Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Book: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel
Pages: 480 Pages
Release Date: October 18th, 2011
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Source: Publisher

Synopsis:
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.

My Thoughts:

I’m a zombie person and we all know what vampire and unicorn people are like, well, zombie people are kind of the same. We love the old school stuff and we get a bit picky when it comes to the evolution of our creatures. Lia Habel made Dearly, Departed a great story her zombies have me not complaining.

I like how this book is a zombie steampunk romance (you don’t really see too much of those). Her writing is wonderful and her fighting scenes? GREAT! What I was worried about was the romance. Was it going to be too lovey-dovey? No, it was great.  One thing I didn’t like though was the alternating POV’s. There were too many of them and sometimes I got confused about which one I was reading. Truth be told, half way through the book I skipped everyone’s POV’s except Nora’s and Bram’s.

Overall, I really loved this book and I can’t wait to read this next one. If you’re not sold on the cover, you’ll definitely be sold on the story, zombie lover or not. I suspect that Lia Habel is going to be a new favorite young adult author of many.