eBook Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Goodreads: 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.
In Dearly, Departed, romance meets walking-dead thriller, spawning a madly imaginative novel of rip-roaring adventure, spine-tingling suspense, and macabre comedy that forever redefines the concept of undying love.

Title:  Dearly, Departed
Author:  Lia Habel
Series:  Gone With The Respiration #1
Publisher:  Random House Publishing Group
Released:  18th October 2011
Source:  NetGalley

I absolutely loved this book.  It was addictive, fast paced, full of action, intrigue and romance.  This book has it all including ZOMBIES.

Set in the year 2195, Nora Dearly is orphaned and living with her Aunt.  She despises her Aunt and every conversation is never polite.  The world has gone backwards, there is still a lot of technology, but all the mannerisms and fashion come from the Victorian period, so they are called the New Victorians.  Nora is from a family high in social status and her best friend is anything but.  Pamela and Nora have been friends since they were tiny children and are never apart.

Nora’s motorized carriage was stopped in bad traffic on their way home from private school.  Nora decided to walk home the rest of the way and due to the distance it was getting close to dark when she was almost home.  A strange man was waiting on the corner and approached her.  This was not how a gentleman approaches a lady and Nora was frightened.  He mentions her father and tries to persuade her to go with him.  Of course this doesn’t work and Nora declines.  A few days pass and things seem fairly normal.

Nora is home by herself one night when she hears a noise outside the window.  Peaking out the curtains, she sees a grotesque face staring back at her and it punches through the glass to grab her.  Nora takes off and grabs her father’s old rifle and heads for the roof.  She is being chased by hundreds of creatures and she doesn’t know what is going on.

Men dressed in black come to her rescue and she is saved from the Gray only to discover the man (?) that saved her is none other than the man that tried to abduct her the other night.  Nora is taken aboard a ship and is knocked unconscious. 

Nora awakes to find herself in a compound that is full of zombies.  She is allowed as much information as she can ask for and in doing so finds out that the zombies are created from a disease.  The days that follow she is only comfortable being around the Captain, Bram.  Bram is the man that tried to abduct her and rescued her on the roof.  He is also a zombie and falls instantly in love with her.

This is a love that is forbidden obviously, but they cannot help but love each other.  Her father was in amongst it all.  Now a war is being taken to New Victoria and Pamela is in the middle.  Bram and Nora go on a rescue mission.  What will happen to Pamela?  Will zombies take over?  Will Bram and Nora’s love last?

This is a tale that is like no other.  I have never seen a story written in the future like this with zombies, but with the Victorian period added in.  It is just amazing, the details the author has written about the cities and characters are so unusual, but make the whole picture so vivid you can see it all so clearly.  I am hooked and can’t wait for book 2, Dearly, Beloved due out 2012.

                                                             

5 STARS - ABSOLUTELY AWESOME - MUST READ

You can find Lia Habel on Amazon, Goodreads, Twitter, Facebook and her website.