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.
Christina's BookReview
Don't get my wrong, I thought the book was good. I thought the storyline was a good one. I loved the Victorian/Steampunk aspect of the book. The characters were good as well. I started off liking Bram right after his first POV and did not find Nora at all interesting after her first POV. She was kind of bland. Honestly, I thought all of Nora's first couple chapters were boring. It took me a while to get into the book because of that. BUT after Nora met Bram everything was okay in the world. :-) He really makes the book much better and his POVs were actually much more enjoyable to read. The Zombie/Living romance is a little weird to me, I'm still trying to warm up to it because honestly, Bram and Nora do make a good couple, its just this type of book relationship is new to me. I know! Vampires, fairies, angels, wolves, etc are weird too but this is the first zombie romance I've read so its weird to me. :-)
I enjoyed the secondary undead characters as well! I loved Chas and knew right away that Nora and she would get along well. Tom, Coalhouse and Ren were also great to read about. Getting a little about their "transition" story was a great part of the book. Honestly, the only live New Vic I liked was Pamela. I hope to see her in future books but not separated from Nora and the others.
My biggest problem with Dearly Departed is the multiple POVs. Every time the story left Nora and Bram's POVs I was frustrated. I understand it helped us get the whole story but I felt there was a POV overload. One is good, Two is great, three okay fine, four or more is overload. I felt like the author sort of didn't know how to go about writing Nora and Bram's lives/relationship and feared that she would run out of things to write about them. I wished for more interaction between the two and hope to get more in the next book. I would like to see what happens next so I will read the next book.
If you like Zombies and Victorian/steampunk romance then you will enjoy the story. I would recommend the book.
