Book Review: Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel

Publish Date: October 18, 2011
Publisher: Del Rey
Pages: 470
Series: Gone With the Repiration #1
ISBN: 9780345523310
Source: Book Club for review

Goodreads Synopsis:

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.

 My Review:

It took me a while to get into this book I must say. The cover is gorgeous and it has a very interesting and original premise, but every time I took it out to read, I just found myself reading the same sentence over and over and just wanting to read something else. But I kept at it, and I'm pretty happy that I did. It ended up not taking too long for me to get into the book once I got started.The whole human and zombie romance is very new to me, actually, the whole zombie thing is new. (I haven't been able to get into the zombie books out there, for some reason they don't appeal to me that much) But this zombie book had more of a storyline to it, instead of just fighting, blood, guts, and gore so that maybe helped keep things lively for me. Who knows, this may be the start of a whole new genre for me to read! The year is 2195, and the way that Lia Habel describes it is very unique. Her future world, called New Victoria is basically just as it sounds, a Victorian, antique era mixed with crazy new technology and cell phones. I really enjoyed this aspect of the book, I think it was very intruiging and had me wondering what it would be like to live like that. (The only thing I couldn’t wrap my head around was the fact that in Dearly, Departed women were just objects basically. They were married into money and status and told to sit and look pretty and don’t say a word unless invited. I think (we) women would have a hard time going back to those ways again in the future.)The main characters in Lia Habels Dearly, Departed are Bram and Nora. Nora being the human girl and Bram being the zombie. I instantly connected with Nora, she a strong character who perseveres through so much and she doesn't give a hoot about what people say in the long run. With her being a "young lady" in the New Victorian age, she has rules to follow and standards to live up to. But she follows the beat of her own drum, and she is witty! She had me laughing out loud a few times while reading. And Bram, whodathunk!? A zombie who is respectful, charming and good-looking? He was the point of view that I enjoyed reading the most. The way he tells the story was to me what made the book as good as it was. Dearly, Departed is read through five different narratives, and at first that was challenging but proved to be fine later on. I really enjoyed reading Nora and Bram's POV's. I couldn't get into Victor's point of view, but that was just a minor detail in the grand scheme of things in my opinion. Habel's writing is enjoyable and descriptive. I was able to paint the story in my head which to me is a huge deal. Habel is able to take this zombie love story and make it work somehow. You may even forget that Bram is a zombie and not some laid back alive human!Dearly, Departed was a good read, after I was able to really get into it, it was worth it. I cannot wait to see what’s instore for Nora and Bram in Dearly, Beloved.