Dearly Departed by Lia Habel (Terra's Review)

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.

(Terra's Thoughts) This has to be one of the best books of 2011. I have only read two or three steampunk and this one has to be the ultimate best. Hah, Steampunk vs. Zombie's, need I say more? Yah.........Delicious!

This story is about as action packed as you could possibly get and a well paced action story to boot. The romance you get here is a true romance and not the slap and tickle of eroticism. A well suited story for teens and older that will please. I just can't say enough about how much I absolutely loved it.

You have a new civilization set in the future due to massive warfare having decimated the worlds population. The earth's poles change and thus thrust the population that has managed to survive to move to more temperate climates in order to live and prosper.

Our survivors decide to start their lives over from the Victorian times but embellish with some of the technology that was present just before the disasters started. The only monkey wrench is a virus that is kept secret by the current government that happens to make the dead come back to life.

I am in awe of our author and the wonderful job she has done and can't wait to see what comes out next.

Hardcover: 480 pages
Publisher: Del Rey (October 18, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345523318
ISBN-13: 978-0345523310