Queen of Zombie Hearts (White Rabbit Chronicles #3) by Gena Showalter

Expected Publication:  September 30th, 2014

Queen of Zombie Hearts (White Rabbit Chronicles #3)

By: Gena Showalter

Harlequin Teen

ISBN-13:  9780373211319

In the stunning conclusion to the wildly popular White Rabbit Chronicles, Alice "Ali" Bell thinks the worst is behind her.  She's ready to take the next step with boyfriend Cole Holland, leader of the zombie slayers...until Anima Industries, the agency controlling the zombies, launches a sneak attack, killing four of her friends.  It's then she realizes that humans can be more dangerous than monsters...and the worst has only begun.

As the surviving slayers prepare for war, Ali discovers she, too, can control the zombies...and she isn't the girl she thought she was.  She's connected to the woman responsible for killing -- and turning -- Cole's mother.  How can their relationship endure?  As secrets come to light, and more slayers are taken or killed, Ali will fight harder than ever to bring down Anima -- even sacrificing her own life for those she loves.

Review

     At the beginning of this book things have calmed down a lot since the last one.  Ali and her friends are easing back in to normal life, and her biggest worry is normal, nightly zombie patrol and whether or not Cole will let them go all the way finally.  Nana is supervising their every waking moment, so one night Ali sneaks in Cole's window for some late-night, naughty time.  In the middle of them making out, the house is attacked.  They soon learn that Anima has attacked ALL of their fellow slayers as well, killing four of them and gravely injuring or kidnapping others.  Another side plotline is introduced, with the Witness ghost of Helen, who gifts Ali with some of her own special powers to help in the fight.  She also has a secret connection to Ali's past that comes between her and Cole, due to Helen's betrayal of his mother.  It's an interesting way to create relationship conflict just when things were rock solid.

     The introduction of a street gang of zombie slayers, led by a guy named River, was an interesting addition.  I did feel like there was way too many characters at quite a few points, and got a little bit confused as to who had done what and been in the previous books.  The plot twists regarding Ali's new powers, the true goals of Anima and the connection with Helen weren't necessarily all that surprising, but the action moved at a really good pace in this one and I loved the finality of the conclusion.  The last big shock though (which I won't spoil) had me screaming in rage - in a good way!  The last Witness visit is going to kill you so hard!  All in all, a great end to an interesting series.  And for all you Cole and Ali fans, don't worry too much.  Their ending will make you happy!

VERDICT:  4/5 Stars

*I recieved this book as part of Around the World ARC Tours, run by the lovely Princess Bookie.  No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book's expected publication date is September 30th, 2014.*

Who I Am Inside

Published:  September 24th, 2013

Through the Zombie Glass (White Rabbit Chronicles #2)

By: Gena Showalter

Harlequin Teen

ISBN-13:  9780373210770

Inspired by the childhood classic Alice In Wonderland, this harrowing and romantic story features teen zombie slayer Alice Bell who has lost so much -- family, friends, her home.  After a strange new zombie attack, Alice fears she may be losing her mind as well.  A terrible darkness blooms inside her, urging her to do wicked things.  The whispers of the dead assault her ears and mirrors seem to come frighteningly to life.  She's never needed her team of zombie slayers more -- including her boyfriend Cole -- than she does now.  But as Cole strangely withdraws and the zombies gain new strength, Ali knows one false step may doom them all.

Review

     I was a bit wary about reading this after the first one, especially considering that the series is being marketed as a modern take on Alice In Wonderland.  This synopsis is a bit more honest, claiming 'inspired by' instead.  I did enjoy the first, but I'm generally not a very big fan of zombies to begin with.  That said, I truly enjoyed this book even if it did have some imperfections along the way!  It starts off with Alice, Cole and the others still riding the victory from the last book.  But Ali still has the zombie toxin in her system and it refuses to leave.  It's taking hold of her and splitting off into it's own personality, one Ali names 'Zombie Ali' and it's urges are almost becoming too much for her to control.  Constant use of the antidote is the only thing even keeping Alice's sanity intact whatsoever.  Also, when Ali starts having visions with someone other than Cole, a slayer named Gavin, he ends up breaking things off.  There was a SERIOUS amount of romantic angst in this book!!!  Ali and Cole spend almost the entire time broken up, with him trying to fight off his ex-girlfriend Veronica and her trying to not get taken in by Gavin who she does feel something for.

