies being ravaged in a horrifying way. Communication has long ago been cut off, so he isn’t fully aware of the world tragedy. He has tried to escape, but his fear prevents him from leaving, and he returns behind the walls he has built surrounding his shelter and his heart.
Aiden has a unique defense from this virus. His bravery conceals secrets. He hasn’t been untouched by this destruction of civilization, but his battle carries responsibilities. He doesn’t hide away. As he moves through the destruction, he finds Zach.
With COVID-19’s initial and immediate destruction in the not-so-distant past, the parallels of uncertainty, fear, disbelief, and stumbling attempts at survival make the reader jolt into wondering how closely the world could have tilted to mirror this fictional scene. The loneliness of isolation is mind-numbing, making protecting oneself mentally part of survival. The description and plot penned by Mr. Winters are so visceral the scenes will play before you like a big-screen television.
But I did not come away from my reading feeling like this was a cautionary tale. Instead, I was swept into the riptide of the romance. Finding love is such a coincidence in the most perfect of circumstances, so Zach and Aiden are tentative with the attraction they each feel. The author builds the romance so tenderly that I momentarily forgot, as did they that the world surrounding them was in shambles.
Together In a Broken World is truly epic in its ability to imagine the world on the brink of collapse. 
I’m a lifelong creative writer whose life is filled with queer joy. My passion is to spread that joy by telling stories where you might not typically see queer characters.
My books feature queer people living their best lives where their queerness is an aspect of their personality but doesn’t dominate the story. I do not erase their differences. I embrace them and make them a source of pride and joy.
I hope you enjoy my stories.
