Short Review: Dearly, Beloved by Lia Habel

Title: Dearly, Beloved
Author: Lia Habel
Hardcover: 496 pages
Publisher: Del Rey
Release Date: September 25, 2012
ISBN-10: 0345523342
ISBN-13: 978-0345523341
Source: Publisher / NetGalley
Goodreads   Amazon

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.

Lia Habel’s spellbinding, suspenseful sequel to Dearly, Departed takes her imaginative mash-up of period romance, futuristic thriller, and zombie drama to a whole new level of innovative and irresistible storytelling. (Goodreads)

Review

I enjoyed Dearly, Departed and was excited to get a review copy of Dearly, Beloved. I really wanted to get back into this New Victorian world that Lia Habel has created where the living are trying to figure out how to share their existence with undead.

I wanted so much to love Dearly, Beloved but I have to be honest here… I had a very hard time keeping my head in the story. I think the main reason for my lack of interest was the pacing was so slow for the first 3/4 of the book. I think the main contributor to the off-pacing is that every chapter is from a different point of view, but it's not switching from just two or three people. Dearly, Beloved switches POV from like five or six different characters. Just when I started to get into one character's story, I had to go to another.

I also thought there was just too much going on. There were so many characters (villains) with different agendas; I didn’t know who to dislike the most. You know me I want an actual bad guy to hate and a distinct reason to hate said bad guy.

I will say that toward the end of Dearly, Beloved the story's pace did get revved up and I was pushing my reader page fast to get to the end as I wanted to know what was going to happen to these characters. Having said that it was just to little to late for me and this story. I think I will stop with this series here.

If you LOVED Dearly, Departed you may like Dearly, Beloved, It was just not for me. I will continue to look for Lia Habel’s work in the future, just not this series.

Happy Reading,

Recommended For

Teen and up: For violence, and zombie body care;)

Other books in this series