     I enjoyed the fact that Ali didn't pull a Bella and turn catatonic because she lost her boyfriend.  Sure, she was heartbroken, but Ali still managed to carry on with her life and focus on trying to solve her other problems.  Anima is after Ali again, she has a craving for human flesh and her own reflection (Z.A.) is slowly destroying the human part of her.  I enjoyed the interactions with Kat, Frosty, Bronx and her Grandma (who is just as unintentionally funny as in the first book).  The scenes with her dead little sister Emma were just as sad, especially because Emma seems to be losing her ability to connect with Ali from the afterlife.  The whole thing with the mirrors and the evil reflection did tie in a bit more with the original Alice stories that a lot of stuff in the first book did.  

     Probably my main complaints are the romantic angst and the fact that Cole supposedley loved Allie, but didn't bother fighting for her!  He just gave up as soon as he had any competition at all.  The action resolved itself too easily and I really was NOT surprised by who the traitor was (easy to see from a mile off - for everyone except Ali and Cole apparently, that is!).  The whole throwdown with Veronica over Cole, who was acting like a complete douchebag by that point, was also annoying and distasteful.  At that point I was surprised that either girl wanted him honestly.  He treated them like dirt and Ali, especially, got the brunt of his insecurities/trust issues.  I did enjoy the action, but I felt like a lot of this one was unneccessary romantic angst/drama and most of it could have been axed completely.  It would have made the plot move along a lot faster.  That said, I did enjoy it and I will be reading the last book in the series when it comes out! :)

VERDICT:  3.5/5  Stars

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

North Pole Reform School Blog Tour - Review and Giveaway!!!

 

Title: North Pole Reform School

Author: Jaimie Admans

Date of Publication: November 6, 2013

Genre: YA rom-com, fantasy

Blurb:

 

Mistletoe Bell hates Christmas. So would you if you had a name like hers. Her Christmas-mad parents make the festive season last all year, and with another Christmas looming, Mis doesn’t think she can take any more. After her carelessness causes an accident at school, it seems like things can’t get any worse.

Then she wakes up to find The Ghost of Christmases Ruined in her bedroom.

She is taken to the North Pole, to a reform school run by elves determined to make her love Christmas. Stuck in a misfit group of fellow Christmas-haters with a motley crew of the weird and even weirder, watched over by elves day and night, she doesn’t expect to meet cute and funny Luke, who is hiding a vulnerable side beneath his sarcastic exterior. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with him.

But all is not as it should be at the North Pole. A certain Mr. Claus is making the elves’ lives a misery, and pretty soon Mistletoe and Luke are doing more than just learning to like Christmas.

A YA romantic comedy in which Santa is the bad guy, teaching reindeer to fly is on the curriculum, and zombies have a fondness for Christmas music.

 

Suitable for older teens and upwards due to bad language.

Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18754638-north-pole-reform-school?ac=1

Purchase link: Amazon

About Jaimie Admans:

 

Jaimie is a 28-year-old English-sounding Welsh girl with an awkward-to-spell name. She lives in South Wales and enjoys writing, gardening, drinking tea and watching horror movies. She hates spiders and cheese & onion crisps. She has been writing for years but has never before plucked up the courage to tell people. Afterlife Academy is her third novel and she hopes you enjoy it. There are plenty more on the way!
 

