Dearly, Departed (Gone With the Respiration #1) by Lia Habel‏

Description:
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. (Goodreads)

My Thought

I got this book from NetGalley for a review. It did take me a while to read. I was taking my time with it, I would only read few chapters at a time. There are few things about this book that I did not like, but I did not hate the book either. Book itself was alright, I think that it’s me, I am not big on zombies. Especially ``good`` zombies.

I really do not understand Nora. She is scare of Bran and his friends thinking that t hey will eat her. It they were to eat her they would have done so on the roof of her house or in the car that they were transporting her in. Or at the compound that they are staying at. But she is still scared. So she asks for a gun thinking that she can defend herself against whole bunch of zombies. Really gun is not going to help you much if they decide that they want to eat you. She acts like a scared little kitten for the better part of the of the book without even attempting to be brave. But then all of sudden she is no longer scared. She is all confident and brave. It’s easy to be confident and brave when you know that the zombies are not going to eat you.

One think I do not understand about this book, apparently (as far as I can recall from the book) Nora’s society used to be like ours. But then something happens and they decide to go back to Victorian times, with modern twist to it. Ok I can see some appeal to it. What I want to know where the hell were women when this decisions were made. I cannot picture women wanting to go backwards and lose all their rights and become good little girls who cannot show a bare leg, or talk about topics such as war, weapons and so on because they are to delicate for such things.

Story line was alright but I wish that there was more going on in this book. There was nothing happening in the middle of the book. We see little bit action in the begging of the book, than nothing in the middle. Nothing till the end and even that was just skimmed over. The book never really explains what caused the disease. Also author tells the story from different POVs and in first person. Romance between Bran and Nora was not doing anything for me. It was very sudden, there was no transition or flirting or any kind of courting. It seems that Nora goes from being scared of Bram to in love with him. I did not feel the connection between them. I think that sometimes authors rush characters into the romantic relationship without developing the attraction first.

Overall this was alright book, but there is no wow factor. This book was no different from all other YA books that out there. The only difference this book has a zombie for a main character rather than a vampire, wolf or an angel. Basically we have a same formula just different numbers if you get my meaning. Some aspect of me did enjoy this book, it was alright read but I was not blown away by it. I give this book 3/5 STARS.

Gone With the Respiration Series:

1. Dearly, Departed
2. Dearly, Beloved - Coming in 2012