Review: Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

Dearly, Beloved (Gone With the Respiration, #2)
Can the living coexist with the living dead? That's the question that has New Victorian society fiercely divided ever since the mysterious plague known as "The Laz" hit the city of New London and turned thousands into walking corpses. But while some of these zombies are mindless monsters, hungry for human flesh, others can still think, speak, reason, and control their ravenous new appetites. Just ask Nora Dearly, the young lady of means who was nearly kidnapped by a band of sinister zombies but valiantly rescued by a dashing young man . . . of the dead variety. Nora and her savior, the young zombie soldier Bram Griswold, fell hopelessly in love. But others feel only fear and loathing for the reanimated dead. Now, as tensions grow between pro- and anti-zombie factions, battle lines are being drawn in the streets. And though Bram is no longer in the New Victorian army, he and his ex-commando zombie comrades are determined to help keep the peace. That means taking a dangerous stand between The Changed, a radical group of sentient zombies fighting for survival, and The Murder, a masked squad of urban guerrillas hellbent on destroying the living dead. But zombies aren't the only ones in danger: Their living allies are also in The Murder's crosshairs, and for one vengeful zealot, Nora Dearly is the number one target. As paranoia, prejudice, and terrorist attacks threaten to plunge the city into full-scale war, Nora's scientist father and his team continue their desperate race to unlock the secrets of "The Laz" and find a cure. But their efforts may be doomed when a mysterious zombie appears bearing an entirely new strain of the virus-and the nation of New Victoria braces for a new wave of the apocalypse.

It's no surprise that after finishing this book I found myself in a total reading slump, not because this book was SO AWESOME that nothing could compare but because this book was slow and dreary and at times it also got stupidly complicated. It took me so long to finish this book and even the super cute ending couldn't convince me to read on in this series.

The one thing that seriously annoyed me in this book was the jumping narration. I could have dealt with two narrators but there was like... six? in this book. Nora was a good heroine and I still love Bram but then  it jumps to like Pamela who is so weak as a character and my interest in what was happening plummeted. I didn't care much for the rest of the narrators either, I would have been happy with Bram and Nora.

I also began to find the setting very awkward, I do like steampunk books and I did like how it was done in the last book but it's odd to have the very judgemental victorian society and phones and texting in the same book, it just didn't seam as well executed as in Dearly, Departed.

I totally regret that I didn't enjoy this book, but in all honestly I don't think I'll continue with the series.

Overall Rating: D

Book released September 25th 2012 by Del Ray
book received as an eGalley for review via NetGalley






1 comment

  1. Oh, I'm sorry to hear that you didn't like it! First: I like this edition from the cover. Second: I am still excited to try this one out, because I like the concept. Only the several POV's are something I will have to keep in mind. Great, honest review :)

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