Website: http://www.jaimieadmans.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/be_the_spark

Facebook: http://facebook.com/jaimieadmansbooks

Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/oDXZj

 

My Thoughts

 

     So this book starts off with the main character, Mistletoe Bell, being woken up by a purple moose (also known as The Ghost of Christmases Ruined) and informed that she is being sent to North Pole Reform School.  It's not a crime to hate Christmas yourself, but to ruin it for someone else either on purpose or through carelessness is unacceptable.  So Mis is being sent to learn to love Christmas again, like she used to when she was a kid.  In her class at reform school are also a teenage boy named Luke who turns out to be part elf himself and hates Christmas because of his mean & violent Dad, a little boy named Hugo whose family died on Christmas, Joe who is a rude and disastrous drunk, and Emily who has a serious phobia of ducks.  Unable to escape, especially with the zombies that are on the outside of the North Pole's dome growing restless (yes, you read that correctly), it's up to Misty and the others to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas.  But is this Santa the right one for the job?  Can they survive meals of candy canes, mince pie and yule log?  Also, is there a possible romance brewing between Luke and Mis?  Read and find out all that and more...plus zombies you guys!

     When I started reading this I was warily optimistic.  I've been disappointed many a time in books that promised to be original and funny.  But this one was both of those things, in spades!  Once I started laughing, I never really stopped.  I especially loved the head elves, Tinsel and Navi who are so full of Christmas spirit it's practically oozing out of their ears.  It makes for some funny situations.  I think my favorite part of this was closer to the end of the book when Mis and Luke are stuck working with the Elf who answers all the letters to Santa.  That really brought things home for them AND made them want to enact a change for the better as well.  It also brought tears to my eyes a few times!  The ending was sweet and probably my main complaints are that it was too short (I want to know what happens next!) and that Emily, Hugo and Joe just kind of dropped off the face of the Earth once the romance/friendship deepened between Luke and Mis - they became the center of the novel.  Overall, a hilarious, sweet and touching story of learning what the Christmas spirit truly means and why we need it! :)

VERDICT:  4.5/5  Stars

 



*I received an ARC from the author and tour host for the purpose of this blog tour. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published November 6th, 2013.*

 

 

***Don't forget to enter the tour-wide giveaway, for a $25 Amazon Gift Card!!! :)  Good luck.

 

 





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Under My Skin

Published:  October 28th, 2010
Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies # 1)
By: Isaac Marion
Atria/Emily Bestler Books
ISBN-13:  9781476717463

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn’t want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.

Review  (BEWARE OF SPOILERS)

 

     Zombies are not my thing - AT ALL.  Especially not zombie love stories, which feel a little too much like they're cribbing from the Twilight playbook.  This book is the story of a boy (if you can call a zombie that in any real capacity) named 'R' and a girl named Julie.  One day when 'R' is out hunting with the other zombies living at the airport with him, he munches on Julie's boyfriend Perry.  Which does something weird to him and causes 'R' to kidnap Julie to keep her safe from the other zombies.  The story follows them as they grow closer and 'R' regains some of his humanity bit by bit.  Together they try to change the world and bring together the zombies and the remaining humans.  But can they really make a difference and what consequences could there be for a zombie and a human girl in a forbidden romance?  Never until just now did I realize all the Romeo & Juliet parallels between character names and even the reduxed storyline!  It was more than I expected, with the almost human 'families' that the zombies form with each other and the guidance provided by the elders, known as the 'Boneys' because they are nothing but skeletons.  I loved the fact that 'R' lived in a 747 and listened to Sinatra, with a romantic streak a mile wide.  But I felt like the fact that zombies munch on people and gain their memories/feelings was a little bit simplistic in theory and never really explained to my satisfaction.  Also, Julie is scared at first but accepts 'R' into her life a little too easily, especially knowing that he was most likely the one who ate her boyfriend Perry.  The scenes within the compound when Julie and her friend are trying to disguise 'R' from everyone and pass him off as human were more than a little ridiculous and unbelievable.  I mean, really?  These people who spend their entire lives keeping the zombies out and trying to eliminate them aren't going to notice when there's one in their midst?  They're not even gonna look closely at a supposed 'friend' from another compound?  Gimme a break!  And the way this ends, with the zombies beginning to transform into humans again because they're starting to 'feel' and experience things like the living (a.k.a. love and other schmaltzy things) made me want to gag!  If you're going to have it be a zombie/human romance, don't cop-out at the end and make things all shiny and new, with the zombie becoming human!  I liked the humor and oddness compared to other zombie novels, but the romance completely tanked this book for me.  Romeo & Juliet is so overplayed and I am so sick of retellings that try to camouflage themselves that I could scream.  Not the book for me at all and I wouldn't recommend it unless you're a fan of zombie books, romance and overly graphic/gory descriptiveness.

