Product Description Love can never die.Love conquers all, so they say. But can Cupid’s arrow pierce the hearts of the livingand the dead—or rather, theundead? 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.InDearly, 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. From Booklist Year 2195. Postapocalyptic survivors start rebuilding a society influenced by the Victorian era. Steam engineering, tablet computers, corsets, . . . and zombies? Nora Dearly’s world is flipped when she is kidnapped by Bram, a handsome, kind, brave zombie. Not only do zombies exist in New Victoria, but there are good ones and really bad ones—and both want Nora. As she begins to adjust and thrive in the undead army that has been working to find a cure for a deadly disease, New Victoria becomes infested, and her friends are in danger. What can a proper lady and an army of slowly rotting soldiers do to help? Habel is an ambitious author, and this is a feat of multigenre proportions. She cleverly builds her novel to appeal to multiple readers. The high stakes of the plot are what will hook them, but the characters, particularly Bram and Nora, will keep them turning pages. A successful gamble by Habel. Grades 7-10. --Bethany Fort Review "A romance between a guy who will rot away in the end and a girl who knows it. Yes I can't see a future, can you? But romance will always conquer and when the book ends I still not know how it ever will work. But there are more books to come and I am intrigued." -- Serendipity Review http://www.serendipityreviews.co.uk/2011/10/dearly-departed-by-lia-habel-guest.html 20121013 "Lia Habel has managed the impossible and I have to admit to having a slight (OK possibly more than slight!) crush on a zombie! The story is action packed with plenty of twists and turns that keep you gripped to the pages and I have to mention how much I loved Nora's friend Pam (just wait until you see what she can do with a parasol!). The romance is sweet and believable but is by no means the main focus of the story and you'd be missing out on a treat if you don't give it a try." -- Feeling Fictional http://www.feelingfictional.com/2011/09/arc-review-dearly-departed-lia-habel.html 20110919 About the Author Lia Habel is in her twenties and lives in western New York State. She is fascinated by zombie movies and Victoriana, interests that eventually led her to writ