Gone with the Respiration #1 Dearly, Departed

Its another Dystopia(my favorite kind), another twilight wannabe? DEFINITELY NOT....but hilarious and a new outlook to life? DEFINITELY YES. Presenting Gone with the Respiration #1 Dearly, Departed by Lia Habel.

Here is the summary of the book:

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? 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.

Its dystopic, with the romantic backdrop in a mortally divided new world. Okay that may have gotten a bit over the top but let me try to explain it again, a post apocalyptic world, a future where all the known cities or cultures, Britain, America or the other....they are no longer there but instead survivors have banded together to create New Victoria, reverted back to the victorian beliefs with advance sciences and then there are the Punks who believe in what the nature provides them with.

I was a bit skeptical at first about this, decided to take it up for a train journey...but let tell you all this book surprised me. At first this sounded just like another Twilight wannabe....but IT TOTALLY WASN'T. OH I TOTALLY LOVE THIS BOOK. This is one amazing rendition with a dystopic future, new Victorian society, Zombies, steampunk and the evolving romance between the two protagonists Nora and Bram. Again this is another book that i am finding a bit hard to review because the book was so good.

Nora Dearly is a New Victoria girl, much more interested in warfare, machinery and political affairs, definitely not something a refined young girl needs to be interested in. Nora is smart, has a good head on her shoulders, and knows right from wrong but is also very impulsive sometimes. Living in mourning for her dead scientist father, Nora has a wary personality but doesn't shy away from the truth....not one bit i tell you. Then she gets kidnapped by the undead and her life does a complete u-turn. She begins to understand the world around her with a new perspective, about her father's work, about the truth that the government hid from them.

Then there is Bram, he is well........he is the zombie here. But that is where the story gets interesting and fresh. There are two different types of zombies, one that are classic type, the mindless-flesh eating ones and the other category is the ones who still regain a semblance of life and are able to keep their heads thorough it all. The second category is the one Bram belongs to. Charming, witty and considerate Bram has all the qualities of a leading man and just like Nora, the strength to fight for what is right.

With the story being told from 5 POVs..yup you heard it right, I said five. It was refreshing and entertaining to hear what Nora and Bram think of each other at first. It all changes as she Nora starts to adapt to her new world and much better and falls for Bram. All Nora sees at first is a zombie, that shouldn't be allowed to live and all Bram sees is just a human girl who they need to protect. For the first time i'm rooting for a zombie....do you even hear me speaking. I'm simply speechless at the intensity and the passion that Bram and Nora have come to share. The one bonus factor about this book, no love triangle...thank God!

Lia Habel...I am adding you to my list of favorite authors now. This is another must read. Messing cross-over genres, Habel has created a self-sustained saga, there is action, drama, suspense, the ever-present zombies, war, and romance. Every page spring up the action as it is happening just before our eyes. She has turned me into a zombie lover and that's saying something.