 

VERDICT:  2.75/5  Stars (Mostly props for originality and description I could picture in my head - and keeping me reading, which is the ultimate challenge.)

 

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

Might As Well Go Eat Brains

Published:  July 3rd, 2012
Even White Trash Zombies Get The Blues (White Trash Zombie # 2)
By: Diana Rowland
DAW
ISBN-13:  9780756407506

Angel Crawford is finally starting to get used to life as a brain-eating zombie, but her problems are far from over. Her felony record is coming back to haunt her, more zombie hunters are popping up, and she’s beginning to wonder if her hunky cop-boyfriend is involved with the zombie mafia. Yeah, that’s right—the zombie mafia.

Throw in a secret lab and a lot of conspiracy, and Angel’s going to need all of her brainpower—and maybe a brain smoothie as well—in order to get through it without falling apart.

Review

 

     The first book in this series, My Life As a White Trash Zombie, was one of my favorites of 2011.  I thought it was smart, had great characters and more emotion than a lot of other books I'd read - and that's saying a lot seeing as how I usually avoid books with zombies in them!  So when I realized that the sequel had been released, I definitely wanted to read it and see how our favorite white trash, zombie felon, Angel Crawford, was doing.  The book starts off a little bit slow, with Angel still adjusting to her Dad's attempts at getting sober, her own steady work at the morgue and dating her cop boyfriend - oh yeah, and being a zombie who eats brain smoothies for a snack!  Just when she thinks her life can't get any more complicated, Angel is forced by the terms of her probation to get her GED within a certain time-frame...or else.  And then a body is stolen from the morgue at gunpoint and on Angel's watch no less.  Determined to find out what's going on, Angel is led down a trail involving the zombie mafia, men who die twice and odd government experiments on the living dead.  Add in the fights with her boyfriend and there's never a dull moment for Angel.  But can she make it away from a truly psychotic and dangerous enemy with her undead life intact?  Or will she end up rotting away for good? 

    I liked how confident Angel became over the course of this book.  In the first book she basically values herself at '0' and it's pretty obvious she thinks she's dumb, trailer trash.  In this one, the first thing I noticed was when her boyfriend Marcus began coddling her and ignoring Angel's opinions completely, she called him on his shit and told him it was going to over if he didn't change.  The idea of Angel solving crimes was interesting, but I felt like where the first book was mostly uncharted territory, this one fell into a cozy mystery mold - only with triple the swearing, violence and sex due to the zombie presence.  My favorite scene in the book was after Angel and Marcus separated, and she was sitting in the dinner eating comfort food.  The plot about the experimentation and dead man who died twice was definitely confusing, but in a good way.  It kept me guessing the entire time as to what was really going on.  Overall, it wasn't as funny or innovative to me as the first book but for a second series book, it held up extremely well and I'd highly recommend it to fans of the first.  I'd recommend this to anyone who is hesitant about zombie tropes and wants something interesting and very different! :)

 

VERDICT:  4/5  Stars

 

**No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

Not Dead Just Yet

Published:  September 1st, 2012

Undead (Undead # 1)

By: Kirsty McKay

The Chicken House

ISBN-13:  9780545381888

Out of sight, out of their minds: It's a school-trip splatter fest and completely not cool when the other kids in her class go all braindead on new girl Bobby.

The day of the ski trip, when the bus comes to a stop at a roadside restaurant, everyone gets off and heads in for lunch. Everyone, that is, except Bobby, the new girl, who stays behind with rebel-without-a-clue Smitty.

Then hours pass. Snow piles up. Sun goes down. Bobby and Smitty start to flirt. Start to stress. Till finally they see the other kids stumbling back.

But they've changed. And not in a good way. Straight up, they're zombies. So the wheels on the bus better go round and round freakin' fast, because that's the only thing keeping Bobby and Smitty from becoming their classmates' next meal. It's kill or be killed in these hunger games, heads are gonna roll, and homework is most definitely gonna be late.

Review

     Bobby is the new girl again after moving back to the U.K., having lived in the U.S. since she was little and her Mom's job first took them from the U.K. to America.  Now she is on a ski trip to Scotland with her new classmates, dealing with their harassment because she doesn't sound British enough or like an American either.  So when they get to the diner, Bobby stays on the bus with budding juvenile delinquent Smitty.  But when everyone else comes toward the bus, they've changed for the worse.  Now all their classmates (except stuck-up Alice and nerdy Pete) are coming after them, hungry for their flesh.  Trying to make an escape, they find shelter at a nearby manor that seems deserted.  But who has created these zombies and why?  And what will they do when they realize that there are survivors?  Can Bobby, Smitty and Alice make it back into the real world or will they be silenced once and for all?  This was a funny book.  It had a great sense of humor, which is definitely a plus when it comes to zombies.  I especially loved the snark and prissiness that Alice brought to the group.  Other than Bobby (whose Mother's involvement was kind of iffy in believability), Alice and Smitty, most of the other characters were fairly forgettable.  Because mostly, it was those three characters that the focus was on.  When someone else came into it, they were normally temporary to the plot.  Other than the humor, the plot was a little bit circumspect.  I never quite believed that the corporation would conduct such an unsupervised experiment and not try to contain it more.  Plus, the reasons were never explained much.  My favorite quote in the book was from Alice:

“It’s such a nightmare!” Alice cries. “They want to kill us!” Her eyes narrow. “And Shanika’s got my CoutureCandy bag, the bitch!” she says to the driver. “Run them over!”

Like I said though, Alice's personality was a high point.  The struggles to actually escape the zombies, with the bad weather, messed up bus, lack of gasoline and the hurt driver were very realistic though and I commend that.  Overall, if you like your zombies with some laughs this is the book for you.  But nothing will ever top My Life As a White Trash Zombie by: Diana Rowland.  That was my high point in zombie fiction.

VERDICT:  3.7/5  Stars

***No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book is now available in stores, online, or maybe even at your local library.**

You Are Not My Beloved

Expected Publication: September 25th, 2012
Dearly, Beloved (Gone With the Respiration # 2)
By: Lia Habel
Del Rey
ISBN-13: 9780345523341

Can the living coexist with the living dead?

That’s the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as “The Laz” hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites.

Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man . . . of the dead variety.

Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren’t the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder’s crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target.

As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora’s scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of “The Laz” and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus—and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.

Review

   Nora Dearly has had enough adventure to last her a lifetime.  But it doesn't seem like her life will be slowing down anytime soon, now that she has her Father back in her life (as one of the undead affected by the Lazarus virus) and she is involved romantically with a zombie soldier named Bram.  Also, now that the zombies have proved that they aren't all flesh-eating monsters, they're trying to peacefully co-exist in society with the living.  It isn't working out all that well.  With a new group of the living called the 'Murder' committing hate crimes against zombies, and a group of hostile zombies wanting to strike back against all of the living in New London, Nora and Bram have more to deal with than they can handle.  The novel is told from the points of view of Nora, Bram, Pamela (Nora's best friend), Michael Allister, complicated mean girl Vespertine Mink and a new zombie named Laura who grows plants from her rotting body.  Dealing with terrorist attacks, possible outbreak of a new strain of the virus and a possible apocalypse, Nora and her friends may not all make it out alive.  And how do you move on from a betrayl so deep that it could crush your heart completely?  I wanted to love this book.  The first one was new, exciting and well-written with characters that had distinctive voices, even with multiple points of view.  That wasn't the case in the sequel.  I felt like the divide between the six p.o.v.s was clunky, not at ALL well-executed and I lost track of who was supposed to be narrating quite a bit more than was acceptable.  Nora has basically become a petulant brat now that she is living with her Father again, Bram is annoying and without any real purpose anymore and the only character I could really even stand was Pamela.  Even she managed to get on my nerves a lot.  I felt like the author was trying to cram too much plot into one book and yet it still moved at a glacial pace that bored me to tears for the most part.  I found myself no longer caring if the characters lived or died and I was sorely disappointed with Habel's treatment of the formerly strong and admirable Coalhouse.  I loved the scene with Vespertine and Renfield (unfortunately there was only one, at almost the end of the book) and learning the badass backstory of Drs. Samedi and Chase.  I however feel cheated by the poor follow-through of the first book's wonderful set-up and execution.  I have wasted some time reading this and will not be reading the next book in the series.  I just don't care anymore.

VERDICT:  1.5/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book's expected publication date is September 25th, 2012.*

NASCAR and Nachos, Brains and Tomato Soup

Published: May 25th, 2011
My Life As A White Trash Zombie
By: Diana Rowland
DAW
ISBN-13: 9780756406752


Teenage delinquent Angel Crawford lives with her redneck father in the swamps of southern Louisiana. She's a high school dropout, addicted to drugs and alcohol, and has a police record a mile long. But when she's made into a zombie after a car crash, her addictions disappear, except for her all-consuming need to stay "alive"...

Review

   The book starts with Angel being in the hospital, with no idea how she got there.  She remembers a car wreck but doesn't have a scratch on her.  She's told she was found naked on the side of the road, suffering from an overdose.  Angel finds a note telling her that a job is waiting for her at the morgue as a van driver and to take it...or else.  Angel soon finds out that she's a zombie who needs to eat brains every two to three days to keep from decaying.  Being a zombie makes it easier for her to shed her 'loser' life.  Angel gets off of pills and alcohol fairly quickly and comes to some harsh realizations about the squalor that she and her abusive, alcoholic father are living in.  Their driveway is pretty much literally made of beer cans.  Also, her loser 'boyfriend' Randy is becoming less and less relevant to her.  Especially as she finds herself more and more attracted to the hot cop, Marcus Ivanov.  Angel is sarcastic and snarky, not letting being dead get her down in the least.  There is also a mystery element, in that Angel has no idea who infected her and why.  Plus there is a possible serial killer who cuts off heads running around the parish.  By the end of the book, the mystery is resolved and the answers are kind of a surprise.  Angel is far from the perfect heroine - she is a high school dropout whose crazy Mother hung herself in her prison cell and whose Father is a useless drunk.  But the way she evolves over the course of the book is amazing and awesome.  I loved this book and couldn't put it down.  This being said by someone who is normally NOT a fan of zombies AT ALL.  EVER.  This book got to me, probably in part because I myself am white trash.  I get Angel in a way some people might not.  This is a must-read for anyone who can stomach descriptions of slurping brains, who loves a good laugh and a well-written book. 

VERDICT:  5/5  Stars

*No money or favors were exchanged for this review.  This book is now available in stores and online.*

Dearly Departed...Can I Hide Under Your Parasol?

Available: 10/18/2011
Dearly Departed
By: Lia Habel
Del Ray Publishing
ISBN-13: 978-0345523310

Love can never die.

Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the living and the dead—or rather, the undead? Can a proper young Victorian lady find true love in the arms of a dashing zombie?

The year is 2195. The place is New Victoria—a high-tech nation modeled on the manners, mores, and fashions of an antique era. A teenager in high society, Nora Dearly is far more interested in military history and her country’s political unrest than in tea parties and debutante balls. But after her beloved parents die, Nora is left at the mercy of her domineering aunt, a social-climbing spendthrift who has squandered the family fortune and now plans to marry her niece off for money. For Nora, no fate could be more horrible—until she’s nearly kidnapped by an army of walking corpses.

But fate is just getting started with Nora. Catapulted from her world of drawing-room civility, she’s suddenly gunning down ravenous zombies alongside mysterious black-clad commandos and confronting “The Laz,” a fatal virus that raises the dead—and hell along with them. Hardly ideal circumstances. Then Nora meets Bram Griswold, a young soldier who is brave, handsome, noble . . . and dead. But as is the case with the rest of his special undead unit, luck and modern science have enabled Bram to hold on to his mind, his manners, and his body parts. And when his bond of trust with Nora turns to tenderness, there’s no turning back. Eventually, they know, the disease will win, separating the star-crossed lovers forever. But until then, beating or not, their hearts will have what they desire.

Review

   Nora Dearly has been raised as the proper New Victorian young lady, but rather than calling on neighbors and making an advantageous match, her interests lie in war and politics.  All Nora wants is to not be alone in the world as an orphan, with scheming Aunt Gene who has brought them to the verge of financial ruin.  Is a little adventure and excitement a little too much to ask for?  Be careful what you wish for Nora, it may just bite you in the backside Zombie-style!  One evening when killer zombies try to kidnap Nora from her home, Company Z flys in to the rescue, led by Captain Bram Griswold and made up of 'good' zombies.  Can Nora learn to trust Bram and the others enough to help save some semblance of civilization and to hold her life together after a shocking revelation about her Father? 

I received this book from a pre-publication club that one of my colleagues runs at our library. WOW. I can't say that it blew me away completely, but it was about a four point five star book for me. My only real complaint is that once the battle is over, the actual ending of the book is fairly lackluster. It doesn't have as much of a nail-biting cliffhanger as I'd have liked. Nora Dearly is a heroine for the ages and I am SO glad that Lia Habel was published and that this book is going to be out in the world.  So, this book is SO MUCH MORE than what the description makes it out to be! If you were to listen to the blurb, you'd think it was a Romeo and Juliet-type book with zombies. NOT THE CASE. What little romance there is happens to build very slowly and isn't realized until the end of the novel. This book belongs to the characters and their personal trials and tribulations. Ms. Habel switches points of view between Nora, Bram, Nora's best friend Pamela, Nora's father Victor,and a few times she tackles the thoughts of Wolfe, the living military commander of the Z Company. I was impressed by how seamlessly Victorian ideals, fashions and lifestyles were interwoven with technology. I particularly liked that this was a slightly dystopian, post-apocalyptic society with a very thought-out and intricate governmental system and secret military operations. Nora and Pam were very strong female leads for this novel and even less realized characters such as Vespertine Mink (the girls' school nemesis) and Michael Allister (mealy-mouthed boy next door) were entertaining and added to the story. Near the end of the novel there is a particularly entertaining incident with Pamela and Michael which I will not spoil for readers in this review! :) Chas, Tom, Coalhouse, Renfield, Dr. Samedi and Dr. Beryl Chase bring a very human element to the plight of the zombies and all of them have wonderful personalities that lend a witty flavor to the narrative (Samedi's detachable head is particularly amusing).  There are also are well-developed villains who take your breath away in some scenes and leave you terrified of their recklessness/insanity in others. I myself am not a particularly avid fan of zombie literature. But this novel is far more than just another zombie book. It has a heart and soul, with wonderful characters tying it together. I would recommend this fast-paced, thrilling, adventurous book that HAPPENS to include zombies to anyone that loves a smart, sharp read.

VERDICT: 4.5/5  Stars

*No money was exchanged for this ARC copy or this review* Don't forget to put this one on your to-read list and definitely check it out when it becomes available in October! :)